Rituals may take 5 minutes or 5 hours or 5 years. Just like the fantasies in the preoccupation stage, the ritual may itself be exciting. Sex addicts must learn that this is really not the case. The reality is that you have been preoccupied and working out rituals long before you reach for the addictive agent. For the sex addict, sex is a way of escaping, a way of altering mood.
Sex is a way of coping .
An addictive behavior fills a need in an individual's life. The addictive agent is expected to act as a tranquilizer, pain killer, antidepressant, stress-reliever, or emotional and spiritual comforter. It's expected to do something it was never created or intended by God to do. For more on this subject see How Sexual Experiences Become Addictions . For those who deal with lust, it can be the natural, physical downtime after endorphins are released in your brain by ejaculation.