The Unexpected Connection between Orgasm and Addiction | Sober and Unashamed

As an active alcoholic, the only connection I could imagine between orgasm and addiction was that I sure liked to have sex when I was drunk. Even years into sobriety, when I thought back to the relationship between my drinking and sex, my sloppy, handsy, unromantic and insistent predatory behavior brought a wave of shame crashing over me.

And now — even as I’ve studied the issue from a scientific perspective — even as I make a pitch here based on what I’ve learned — I still feel compelled to defend myself. The compulsion for self defense can only come from one place. It comes from an indelible mark of shame stamped permanently on my soul. All of my sexual attention was always directed only at my wife, and I never raped my wife. I was often disgusting. I was verbally and emotionally abusive. But I defend myself by insisting that I did nothing worse, as if my transgressions are not far more than enough.

Now that I have fallen on the sword to temporarily assuage my guilt, I can make my point. I can prove a link between a lack of K-12 sexual education and addiction. I know I have a tendency to espouse my opinions with the conviction of facts. In this case, I am going to drag you into largely uncharted territory where my opinion won’t likely be enough. So, I did the research, and I am going to…