Comments on: Tiger Woods, Sex Addiction, and OCD

By: OCD Center of Los Angeles

OCD Center of Los Angeles — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:22:46 +0000

Kevin,

Thank you for your comments.

I agree that there is a lot of overlap between OCD and compulsive sexuality. And we have treated clients who clearly have both conditions.

I would actually disagree with the idea that compulsively masturbating until raw is necessarily devoid of pleasure. I would think that there is still pleasure in the act (and in the orgasm), though it is obviously mixed with other emotions / sensations.

I think the issue really gets down to a question of motivation – is a person doing a behavior to eliminate anxiety related to a specific thought (which is OCD), or are they doing a behavior to get some sense of gratification (perhaps this is a better word than “pleasure” in this case, and is clearly not OCD).

I think another major difference is that those with OCD do not generally do compulsions in an attempt to deaden broad feelings of low-self worth, ennui, etc., although there are certainly situations in which those with OCD use compulsions to cope with emotionally overwhelming situations.

Our follow-up article will be published this week.

By: Kevin Bergen, MFT

Kevin Bergen, MFT — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:07:20 +0000

Very articulate, succinct, and well-though-out article. My practice focuses on clients with sex addiction at The Center for Counseling & Recovery, and you’re right in that the big difference is ‘pleasure.’ Without contradicting that idea, I also notice that many addicts (sex addicts or otherwise) display many obsessive-compulsive traits which do not constitute full-blown OCD or OCPD. For the sex addict who compulsively masturbates until raw or injured, there’s clearly no pleasure in it–that includes an OC component.

There’s clearly cross-over between OCD and sex addiction, but they’re not the same thing. I look forward to next week’s article!

By: OCD Center of Los Angeles

OCD Center of Los Angeles — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:30:44 +0000

Katherine,

Thank you for your comment on our article.

I think people sometimes fail to see this fundamental difference – when doing compulsions, people with OCD are motivated by the desire to eliminate anxiety experienced in relation to very specific, very distressing thoughts. I believe that this is not the case for behavioral addictions, which all have a component of gratification / pleasure. Addiction is obviously complex, but the existence of gratification undeniably applies to addictions to gambling, sex, food, etc. Likewise, our clients with Trichotillomania and Dermatillomania almost always acknowledge getting gratification / pleasure from the process.

By: OCD Center of Los Angeles

OCD Center of Los Angeles — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:14:39 +0000

Sileh,

Thank you for your comment. We will be posting the second part of this series on sex addiction within the next week. It will provide a in-depth discussion of diagnostic issues related to sex addiction

By: Sileh

Sileh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:57:17 +0000

I would would like to hear more concerning sex addiction that I would reason ti what you are saying sounds more valid then a sex addiction being OCD that does not bring pleasure.

By: Katherine Jones

Katherine Jones — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:21:47 +0000

I do like the very simple explanation of the difference between the two: pleasure. I think that would be very helpful and easy for clients to understand.