It's this total preoccupation which is the most damaging thing. There is a contrast between addictive sex and healthy sex. Healthy sex has to do with a relationship which is certainly a friendship, which is based on trust. Addictive sex is this switch, a switch to a different place. I would say that there was not a single day when this addiction was not part of my life.
Addiction starts as a lifesaver and ends up as a killer.
The life-saving quality of addiction meant that I avoided suicide because I didn't realise I was depressed . Eventually, though, this complete disconnection from reality makes addiction a killer. Someone mugged me eventually. I went through 10 years, off and on, of fairly conventional psychotherapy, which really didn't help me. For a long time I saw I had a problem, but I hadn't really recognised the scale of it.