Sex disorder therapy is not uncommon
After accusations, Weinstein, Spacey seek treatment, but details are vague
The statements issued by Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are vague to the point of obfuscation: They are “in counseling” or seeking “evaluation and treatment,” their publicists’ emails read.
When photographers captured Weinstein on video outside his daughter’s house in Los Angeles Oct. 11, he was apoplectic but ambiguous.
“Guys, I’m not doing OK,” he shouted to the paparazzi. “I’m trying. I’ve got to get help.”
Well, what does that mean? Treatment for sex addiction or alcohol addiction? Marriage counseling? Talk therapy, 12-step therapy, inpatient, outpatient? A trip to the library to read up on psychology? All of the above?
The short answer is we don’t know, and neither Oscar-winning producer Weinstein nor Oscar-winning actor Spacey is detailing what he is doing to fix whatever ails him.
But since both are under scrutiny for accusations of sexual misconduct — Weinstein has been accused by more than 70 women of sexual harassment, coercion, assault or rape dating back decades; Spacey has been accused by more than a dozen men of sexual harassment, groping, assault and at least five allegations of sexual advances on or attempted rape of teenage boys — it’s a good bet that treatment for sexual disorder might be in order.
There are a broad array of treatments available in America today, according to the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Sex Addiction Therapy, the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH) and practicing psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors and sex addiction therapists.
Sex addiction is a recognized disorder similar to drug or alcohol addiction, many experts say. But it’s not listed, yet, as an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — the way drug or alcohol addiction are — because of a lack of research into diagnostic criteria for compulsive sexual behavior, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
“Some people say the research (shows) that sex can be an addiction, but other people will argue against that,” says James Olsen, a mental health counselor and sex addiction therapist. “What is not up for debate is people experience it like an addiction. ... It’s a behavior people have difficulty controlling even if it’s outside their moral values.”
It’s true the term “sex addiction” is controversial; it’s been in use only since about 1983, says John Giugliano, a psychotherapist near Philadelphia and spokesman for SASH. He prefers to use “out-of-control sexual behavior.”
“The disorder is real. The nomenclature may be controversial, but there is no controversy about the reality,” Giugliano says.
Options for treatment can range from a 12-step program (there are at least five for sex addiction), going to weekly or three- to five-day intensive therapy sessions as an outpatient at a treatment center, or checking into a rehabilitation center as an inpatient for up to 30 days.
There are nearly 2,000 certified sex addiction therapists, or sexologists, in the USA, says Alexandra Katehakis, a clinical sexologist and leading expert on sex addiction and the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Sex treatment facility in Los Angeles.
“In Los Angeles, there’s a Sex Addicts Anonymous meeting every day in the city, with 40, 60, even 80 men filling the rooms even on a Saturday,” she says.
The first step on the treatment journey, experts say, is to distinguish between a sex addict and a criminal sexual offender. Not all sex addicts are offenders, and most sex offenders are not addicts. Unlike an addict, a sexual offender may be manipulative, lacking any sense of empathy, motivation to change behavior or even a basic conscience.
Sex addicts “rarely engage in sex without consent or with coercion; they’re using sex as a self-soothing mechanism in the way other people use drugs or binge-eat,” says Debra Borys, a Los Angeles psychologist and expert on sexual harassment. “A sexual predator gets aroused from the domination and the power and seeing the fear or humiliation; they’re not considered a sex addict.”
But sexual addiction “is not an excuse for criminal behavior,” says Douglas Weiss, president of the American Association for Sex Addiction Therapy, a recovering sex addict himself and the founder of the treatment facility Heart to Heart Counseling Center in Colorado Springs. “Sexual criminals are still responsible for their crimes.”