The Social Construction Of Sex Addiction

A commonly used screening test for sex addiction is Patrick Carnes’ PATHOS screener:

Do you often find yourself preoccupied with sexual thoughts? (Preoccupied)
Do you hide some of your sexual behavior from others? (Ashamed)¹
Have you ever sought help for sexual behavior you did not like? (Treatment)
Has anyone been hurt emotionally because of your sexual behavior? (Hurt others)
Do you feel controlled by your sexual desire? (Out of control)
When you have sex, do you feel depressed afterwards? (Sad)

If you hit three of the six, you are likely to be a sex addict.

So let’s take a few imaginary cases:

Alice is a lesbian evangelical Christian who believes that homosexuality is a sin. She attends ex-gay therapy (Treatment), where she often finds herself daydreaming about kissing the other girls at group therapy (Preoccupied). She kissed one of the other group members once—her first kiss. She spent the night sobbing about how she’d betrayed God (Sad). She hasn’t told anyone because she’s afraid they’ll judge her (Ashamed). When she came out as a lesbian, her mother burst into tears because she was afraid her daughter would go to hell (Hurt others). Alice can’t stop being attracted to women, and she feels utterly helpless in the face of her attraction (Out of control).

Alice is a sex addict.