Nymphomania and satyriasis: sexual disorders of the psychological-behavioural sphere
Nymphomania and satyriasis: hypersexuality or sex addiction is a psychological-behavioural disorder in which the person suffering from it has a pathological obsession with having sex or thinking about sex, thus developing an addiction to sex identical to that of any kind of drug
Sometimes enjoyment is present, sometimes absent, but it is not important.
The need is not merely sexual, very often it is a search for communication with others through one’s own body, which replaces speech, and proof of this is the interchangeability and lack of specificity of the sexual object, so that heterosexuality and homosexuality alternate and overlap easily.
Hypersexuality is known as nymphomania for women and satyriasis for men (a term derived from the figure of the satyr in Greek mythology)
It is not a disorder that is nosographically classified under D.S.M.5, since there is no unanimous consensus on whether sexual addiction actually exists as a disorder in its own right, or whether it represents a variant of other disorders with their own psychopathological expressiveness in the sexual field.
Experts are divided as to whether hypersexuality is:
- an actual addiction, on a par with others such as alcoholism and drug addiction. The act, in this case the sexual act, would be used to manage stress or personality and mood disorders;
- a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder and referred to as sexual compulsion;
- a product of cultural and other contexts and influences.
Sex addiction is, therefore, a diagnostic framework that presents a range of behaviours, from compulsive masturbation, sexual promiscuity, paid sex, and the exaggerated use of material with pornographic content.
It is a psychopathological condition distinct from paraphilias, which are characterised by fantasies, impulses or behaviour accompanied by sexual excitement involving objects, suffering or humiliation of oneself or one’s partner, children or other non-consenting persons, although the two different conditions may present with comorbidity.
How nymphomania and satyriasis alter the life of the sufferer
Hypersexuality involves a man’s or woman’s disposition to be ready, in any place and with any person, to have sex or to engage in acts of masturbation (sometimes compulsive), exhibitionism and voyeurism.
In addition, because of the common sense of decency (although there is now a tendency towards greater openness in social customs), it is advisable not to give too much space to sexual manifestations that could constitute a breach of the law in cases of public indecency or sexual harassment.
For the sufferer, affective and relational relationships may sooner or later deteriorate (even gradually), which may affect other daily and social activities of the individual.
People suffering from sexual addiction may have higher levels of personality and mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, aggression, obsessiveness and compulsiveness than the average population.
Sex addicts, on the other hand, are egosyntonic with regard to fantasies, which they experience as pleasurable and exciting, but mostly egodystonic when they experience compulsive and tormented sexuality, just as in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
However, the recourse to sex in order to appease anxiety, sex experienced in a ‘druggy’ way, creates discomfort especially in the partner, who often asks the clinician for help for situations that can become unbearable.
The fantasies experienced by a sex addict often act as a stimulus to carry out certain behaviours, unlike an obsessive who does not carry out the behaviours ‘suggested’ by his or her obsessions, but acts out compulsive behaviours precisely in an attempt to ‘cancel out’ the anxious contents of his or her obsessions (Schwartz et al. 2003).
The theory that correlates Sex addiction with Substance Dependence, as developed by James Orford in 1978, draws a parallel between the behaviour of a Sex addict and a Substance Dependent.
In both, there is tolerance and therefore recourse to a greater stimulus in order to obtain pleasure of comparable intensity.
Also in Sex addiction there is always a greater use of time to be able to carry out certain behaviours, to the detriment of other life activities such as work, social life, friendships, etc., and the attention is focused on the sexual behaviour, as for the drug addict the attention is focused on the substance that causes addiction, with real signs of withdrawal, anxiety, depressed mood, irritability.
Some studies, such as Raymond’s in 2003 and Black’s in 1997, have shown that 71% of the subjects studied had a Substance Dependence Disorder in comorbidity with Sex addiction, while 64% of sex addicted subjects had a Substance Dependence Disorder in comorbidity.
Consequences induced by sexual addiction include:
- Physical stress
- Impairment of social relationships
- Impairment of short-term and synthetic memory
- Cognitive opacity and decrease in cognitive abilities: intuition, abstraction, synthesis, creativity, concentration
- Decreased physical performance, chronic fatigue
- Sleep alteration
- Increased anxiety, sense of frustration, apathy
- Disorientation of plans: inability to make important choices or changes
- Self-evaluation, sadness, melancholy and depression, restlessness, social isolation
- Attractive and emotional saturation, difficulty falling in love
- Variation in usual sexual relations: the subject tries to recreate an ‘obscene’ pattern with his partner.
The pathological dependence is progressive in some cases, increasing in intensity with the concomitant occurrence of a form of sexual saturation.
In order to satisfy one’s urges, the affected person may seek increasingly intense sexual relations tending towards the obscene or perverse.
These aspects should be contextualised in a context of psychological and psychiatric distress.
On the other hand, even today, psychiatry’s interest in the sexuality and sexual problems of patients suffering from mental disorders is almost absent.
The cause, according to some clinicians, may be due to trauma or psychic disorders but, more generally, is unknown, as is the aetiology of many other sexual behaviours that differ from the norm.
The disorder, which naturally involves the psychological field, is usually dealt with through individual or group psychotherapy, in which a slightly different method is applied from that used in abstinence (used, for example, in alcohol and drug addictions), a procedure whose objective is to push the subject to overcome the obsessive perception of need and return to having a healthy relationship with sexuality.
In the most stubborn cases, anxiolytic drugs and pharmacological therapies to reduce libido may be used in addition to psychotherapy.
When you realise that sexuality is becoming a fixed and uncontrollable thought, it is important to consult a psychiatrist or a psychosexologist.
Article written by Dr Letizia Ciabattoni
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Sources:
http://www.psychiatryonline.it/
http://www.nuovarassegnastudipsichiatrici.it/
Manuale di psichiatria e psicologia clinica Condividi, Cinzia Bressi, Giordano Invernizzi, McGraw-Hill Education, 2017
Parafilie e devianza: Psicologia e psicopatologia del comportamento sessuale atipico, Fabrizio Quattrini, Giunty, 2015
Le parafilie maggiori. (Sadismo, masochismo, pedofilia, incestofilia, necrofilia, zoofilia) tipica espressione di “atavismo filetico” nella specie umana, Fernando Liggio, Alpes ed., 2013
Schwartz S.A., Abramowitz J.S., Are non-paraphilic sexual addictions a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder? A pilot study, in “Cognit Behav Pract”, 2003;