ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concept of sexual addiction. Sexual addiction is said to be a pattern of behaviour that has four components: it feels out of control, it brings harmful consequences, it is seemingly impossible to stay stopped from and it has a function. Sexual addiction is the repeated use of sexual behaviour to escape intolerable feeling states. One may think that he/she feel good about himself/herself because he/she has made money, or won academic awards or been promoted at work, but these are sometimes defences against the true feelings of 'not being enough'. The core of sexual addiction really lies in the way one feel about him/her deep down. Baumeister writes that addiction is an 'escape from the self'. Sexual addiction is never a solution to low self-esteem; in fact, it contributes to low self-esteem. Productive activity does the reverse; it builds and solidifies higher levels of self-worth.
