People can become addicted to anything that makes them feel good. Drugs and alcohol are generally acknowledged as the most prominent addictions – however, people can also become addicted to behaviors like sex and love.
People who become addicted to sex and love are just looking to feel happy, loved, and accepted – just like anybody else. Unfortunately, as with any addiction, they may go to extremes to achieve these feelings. It’s normal to enjoy having sex and sharing love with someone – but when you go to such great lengths to do these things that it creates problems, you might have an addiction.
While a sex or love addiction might not be as physically destructive as a drug or alcohol addiction, it can still create problems. Any kind of addiction is psychologically damaging, and oftentimes indicative of an underlying emotional or mental problem.
In this article we’re going to talk about these similar addictions and discuss how you can treat them with a technique known as neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP.
About Sex and Love Addictions
For some people, sex and love go hand-in-hand. For many others, the two are completely separated. As such, addictions to sex and love vary. While the two addictions may overlap, on their own, they are not the same.
Sex Addiction
Someone who is addicted to sex is continually pursuing sexual partners, or is continually in need of sex with a single partner. Many sex addicts have difficulty staying with a single partner, as their need to have sex overwhelms their desire to remain monogamous.
Sex addicts find some sort of psychological or emotional reprieve by having sex. They may thrive from the feeling of physical connectedness with others. Having sex may make them feel confident and provide them with relief from their insecurities. They may simply enjoy the biological release of neurochemicals that occurs after having sex.
Whatever the case, a sex addict dedicates a large portion of their energy and life to having sex. When this creates problems or they become unable to comfortably function without having sex, they have an addiction.
Love Addiction
People who are addicted to love may or may not also have a sex addiction.
Rather than being addicted to the physical act of lovemaking, people with a love addiction are addicted to the emotional component. They may constantly seek intimacy, hold multiple relationships (sexual or non-sexual) and feel extremely uncomfortable or upset when they do not feel loved.
A Bit About NLP
Neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP, is a therapeutic tool that allows people to improve their communication skills, understand themselves better, and reprogram the beliefs and behaviors that guide them through life.
One of the basic ideas behind NLP is that the brain functions sort of like a computer. We run certain scripts on a regular basis, based on past experiences that programmed us to act a certain way.
The brain can also be reprogrammed.
NLP helps you understand the way that your brain works and allows you to access components that you might otherwise have remained unaware of. This makes it a fantastic tool for therapy because it gives people the opportunity to change behaviors that are no longer serving them.
How NLP Can Help With Love and Sex Addictions
By now, you might be wondering how NLP could be useful for treating a sex or love addiction.
One of the basic premises for treating an addiction involves understanding why that addiction arose in the first place. In regards to love and sex addictions, many struggling addicts are harboring feelings of shame, guilt, attachment, or unworthiness.
Whatever the case, NLP can help an individual open up a line of dialogue with themselves to understand what sort of subconscious programming is leading them to crave sex or love. Recognizing these programs for what they are is hugely important for anyone hoping to rewrite the programs and put a healthier, more constructive one in place.
NLP, for example, may help you recognize why you instinctively seek sex. Perhaps it’s a subconscious response to feeling unloved, and you crave sex because it’s one of the things that allows you to feel a connection.
That’s a reasonable situation, however, there are more sustainable ways of feeling loved. One of the best ways to do this is to get rid of the belief that you’re unloved, and replace it with the belief that you are loved.
That’s just one example of the many ways that NLP could help you overcome a sex or love addiction. When it comes to reprogramming your own subconscious patterns, the possibilities are pretty much endless.
Conclusion
Sex and love addictions can cause difficulty in a person’s life. If you or a loved one struggle with a sex or love addiction, you should consider finding a coach who can offer you NLP to work through the problem.
