What do we mean by a compulsion or addictive behaviour?
Compulsive: defined as performing an act persistently and repetitively without it necessarily leading to an actual reward or pleasure.
Addiction: is a state characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.
Typically an individual becomes dependent on something to reduce the pain of certain emotions. Usually they get pleasure the first time they try it and then they return to the behaviour to get the same feeling of pleasure. Continual usage leads to a reliance on the behaviour to feel normal which ultimately leads to psychological dependence.
Starting Point
Think about your use of adult pornography, online chats and sexual images of children and using the definitions above think about whether they were compulsive or addictive?
| Adult pornography | Addictive Compulsive Neither |
| Sexual images of children | Addictive Compulsive Neither |
| Chatting online sexually (with children or adults) | Addictive Compulsive Neither |
If you are still not sure here is a quiz that might help:
The more questions you agree with, the more likely that you feel addicted to your illegal online behaviour. If you agreed with any of the statements, you might find this module helpful.
- Meeting 2-3 of the criteria indicates a mild addiction
- Meeting 4-5 of the criteria indicates a moderate addiction
- Meeting 6-7 of the criteria indicates a severe addiction
