Also known as sex addiction or hypersexuality, nymphomania is a sexual behavior disorder. It can affect both men and women and sometimes requires therapy. So what is there to know about this behavioral disorder?
The causes of nymphomania
Nymphomania is a psychological disorder and its psychoaffective cause is often mentioned. Indeed, it is a behavioral disorder that can result from abandonment, a badly managed oedipus, etc. Fearing to be abandoned again, the nymphomaniac constantly seeks sexual closeness, which is synonymous with emotional attachment for her.
According to a psychiatrist, this behavior can also occur in cases of bipolar disorder and specifically during manic episodes. However, sudden hypersexuality can have a neurological origin, and more particularly in a limbic system attack. This disorder can be the result of a medical treatment.
How to treat it?
Finding the source of this obsession allows the sufferer to become aware of the seriousness of this disorder that has become an addiction. In order to do this, the patient suffering from nymphomania needs to be followed up and to feel confident with his or her therapist. This is a therapeutic alliance. Once this trust has been established between them, the therapeutic work will be carried out progressively with the sole aim of helping the patient to take control of his or her life and no longer to suffer from this disorder.
The first step of this therapy is to move the obsessional problem to something else than sex. The idea is to bring out the patient's qualities and teach them to shine other than their insatiable appetite for sex. The second and last step of this therapy consists in adapting the patient's behavior while encouraging him/her to take a step back.