Think you may be a sex addict?

Think you may be a sex addict?
PHOTO: Think you may be a sex addict?

Are you a sex addict?

There are various types of self-diagnosis tests available online, such as the one on the S.L.A.A Singapore Group's website recommended by psychiatrist Tan Teng Kiat.

It's the Singapore site of the Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, a programme of recovery from sex and/or love addiction.

It's based on the principles of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, a model pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Some of the questions designed to be used as tools to identify possible signs of sex and love addiction include:

  • Have you ever tried to control how much sex to have or how often you would see someone?
  • Do you feel that you don't want anyone to know about your sexual or romantic activities?
  • Have you had sex at inappropriate times, in inappropriate places, and/or with inappropriate people? Have you ever felt that you had to have sex?
  • Do you keep a list, written or otherwise, of the number of partners you've had?
  • Do you feel despair or uneasiness when you are away from your love or sexual partner?
  • Have you ever had a serious relationship threatened or destroyed because of outside sexual activity?

The full list of 40 questions can be found at www.sg-slaa.com/self-diagnosis-test/

Different levels of severity in sexual addiction:

Level One

Masturbation, watching pornography (with or without masturbation), phone sex and/or cybersex, voyeurism - online or live.

Level Two

Chronic infidelity, sexual relationships with multiple partners, anonymous sex or one-night stands, paid sex, public sex (in bathrooms, parks, and so on), frotteurism (rubbing one's genitalia against a person, usually a stranger), stalking.

Level Three

Rape, child molestation/paedophilia, viewing rape, snuff pornography (where at least one person in the film is killed), sexual abuse of older or dependent persons.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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