Let's touch on what being a sex addict means for a moment. Whether or not you have a sex addiction is completely irrelevant in the process of sex addiction recovery. For some people, labeling themselves an "sex addict" will create temporary clarification to what is a dark, confusing, and unstable time in their life. This clarity opens the door for a re-evaluation of their life and allows them to make decisions that will enable them to begin the sex addiction recovery process. For other people, labeling themselves a "sex addict" has a detrimental affect and will only serve to further degrade their self-esteem and self-worth. This label will actually hinder their pursuit of a healthy, satisfying lifestyle. By no longer seeing themselves as normal, individual people making individual choices, they begin to see themselves as "sex addicts". This can also lead to losses of control and introduce the idea that the labeled people are not completely in control of the decisions they make. Couple that with society's perception that sex addicts rarely recover or change, and these generalized feelings tend to increase the guilt and shame felt by the sex addict. These feelings can also influence and be a catalyst for increased addictive behavior causing past behaviors to resurface in the present and future behaviors to develop. The results of such an expansion in addictive behaviors and actions can be overwhelming for the person experiencing them. The result can actually undermine their commitment to recovery from sex addiction.