3.5 stars. As a counseling intern at Salvation Army (SA), my supervisor recommend I read this book. SA counsels those with alcohol and substance abuse addiction; sexual addiction (as well as other addictions) can co-occur along side substance abuse and clients can have multiple addictions. I thought the stories in this book were interesting to read and it really gives you a glimpse of the addicts' struggle. It does a good job explaining what the addicts go through, their thoughts and emotions. The only thing I would have liked this book to include was research and statistics on the addiction and perhaps a proposed method of treatment outside of just joining a 12 step program.

This book has opened my eyes and my understanding of sexual addiction. It helped me see how my childohood affected me entire sexual life. This is a must read for anyone suffering in sexual addiction.

I didn't really read this book. Browsed is more like it. It seems to be a bit outdated... published 23 years ago. Still, plenty of good stuff about sex addiction. Not much about female sex addiction, though. I suspect there's plenty more info out and about now. As he doesn't mention them, I assume that SAA and SLAA were either not up and running at the time or had only just gotten going. He does mention AA and Alanon as I recall. Maybe I'll get back to it in the future.

So now I'm browsing the updated version, which is about ten years more recent. The difference shows as sex-addiction has come out of the shadows to assume its proper place along side alcohol, drugs and food as one of the four horsemen of the compulsion apocalypse! Then there's all the "minor" ones!

Now I'm slowing down and reading closer as it gets more compelling for me. The next chapter will be about twelve-step recovery. He pretty much waits 'til he's laid out the problem(s) to get to the 12-steps. Just prior to this he talks a bout family/group therapy, which can be useful as sexual compusion-obsession-dysfunction often cascades from generation to generation inside a family.

Finished last night after finishing "The Martian". This is an excellent read for those affected by sexual obsession/compulsion, which is to say, millions of us. We're affected either directly because we have it(me) or we're more indirectly affected by being(or having been) in a relationship with a(or multiple) sex addict(s)(me again). As with the other big three(food, alcohol and drugs) sex addiction has its own special challenges. The author does pretty well in exploring both these challenges and the options for recovery. If the book had been published more recently no doubt its content would have been a bit more complete and I could give it a 5* rating. Still...

l written ..Great book for anyone that is going through any type of addiction ...or friends and love ones of someone that is going through addiction .....

Patrick Carnes is superb at describing the nature and cause of sexual addiction especially the four beliefs that underpin it. He devotes a section also to coaddicts which means this is a book for partners and family of addicts a well. Only complaint is that his examples tend towards the high end of the scale. The reader would be forgiven for thinking that every sex addict has been raised in a highly dysfunctional family where Mom was a distant alcoholic and Dad committed incest. Otherwise a very well written and useful resource for those in recovery.

My favorite part about this book was how each of the stories told were about people and not monsters. Media/society is so quick to ostracize people with these issues, when in all reality, these people are our loved ones. I was pretty nervous reading the book because the majority of it talks about the varying forms of addiction and the addictive cycle, that there wouldn’t be any message of hope or how to break the addiction. Even though there was only one chapter on healing, it was a really good chapter and I felt filled with hope.

I thought this book was very interesting. Perhaps, because the topic seems so taboo. The author includes several case studies to explain different addictions. The end of the book for me felt rushed...or at least didn't summarize the book very well.

Well my oh my this is so 1950's. Is he fr saying that women that have casual sex don't respect themselves? There are so many passages that are like THIS WOMAN WAS SO SICK THAT SHE TAUGHT HER SCHOOLCHILDREN AFTER HAVING CASUAL SEX THE NIGHT BEFORE WHAT A DOUBLE LIFE uhhh maybe she should teach her schoolchildren about condoms while she's at it that seems fine 2 me. This book leaves no room for people to have sex outside of committed relationships

Absolutely do NOT recommend for betrayed partners nor for those hoping to stay with their partners after discovery. The language around co-addiction is likely to be extremely harmful and is grossly out of date, even in the 2016 revision. Partners experience trauma and need help to recover from that while the SA is recovering from his/her addiction. There was some good info around using the 12 steps and how sex addiction often develops from childhood trauma but there are WAY better resources out there such as TINSA (Trauma Induced Sex Addiction) by Dr. Michael Barta and Help.Them.Heal by Carol Jergenson Sheets.

I think I've read most of Patrick Carnes books now. Starting with his original book that explored sexual addiction. This was also helpful. My only criticism is that sometimes the examples he uses, in trying to be general and inclusive, are sometimes more graphic than I wished. But even then, they are tastefully done. For me this one is worth re-reading a few more times.

A must-have if you want to understand the world of sexual addiction.

Good info to start understanding what sex addiction is. It really damages the brain. This book helped me start to empathize with those who've gotten caught up in this, since most are started in their childhood, instead of being mad at them. Now my efforts go to fighting the problem & getting help for those caught up in it. Patrick Carnes is essential reading if you are studying this topic or have a friend or relative who struggles with this.