CRITERIA FOR SEX AND LOVE ADDICTION
Addiction experts have identified the following criteria. If you answer yes to all or most of these, you likely have addictive romantic behavior.
- Loss of time with family members, hobbies, and friends
- An experience of being “high” followed by secrecy and shame
- Negative consequences (which may include health problems and financial problems)
- Obsessive preoccupation with the relationship or sex
- Attempts to stop your behavior (or obsession) fail and bring considerable irritability and distress
- Your behavior becomes riskier and more intense
The Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous website has a forty-question self-assessment to determine whether you have the signs of sex and love addiction (www.slaafws.org/download/core-files/The_40_Questions_of_SLAA.pdf).
—From Kelly McDaniel, Ready to Heal: Women Facing Love, Sex, and Relationship Addiction (Carefree, AZ: Gentle Path Press, 2008), 31–32.