Sex Addiction: David Duchovny is not alone

Mulder & Scully together again: Duchovny, Anderson, and Carter on the set of upcoming X-files movie (forbiddenplanet.co.uk)

More becoming addicted to “quick click” self-gratification
Sex Rx with Ian Kerner, Ph.D.
Sex therapist and relationship counselor
TODAYShow.com contributor
Sept. 4, 2008

For years David Duchovny, as agent Fox Mulder, chased down aliens and told us that we’re not alone. Now he's a sex addict who struggles with the issue in real life. He’s not alone either.

His recent entry into rehab for a self-described obsession with Internet porn has cast a national spotlight on a widely misunderstood issue that affects millions of Americans: sex addiction, specifically compulsive use of Internet-based pornography.

Although the term is commonly used in popular culture, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) does not yet recognize sex addiction as a condition, nor is it listed in their widely used clinical bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But most experts agree that there are growing numbers of people who find themselves in the grip of compulsive sexual behaviors that are beyond their control — behaviors that seriously damage their lives as well as those of their loved ones.

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Once viewed as rare and obscure, the rapid proli-feration of Internet porn has brought the issue very much into the mainstream, affecting men and women alike. Porn addiction and sex addiction have become synonymous; a “quick click” of self-gratifica-tion can escalate into a self-destructive pattern of behavior (Christie Brinkley’s former hus-band, Peter Cook, is alleged to have spent more than $3,000 per month on his porn habit). Like any substance of abuse, porn becomes a form of escape — from depression, anger, stress, boredom, intimacy, as well as an array of other issues. Self-gratification becomes a way of self-medicating. More>>

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The Problem in a Larger Context
What-Buddha-Taught.net

“Inconceivable, recluses, is the beginning of this Samsara. A first point is not known of beings roaming and wandering the round of rebirth, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving [tanha = lust, thirst, desire, see Buddhist terms]."

"Recluses, which do you think is more, the stream of tears that you have shed as you roamed and wandered on through this long course, weeping and wailing because of being united with the undesir-able and separated from the desirable–this or the water in the four great oceans? The stream of tears that you have shed as you roamed and wandered on through this long course…this alone is greater than the water in the four great oceans…For such a long time, recluses, you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and swelled the cemeteries” (Assu Sutra, S.15.3).

“There will come a time when the mighty ocean will dry up, vanish and be no more…There will come a time when the mighty earth will be devoured by fire, perish and be no more. But yet there will be no end to the suffering [dukkha = unsatisfactoriness, see Buddhist terms] of beings roaming and wandering this round of rebirth, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving” (Gaddulabaddha Sutra, S.22.99)

“Through many a birth I wandered in Samsara,

Seeking but not finding the builder of this house.

Painful it is to be born again and again.

“O house-builder! You are seen.

You shall build no house again.

All your rafters are broken.

Your ridgepole is shattered.

“My mind has attained the unconditioned.

Achieved is the end of craving.”

[Builder = craving, lust, desire; house: body (the Five Aggregates); rafters: defilements; ridgepole: ignorance] (Udana Vatthu, Dh.153-154).

This precious human birth
“Recluses, suppose this great earth were totally covered with water, and one were to toss a ring with a single hole in it. A wind from the east would push it west; a wind from the west would push it east. A wind from the north would push it south; a wind from the south would push it north. And suppose a blind sea-turtle swimming therein would come to the surface once every hundred years.

Now what do you think: Would that blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface only once every hundred years, stick his head through the ring with a single hole?"

"It would be a sheer coincidence, Venerable Sir, if the blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every hundred years, would stick its neck through the ring with a single hole."

"It's likewise a sheer coincidence that one obtains the human state. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a Tathagata, perfectly self-awakened, arises in the world. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a doctrine and discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world. Now, this human state has been obtained. A Tathagata, perfectly self-awakened, has arisen in the world. A doctrine and discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world” (Chiggala Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya 56.48).

So do not waste this precious human birth
Who knows by tomorrow, one may still be living or dead.

Thus reflecting, without procrastinating tomorrow or the day after,

One may incessantly exert right away on this very day

(Uparipan Bhaddekanatta Sutra 226).

“I teach one thing and one thing alone, namely, suffering and the end of suffering.

“Develop a mind of equilibrium.

You will always be praised and blamed,

But do not let either affect the poise of the mind:

Follow the calmness, the absence of pride” (Sutta Nipata).

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.”