Daniel Steer, '95 alumnus, started a support group for male students struggling with pornography this past February. While Steer meets with students weekly to counsel them over pornography-related issues, health professionals can't seem to agree as to whether or not pornography addiction is an accurate term to describe the behavior.
Some sex therapists argue that pornography addiction is real with serious consequences, while others argue it is not comparable to substance addiction and should not be classed as such.
Because the human sex drive is strongly influenced by biological and psychological factors, health professionals have been in debate as to have the term "porn addiction" as an accepted diagnosis.
Seattle-based sex, marriage and relationship therapist Roger Libby said in an interview the term "addiction" is incorrect.
“You cannot be addicted to yourself,” Libby told The New York Times in a story related to sex addiction. “You have to have a substance external to yourself like alcohol or drugs to be addicted.”
Sex therapist Louanna Cole Weston said in a WebMD article that "compulsive" is more of an apt description for characterizing the behavior of people who are deemed porn addicts.
One of the problems describing the behavior as an addiction is that mental health professionals have no set standard criteria in diagnosing porn addiction, according to the article.
"There is no DSM-IV or ICD9 [that is a professionally accepted] diagnosis of 'porn addiction,'" Marty Klein, a counselor and therapist, wrote on his Web site. "Just because people feel addicted doesn't mean they are."
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is currently on its fourth edition and revisions for the fifth edition is underway for the projected release in 2012.
Daniel Linz, a psychologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara who studies communication, law and society with an emphasis on sexuality, said in an MSNBC article that many activities that society regards as having "unfavorable connotations or behaviors" are called addictions.
"We do not talk about Sunday afternoon football addiction, money addiction or a workaholic as people who need treatment like a cocaine addict. We tolerate a certain level of obsessiveness. But this is not the case with more deviant activities. We do not approve of constant viewing of sex. So we pathologize it," Linz told MSNBC.
The hangup as to whether recognize "pornography addiction" as such is mainly because the sex drive is not an external substance.
"When it comes to addictions, it might get messy when we're talking about something that is a natural drive," Steer said. "No one is really naturally born with a natural drive for heroine or cocaine - you have to teach your self to be driven with that kind of stuff."
Many therapists and health professionals shy away from telling patients they are "porn addicts."
"Pornography and masturbation is one expression of obsessive compulsive behavior," Libby said.
The debate over whether the terms "compulsive" or "addiction" should be used to describe those who view pornography and masturbate has yet been settled. Health professionals who view it as a compulsive behavior argue an obsession is not equivalent to addiction, despite how unhealthy the obsession is.
"There is a debate in the field whether or not there is porn addiction. There isn't a clear definition right now," psychologist Stephanie Kuffel said. "Where there is consensus is that there can be a compulsive behavior."
More than one treatment
An issue with giving treatment for people struggling with pornography is that the type of treatment depends heavily on the basis of whether or not the therapist views the patient's behavior with porn as an addiction or as compulsive behavior.
When labeled as an addiction, therapists will most likely offer a traditional "12-Step Program" where the nature of pornography addiction is treated as a disease.
The more traditional programs like the 12-Step Program are heavily behavioral based, Daniel Steer said, who works part time for Whitworth's counseling services in conjunction to his own private practice in Spokane. Traditional programs for addicts focus on changing lifestyles and is more legalistic, he said.
In Steer's student male support group for those struggling with pornography, he takes on a psychoanalytical approach where issues of loneliness, stress, depression and anxiety are discussed.
"It's a whole-person problem - the way you see yourself, the way you see the world and how you manage your emotions," Steer said.
Click here to read the rest of the series on pornography at Whitworth.
Contact Yong Kim at yong.kim@whitworthian.com.
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