The list of addictions or compulsions that they treat people for is a fairly long one. Alcohol and drugs are the ones that seemingly come up most often. There are also treatments for gambling and other behaviors. On the other hand, I have heard that sexual addiction and food addiction are the toughest ones to put into the addiction category. A person doesn't need drugs and doesn't need to gamble, but sex and eating are fairly common functions. I think that these could be problematic when they hit a tipping point in that a person is consumed with them and it then interferes with other basic pursuits. I'm wondering what they would want to accomplish in a treatment regimen for compulsiveness toward sex and food. Do you think that the claim that sexual addiction and food addiction aren't really addictions or are very different from the other addictions is valid? Do you know much about either of these two topics?
Behavioral or process addictions are absolutely real, and the biochemical/neurotransmitter pathways that underlie them are the same ones that underlie drug and alcohol addiction. There is, however, a difference between process addictions and compulsive behavior disorders such as OCD. Process addictions, which also include gambling, video games, food, shopping, eating disorders (bulemia and anorexia) and quite a variety of others, are difficult to treat for a variety of reasons. Obviously with food... one can't simply choose abstinence, but there are other reasons having to do with the psychological origin of these addictions and the behavioral patterns; the behavioral patterns that give rise to the "rush" that those suffering with these conditions experience must be extinguished and replaced with healthier behaviors, the cues or triggers that lead to these behaviors must be desensitized, and the underlying need that these behaviors fulfill must be addressed in a healthier way. There is some controversy and movement among some clinicians to declare that there's no such thing as sex addiction and that, instead, people are simply mislabeling extremely high sex drive as sexual addiction. While I agree that there's a certain amount of collective shame and judgment surrounding sex drive and people who have very strong sexual appetites, I would vehemently disagree that sexual addiction, using the criteria we use to define other addictions, does not exist. There are absolutely people who masturbate compulsively and nearly nonstop, people ho cannot get through the day without having sexual encounters, and who experience extreme anxiety and other addict-like behaviors when they cannot experience orgasm multiple times a day. I believe there's a line between someone with a strong sex drive and someone who has a compulsion or addiction, and sometimes this line can be fuzzy, but at least at present, I absolutely believe that some people experience sex addiction. And for the others, there's pretty clear consensus that they exist.
I often think of addictions in terms of (relative) severity. For example, I have been pretty severely addicted to video games and soda/sugar (as in, I could play 17 h in a day and drink 10 cans or several bottles of soda). I managed to kick the habit(s) in the end, but it was really hard. I still feel an urge to just game, game, game sometimes, but I can resist nowadays. Well, mostly, at least. That said, I do think that there are addictions that are generally simply worse to live with, such as severe heroin addiction or other kinds of drug addiction.
I think that sometimes sex addiction is the wrong word - and sometimes it should be more like ' sex-misalignment'....... Addiction makes it sound like someone is doing it all the time, can't stop and is more of a quantity game. But if you think about Porn addiction - its not necessarily that the person is watching porn ALL the time.... but that it is the ONLY way they can achieve erection/orgasm - and so its not 'addiction' as such....its just a mis-placed sexual arousal problem.... similar to people who have problematic fetishes such as voyeurism.... they can only(or mostly) get off on that!
On the food issue, I dunno about whether it should be classified as "addiction" or not, but in terms of treating issues related to food, I think the main difference from addictions like drugs and alcohol is you can't treat it by avoiding it. Unless, it's a necessary prescription medication, you can stop taking drugs and stop drinking alcohol, but you can't just stop eating.
