Complete program. [It] made me look at things I’ve been running from for 26 years. Beauty was that it also gave me the tools to cope.
Treating a teenager with sex addiction
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Treating a teenager with sex addiction
I think it’s an important question to decide whether a teenager can be a sex addict and is the treatment any different. We have to be more careful when you start using labels like addiction, or sexual addiction, with teenagers. We sometimes just don’t know whether they’re exploring and whether it will stop until they reach further ages.
Having said that, we do begin to see some teenagers who have the hallmarks of being addicted. I think it’s important, certainly as a treatment community that I belong to, and also just as a culture that we not impose the “sex addict” label on teenager when we are not certain whether or not are they going to have a full blown addiction. We do see some teenagers who are more at higher risk. They tend to come from troubled backgrounds, families with low empathy,a high degree of dysfunction, you know, difficulty with bounding and attachment, not a lot of love going on. Those kids are at higher risk for addiction. So if that teenager is using pot, cocaine, drinking alcohol and compulsively sexual, that probably is a pretty good recipe for that kid to be on the road to addiction.
Certainly at those times we will want to use addiction approaches but we have to be very careful with teenagers. You can’t send a teenager to a 12-step meeting with adults, for example. So the programs have to be specialized to the teenager and the developmental exploration that goes on with kids has to be considered as part of the normative curve before you start labeling everything problematic.
In my practice we have a special program for teens, for example, and so we’re very careful about using labels. We also are very considerate about the possibility that some of their behavior is exploratory. So, what we do is, we look at the high risk behaviors. We help them put boundaries around them, like we would with adult sex addict. But we’re more careful about how we label that and how we introduce that and the support group or the therapy group is run by counselor as opposed to them going to a meeting with other adults.
Sexual Addiction
Testimonials
Incredible! I am learning to listen to my body. Each week I learn something new about myself through the homework. Much greater awareness. I have choices. Learning not to be so reactionary. I feel freer.
This program is ground -breaking and keeps you centered in recovery. It has allowed me to remain in my marriage and conitnue my recovery.
The nurturing environment combined with the accountability was exactly what I needed to begin breaking through my codependency habits.
This program is a great program. It is an outlet for an addictive problem, that goes beyond a 12-Step Program. Number one benefit – Education. The education about this addiction was a godsend. Then the process of walking us through all those recovery steps with homework, was very good. Makes you think and recognize what this addiction has done to your life.
This has been the most formative experience in my recovery. It has broken through my denial and into more of who I am. It was integrated directly with my individual therapy.