this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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You can only be physically addicted to certain substances but you can be mentally addicted to anything.
There is no such thing as "mental addiction".
You mean, you haven't met someone with a mental addiction yet.
But — you are technically correct, indeed.
In ICD 10 the disorders that are commonly regarded as mental addictions are classified not as addiction, but as eating disorders, habit and impulse disorders and disorders of sexual preference. Don't know whether I missed any.
BTW, Substance-related addiction is classified as mental and behaviour disorder due to psychoactive use. So, technically, "addiction" does not exist at all.
I've met people with behavioural disorders, sure, but not "mental addictions", since an addiction requires a physical component.
I think you can broadly say that a genuine addiction starts because it's pleasant, and then continues because stopping causes you to actively feel bad. E.g., you keep smoking because the withdrawal from nicotine is pretty shitty, and takes a week or so to get past (although the behavioural component to the addiction can take weeks or months). Masturbation and porn use doesn't fall into that model at all; the consequences of not masturbating is that you don't feel something pleasant, not that things start hurting.
It's simply not in the same category as alcoholism, or addiction to nicotine, opiates, etc. People that call it that do so for for moral reasons, not because it's a legitimate medical issue. If you speak to a psychologist that is trained in and specializes in sexual disorders--again, not one that's using a religious/spiritual approach, but one that's evidence-based--you are unlikely to find anyone that regards it as a legitimate disorder unless you're doing things like masturbating at your desk at work 3-4 times/day, or needing to pull your car over on the way to work to compulsively masturbate.
If this is your definition of addiction, a "mental addiction" cannot exist. I am happy to concede I am wrong and improve my knowledge if you would be so kind to point me to sources prooving this is the general accepted definition of the word.
Well – no. Not for all people. While "blue balls" are a myth, bad mood, emotional instability and even aching genitals are at least for some people consequences of sex withdrawal. Craving does exist as well.
That's true.
Well — actually I haven't met any psychotherapist who doubts that there are people with non-substance related addictions. I have no experience with sexual addiction myself – only met a couple of patients who claimed to have overcome it – but I did work with patients with eating disorders, which we viewed and treated as addiction, and with pathological gambling, which is viewed as an addiction as well.
Ok – so far to the existence of "mental addiction".
Regarding "porn addiction", I agree, that a habit has to meet the criteria for addiction. So I agree someone isn't addicted to masturbation/porn