What role does spirituality play in recovery from sex and porn addiction?  I do try to keep these blogs seasonal in some way and so with Easter upon us, it feels timely to talk about recovery and religion. There are of course many, many reasons for enjoying Easter, not least the extended public holidays and chocolate. While the roots of Easter are in the Christian story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, in the secular world we celebrate Easter as a time of new life, represented by spring flowers, cute bunnies and fluffy chicks. And for the many people who define themselves as ‘spiritual’, r ..read more

New research has just been published by those clever people at the International Sex Survey. You may remember that I blogged about the International Sex Survey about 6 months ago when they published their first paper showing that 5% of the world population meet the criteria for CSBD (Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder). If you missed it, you can read it here: https://thelaurelcentre.co.uk/blog/how-many-people-have-sex-addiction/. Their latest paper focuses specifically on porn addiction, and they found that just over 3% of the population struggles with their porn use. In other words, th ..read more

It’s that time of year again.  Time for hearts and frills on everything. On chocolates, on flowers, on TV, on social media, and of course, on underwear! Yes, February 14th is for lurve – and there’s no way to escape it, no matter how much you may want to. In the past, this day may have been one when you and your partner celebrated your relationship. A day when you proclaimed your undying love and shared kisses, cuddles and maybe quite a lot more. But for couples recovering from sex addiction or porn addiction, Valentines will be awkward at best, and quite possibly, heart-breakin ..read more

Here we are again – the season of New Year’s resolutions. Have you made any yet? How do you rate your chance of sticking to them? I don’t want to dishearten you, but according to research in the US 23% of people quit their resolution by the end of the first week and 43% by the end of January. But, and this is a good ‘but’, people who make a new year’s resolution are 10 x more likely to keep to it than people who make resolutions in other ways. So, it’s definitely worth doing.  If you’re reading this blog then either you’re someone who’s struggling with your porn use or you care about some ..read more

The field of sex and porn addiction is rapidly changing and there has been an explosion of research since CSBD (Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder) was accepted into ICD-11 by the World Health Organisation in 2019. Until this point, any academics who wanted to research sex addiction or porn addiction were at risk of having their work turned down by a professional journal because the conditions weren’t recognised. The label of CSBD has made the problem legitimate and that means we can finally crack on with much needed research. As many readers will already know, the field of sex and porn addi ..read more

I had the privilege last evening of being a guest on the The Addicted Mind podcast series and the first question my host Duane Osterlind asked me was ‘where do you start’ ?  I noticed that I felt quite overwhelmed by the question which almost certainly mirrors how clients feel when they themselves ask ‘where do I start’?   The obvious answer of course is that you start to treat sex addiction by listening; by hearing where the client is at and what their most immediate concerns are. For some that’s uncovering the other underlying causes; the ‘whys’ of addiction. For others i ..read more

Like many professionals, my heart sank when the news of the allegations against Russell Brand broke a few weeks ago. Not just because of the damage that’s been done to those who were historically impacted by his behaviour, but also because of the impact it will have on those who are close to him today. Whatever the truth may be, and whatever the final verdict may be, the consequences of this debacle are devastating to many.  Russell has been bravely ‘out’ about his addictions for many years, he perhaps had little choice, as much of it was public, but nonetheless, he had the courage to tal ..read more

I don’t often use this blog space to talk about politics, but as the government continues to dither over the final hurdles on the Online Safety Bill, children and young people continue to access pornography. Of course, not all are harmed by this, but it’s a well-known fact within the addiction world that early exposure increases the risk of later dependency. That research hasn’t been replicated with pornography, but it’s wise to assume it’s a risk factor. That in itself should concern us, but there’s much more than that.  As anyone who regularly uses pornography will know, there’s a lot o ..read more

Up until very recently the prevalence of sex and porn addiction, especially in the UK has been unknown. And one of the biggest obstacles to undertaking research was societies’ ambivalence about accepting it as a real problem.  Is porn addiction a real problem?  Whether or not sex addiction and porn addiction are ‘real’ is a question that’s been going round and round for many years and it continues to be a topic of both professional and societal debate. And whilst we know an increasing number of people are struggling with out of control sexual behaviours, primarily their porn use, we ..read more

This is our last blog in the series ‘What is sex and porn addiction?’ Within the theme we have outlined each condition, delved into how they can be confused with other problems and issues, and presented ways to determine whether you require sex or porn addiction therapy. We’ve looked at ‘Am I an addict, or am I just over-reacting?’, ‘Am I an addict, or do I just have a high sex drive?’ and ‘Am I an addict or am I just in the wrong relationship?’.  Today we end with, ‘Am I an addict or am I just an arsehole?’. Sorry for the blunt language, but this is a direct quote from one of the recover ..read more