5/31/2023 0 Comments Hyper sexualityCommunicate with your partnersįor partnered folks, Osborn reminds that you’re not single-handedly responsible for the success of your relationship. Osborn offers the following tips for how people with ADHD can better manage their sexual tendencies. How to have a healthier sex life with ADHDĪlthough you may face ADHD-related challenges, you’re still fully capable of having a safer, pleasurable sex life. “When we talk about how ADHD affects a person’s sexuality, it’s important to remember that we’re talking about an individual.” “There’s no one ‘right way’ to have ADHD,” they say. Osborn reminds that ADHD is a spectrum disorder, meaning that it looks different for everyone. But they might play a stronger role in problematic pornography use among men versus women. “When we talk about something being a ‘symptom,’ what we’re talking about is frequency and intensity,” says Osborn.įor example, she asks: Do you lose your keys once a week or 12 times a day? Do you experience hypersexuality a couple of days before your period (which is common), or do you spend hours a day viewing pornography and masturbating?Ī 2019 study suggests that ADHD symptoms may play an important role in the severity of hypersexuality. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), there are no sexual symptoms of ADHD. Symptoms of mental health conditions are criteria to qualify someone for a diagnosis. But more studies are needed to support this.Īs a result, dopamine-seeking behaviors - like masturbating or watching pornography - may be extra appealing to folks with ADHD. Other research from 2012 indicates that people with ADHD may also show lower levels of dopamine transporters compared with the brains of people without the condition. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or “chemical messenger,” that plays a role in how people experience pleasure. Research from 2009 suggests that ADHD brains process dopamine differently. “If there’s a sense of outside pressures and expectations that aren’t being met, meeting one’s own needs by engaging in self-stimulation is a common factor in compulsive behaviors manifesting,” Osborn explains.įor example, she notes that for people with ADHD, frequent masturbation or watching pornography as a form of self-soothing could become an unhealthy habit. Sex could also serve as a form of escapism for people with ADHD. They also point out that the experience of hypersexuality is often impacted by ADHD in that it can exacerbate the feeling of “I need to have sex right now.” Escapism Impulsivity and fixationsĪ need or want for physical intimacy can sometimes become a main focus for someone with ADHD, says Osborn. It’s important to note that ADHD doesn’t cause hypersexuality or compulsive sexual behaviors. But people with ADHD often report experiencing hypersexuality and other paraphilias, and many folks with these tendencies concurrently have ADHD. “While there can be a tendency toward hypersexuality as it relates to ADHD, there’s insufficient evidence to say that hypersexuality is more common in people with ADHD,” she explains.Ī 2021 study suggests that research is limited on ADHD and hypersexuality, so the relationship is unclear. There’s a common misconception that every person with ADHD deals with hypersexuality, says Cate Osborn, a certified sex educator specializing in neurodiversity and sex.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |