Have You Ever Heard of Sexual Anorexia?
I will admit, in my years of reporting about health, I have never come across the term "sexual anorexia"--until last week, when I was doing some research for a story about sex addiction (which has been in the news a lot lately--hello Tiger!). The details on this surprising and often misunderstood condition ...
Related: 5 shocking things many women don't know about sex ...
According to the experts at SexHelp.com, the official site of psychologist and sexual health expert Patrick J. Carnes, sexual anorexia is "an obsessive state in which the physical, mental, and emotional task of avoiding sex dominates one's life. Like self-starvation with food or compulsive dieting or hoarding with money, deprivation with sex can make one feel powerful and defended against all hurts."
Like any other addiction, Carnes writes, in sexual anorexia the "preoccupation with the avoidance of sex can seem to obliterate one's life problems. The obsession can then become a way to cope with all stress and all life difficulties. Yet, as with other addictions and compulsions, the costs are great. In this case, sex becomes a furtive enemy to be continually kept at bay, even at the price of annihilating a part of oneself."
So sad!
Have you ever heard of this?
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