People also often feel tremendous guilt or shame in line with their trauma, which can promote hypersexual behavior. Sex, in this case, can be seen as a coping mechanism used to manage the symptoms of PTSD.
Trauma can affect sexual desire in a myriad of ways. For some, it can cause both hypersexual and hyposexual behaviors. The ways that it impacts sexual desire are based on the person's response to and type of trauma experienced.
Problems with alcohol or drug use. Another mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety or a gambling addiction. Family conflicts or family members with problems such as addiction. A history of physical or sexual abuse.
Use as a coping skill: Hypersexuality can also be used as a mechanism to deal with past trauma. The individual can become compulsive about undoing the trauma, redoing it differently, or understanding it.
While hypersexuality can occur with PTSD, sexual avoidance is also a consequence in some cases. Many people feel hypersexual impulses as their brains are focused on the trauma. They can enter an unhealthy cycle where they seemingly reenact their trauma. As mentioned, this can be a coping mechanism for many.
As mentioned, hypersexuality may also be linked to depression and anxiety. Some individuals may avoid difficult emotions, such as sadness or shame, and seek temporary relief by engaging in sexual behavior. Sexual cravings, therefore, can mask other issues such as depression, anxiety, and stress.
People with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) occasionally exhibit strong impulsivity, seduction, and excessive sexuality. For both men and women with BPD, sexual promiscuity, sexual obsessions, and hypersexuality or sexual addiction are common symptoms.
ADHD can impact a person's sex life in many ways, including hypersexual tendencies. This could be due to symptoms of ADHD, lower dopamine levels, or medication side effects.
Gambling, reckless driving, unsafe sexual behaviors, extreme drinking, and the use of weapons are all examples of what risky behavior can look like in those with PTSD. It is likely that gender plays a role in who develops the risky behavior symptom of PTSD.
Diagnosis criteria
A person should contact a mental health professional if they think they are experiencing hypersexuality. Although it is not an official diagnosis according to the DSM-5, the WHO's ICD-11 recognizes it as a compulsive sexual disorder.
Traumatized individuals have an extreme mistrust of the Arousal Cycle. As they are reminded of the traumatic experiences that they have gone through, feelings of fear and frustration begin to smother and overwhelm them.
Individuals with ASD seem to have more hypersexual and paraphilic fantasies and behaviors than general-population studies suggest. However, this inconsistency is mainly driven by the observations for male participants with ASD.
Hypersexuality can exist as a sign of bipolar disorder or on its own. Also referred to as compulsive sexual behavior or sexual addiction, hypersexuality is described as a dysfunctional preoccupation with sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors that are difficult to control.
What Does Hypersexuality Feel Like? Hypersexuality can feel like an uncontrollable sensation of sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors, and it can be difficult to manage and cause distress or impairment. People may notice its effects on occupational and other important areas of life.
What Is Hypersexuality? During manic episodes, people with bipolar disorder may experience a heightened sense of sexuality. It's only when this is paired with other symptoms of bipolar mania—including risk-taking, impulsivity, and poor judgment—that it can shift into problematic hypersexuality.
What are the conditions that may drive a person in their manipulative behavior? In BPD, these conditions are a lack of affective self-understanding, difficulties with regulating one's own emotions, and an impeded interaffectivity that makes it incredibly difficult for the person to feel connected with other people.
Drug treatments like fluoxetine, an SSRI, proved to be effective for hypersexual symptoms, especially in individuals with existing depression. Fluoxetine is a well-known antidepressant that increases serotonin in the brain to improve mood, sleep, and energy.
The temporal lobes. The area of the limbic system most frequently implicated in the mediation of human sexual behaviour is the temporal lobes. Accumulating evidence of changes in sexual behaviour following temporal lobe dysfunction has led to the phrase the “libidinous temporal lobe”.
Hypersexuality, also known as compulsive sexual behavior, is commonly a condition in men who have ASD. Hypersexuality is an addiction to sexual behaviors that causes a person to have sexual fantasies, urges or behaviors that can be challenging to control.
n. an abnormally low level of sexual behavior. Hyposexual individuals may show no sex drive or interest in sexual activity. —hyposexual adj.
The spectrum of sexual desire goes from asexual to hypersexual. Again, each person describes this spectrum differently, but the general idea is that asexuality implies the lack of all sexual desire, while hypersexuality suggests that sex is the main source of a person's personal bliss and is a constant want/need.