Sex Addicts Find Each Other Online :: Journalism Essays

Sex Addicts Find Each Other Online To her friends and family, Mary Smith* is a young, hard-working psychology student who never seems to have time for fun. What they don't know is that Mary is a sex addict. Recently, her boyfriend of three months discovered her secret. After they broke up, Mary took her addiction one step further and started experimenting with strangers and bondage, spanking and rape fantasies using the Internet. Mary uses the Internet as her tool to find sex partners. Mary spends most of her time on the Internet exploring erotic Web sites. The Internet changed the way in which she communicates. Late night, she wanders nearby neighborhoods -- dressed sometimes as a dominatrix concealed by her outer coat -- to have sex with men. An honors student, she is terrified of getting caught but can not stop herself. She had her first sexual encounter with a total stranger in the front seat of his car just blocks away from her college campus. She met this man on the Internet through a personal ad directed at college girls. Mary never had sex with strange men before the Internet. Now she spends morning, noon and night surfing adult chat rooms, pornography sites and alternate lifestyle Web sites. â€Å"It all started when a friend called me up one day and told me that she was dating a man that she found off of the Internet.† Smith said. â€Å"Hours later I was hooked.† Smith placed an ad of her own on an erotic Web site. In the ad, she included her picture, physical details and sexual fantasies. She changed her name to protect her identity. â€Å"I got so many responses from guys; it freaked me out at first,† Smith said. â€Å"I went back to the sites minutes later because I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of having sex with different men.† The convenience of sexually oriented Web sites on the Internet gives the sex addict immediate access to potentially dangerous people. The seeker can become a victim of a sexually related crime. Sexual addiction is defined as any sexually-related, compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends and loved ones and one’s work environment. This behavior is often accompanied by other addictions such as drinking, drugs and eating disorders. The sex addict engages in sex to feel good. They became so consumed with this feeling that they soon avoid their school work and other responsibilities.