Sex
Hyper-Sexuality, Sex Addiction & ADHD
How to treat Attention Deficit Hyper-Sexuality Disorder.
Posted June 8, 2010 Reviewed by Ekua Hagan
People with ADHD seek novelty and stimulation. The former is a response to easy boredom. The latter is a response to the need to mobilize neurotransmitters that make one feel calm and good.
Medications that treat ADHD mobilize primarily dopamine and noradrenalin. Dopamine is the brain's primary feel-good substance. Its release in the nucleus accumbens is intensely pleasurable.
Noradrenalin also helps one feel good and has major effects on hyperactivity. In combination one becomes less fidgety, restless, and anxious and feels good, calm, happy, or mellow.
Children with ADHD frequently bite their fingernails, have something in their mouth, fiddle with things. The most innervated parts of the body are the mouth, lips, tongue, fingers, and genitalia. Hence adolescents and adults with ADHD often masturbate a lot. The stimulation is extraordinarily calming for them and climax release a flood of dopamine in the pleasure center of the brain. Promiscuity, hyper-sexuality, and "sex addiction" often ensue.
These are physiologic corollaries of externally sought stimulation to release needed dopamine and noradrenalin. Cocaine, methamphetamine, and speed are common. Nicotine releases a dopamine surge within eight seconds of a puff. At the other end, marijuana and alcohol are used to calm anxiety and treat the intrinsic sleep disorder of ADHD.
Appropriate pharmacotherapy to stabilize these neurochemical pathways help prevent a great deal of addiction and help patients function within a normal range throughout the lifespan. And many relationships are saved as a result.