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Celebrity Sex Addiction: Is It Hype or Reality?
Posted under Sex Addiction in the News on Friday, June 19th, 2009
In 2008 David Duchovny was the star of Californication – a fitting title for a show starring a man who would later announce he was going to rehab for sex addiction. His openness about the issue may have elicited a few giggles, but in reality he put the media spotlight on what is a problem that impacts an estimated 16 million people in the United States.
Some of the joking around this issue are because most people are uncomfortable discussing sex. America’s Puritan heritage has always made sex a taboo topic, although modern media has certainly exploited it to sell products, movies, and TV shows. Even so, many parents are quite willing to let their teens watch a movie with extreme, nonstop violence that might include evisceration, rape, and bloody mayhem, yet they would be horrified if you suggested they let them watch pornography.
Sex addiction is not simply surfing for porn, having a few flings, or even cheating on a spouse. Sex addiction is a pervasive pattern of behavior characterized by compulsive, self-destructive sexual activity. While it might be difficult for the layman to see where the line is crossed, the person with a sex addiction and the clinicians who treat it can see how the addictive behavior resembles other forms of addiction. Sex becomes the “fix” and they will do anything, no matter what the consequences, to get that fix.
Other celebrities have reportedly been treated for sex addiction: Halle Berry’s ex-husband Eric Benet is said to have been treated for it; Michael Douglas allegedly agreed to a “straying fee” with Catherine Zeta-Jones which amounted to five million dollars if she ever found out he was with another woman; Charlie Sheen developed a reputation for frequenting prostitutes and it destroyed his marriage to Denise Richards; actor Bill Murray’s wife put it right in her divorce papers that he was an adulterer and sex addict.