When the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) — the definitive guide to diagnostic criteria used by U.S. mental health professionals — is updated next May (for the first time in 13 years) one of the new conditions in consideration to be among its pages is hypersexual disorder (HD). Known informally, if not entirely accurately, as “sex addiction,” HD’s inclusion in the manual will mean the diagnosis has finally “made it.”
A patient diagnosed with HD would typically experience “recurrent and intense sexual fantasies, urges, and behavior” for at least six consecutive months. Their hypersexuality would be uncontrollable and distressing, interfering with their normal life and leading to the possibility of self-harm. The disorder would only be diagnosed in patients over the age of 18. The disorder can take the form of masturbation, pornography, sex “with consenting adults,” cybersex, phone sex, “adult entertainment venues/clubs,” or — because some things you just can’t anticipate — “other.”
Read more at The Atlantic…
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