The problem with online addiction tests
There are a lot of online tests to determine whether you might be a sex or porn addict.
Here’s one, here’s another one, here’s one with a Christian flavour and here’s one that only takes 10 seconds!
Times Online sex advice writer Suzi Godson took the test:
“Confirmed sex addict? Me too. Tests such as Sast have encouraged 16 million people in the US to label themselves as sex addicts.”
That’s one statistic I certainly can believe. Guys have contacted me after ticking these boxes, sometimes convinced that they are afflicted with the ‘disease of addiction’. This troubles me.
I accept that some of these tests are based on criteria defined by addiction therapists and experts. And some of them have a caveat; a high score suggests you may suffer from a serious addiction, but doesn’t actually provide a diagnosis.
Dr Marty Klein, a psychotherapist and the author of America’s War On Sex: The Attack On Law, Lust, & Liberty, says:
“Feeling out of control isn’t the same as being out of control, and an unwillingness to exert self-discipline isn’t the same thing as being addicted. People who masturbate too much, look at too much porn, or cheat on their partners are not ‘addicts’. They just don’t like the consequences of their decisions. They may be impulsive, or angry, or lonely, but we [psychotherapists] know how to help them.”
So if you are concerned about the amount of time you spend watching porn, you might be ticking these boxes. And an online test may help you fully recognise that you’d like to make some changes to your daily routine.
But even if you score 100%, don’t rush to label yourself. There are more appropriate explanations for what you do.
Related posts:
- Addiction to porn is not limited to men – Lancaster Online
- The warning signs that you’re an online porn addict – C-ville feature
- UK teens are online porn addicts, survey reveals
- Virtually divorced from reality – online sex addiction feature in courant.com
- Online Damage: Porn in the 21st Century radio programme
Considering that an estimated 22 million people in the United States are addicted to substances, why is it so hard to believe that 16 million are addicted to sex, especially considering the prevalence and availability of porn today? I’m often bothered by the “well, then a lot of people must be sex addicts” argument because I think that, yes, a lot of folks probably are sex addicts. Why does it have to be “rare” to be legitimate? We’re a culture of addicts. For example, just look around at how many obese people there are in the United States. I think it would be hard to contest that the majority of these folks aren’t addicted to food. I guess I just don’t understand why people are able to accept everything but sex as an addiction.
Hi Margaux
Thanks for raising this very valid point. And I’d agree that the prevalence of porn is contributing to emotional and relationship problems on a large scale.
But the grey area of sex and porn ‘addiction’ causes me some concern – and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. Generally speaking, addictions such as alcoholism and compulsive eating are easier to define. They are physiological dependencies.
I’ve yet to meet anyone who is physiologically addicted to porn. So despite some overlap with substance addictions in terms of lifestyle fallout (and the fallout from porn obsession can be just as severe), overcoming a porn problem requires a different approach.
So my point is that symptom checklists like the ones mentioned above can’t test for ‘sex addiction’ or ‘porn addiction’. Sex and porn obsession is serious and legitimate, but it’s a whole different ball game. We’re still learning the full extent and nature of it, but our tendency to apply the old ‘addict’ label isn’t helping anyone.
Many of these tests are used to sell porn addiction books, treatment courses and filtering software. Most quoted porn addiction statistics are ‘compiled’ for the same purpose. A cynic might suggest that some marketers are trading on the despair of ‘addiction’.
Of course, as a therapist with my own services and self-help product to promote, I use the term ‘porn addiction’ too. But in order to help people get real about the issue, I try to open up debate and highlight the clear distinction from substance addictions.
It’s probably not such a successful sales tactic, but I do think that Dr Marty Klein’s explanation is more applicable and will eventually prove more constructive.
I get what you’re saying, Jason. I wasn’t arguing with you so much as I was arguing with the insinuation the woman you quoted seemed to be making–that it’s hard to believe that so many people could be sex addicts and, therefore, it’s not a legitimate addiction or that it’s blown completely out of proportion.
I agree that maybe the diagnostic tests for sex addiction need to be retooled. I do think that people can have sexual issues without being sex addicts. However, I firmly believe that “addiction” is the correct term and diagnosis in many cases, like my husband’s. I grew up with a drug-addict brother and I always thought his behaviors and attitudes were a direct result of the substances he ingested–I believed addiction was a physiological dependence. However, when I observed the exact same behaviors in my porn-obsessed husband, the similiarities were too uncanny for me to continue believing that addiction is a disease based solely on a physiological dependence. (To complicate things, however, there is the argument that viewing porn causes chemical changes in the brain, having effects not much different from that of cocaine).
I’m not a mental-health professional, so the only factors that lead me to believe sex can be an addiction are what I’ve read and my personal experience with drug addiction juxtaposed with my husband’s behavior. I’ve watched my husband fall into a downward spiral that only an addict could get himself into (he’s lost me, he’s lost our apartment, he’s now homeless, he’s being sued, and he’s in financial ruin). In what other situation would someone give up everything that’s good in his life in order to preserve a meaningless behavior that’s bad for him but gives fleeting good feelings? As they say, “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”