Are you a chronic masturbator? While masturbation is a common practice for many people the world over, how often people masturbate can vary. If you spend a lot of time masturbating on a regular basis, it’s easy to start wondering if you’re doing it too much. After all, if you think you’re engaging in chronic masturbation, it could be the sign of a masturbation addiction—something you don’t want to have.
A Disclaimer About Masturbation
If you do some Google searching, you may find different opinions about masturbation. However, most experts would say that masturbation itself is a healthy, normal practice. In fact, masturbation can provide a number of benefits, including:
- Releasing sexual tension
- Improving your mood
- Helping you sleep better
- Reducing stress
- Gaining better insight into your own personal sexual wants and desires
There’s no need to feel shame for masturbating. It’s something almost everyone has done at some point in their lives. With that out of the way, let’s dive into chronic masturbating and what it means.
What is Chronic Masturbation?
So exactly what is chronic masturbation? Also known as excessive masturbation, it means you’re masturbating all the time. But more than that, it’s something you can’t control—so you end up doing it over. And over. And over. And over again.
Chronic masturbation is actually a form of compulsive sexual behavior. When this happens, you feel compelled to masturbate, like it’s necessary to function. As a chronic masturbator, you may want to stop masturbating, but you feel like you can’t. So you end up masturbating multiple times a day on a regular basis; or you may even binge on masturbation.
When your chronic masturbation becomes compulsive, you have a masturbation addiction. This masturbation addiction is a form of hypersexual disorder, or sex addiction, and it can negatively impact your daily life, work, and relationships.
How Do You Become a Chronic Masturbator?
If all of this is sounding like you, you may be wondering how you got to this point. How does masturbation go from a curiosity or a routine practice to a complete sexual addiction? To answer this, you have to understand what’s going on behind the scenes inside your brain.
When you’re experiencing sexual pleasure (such as when you masturbate), your brain releases dopamine, a chemical associated with pleasure and reward. This dopamine signals to your brain that the activity makes you feel good, so you remember it and want to seek it out again.
Yet because masturbation is so overly stimulating, an excessive amount of dopamine is released. As a result of this dopamine rush, your brain will shut down its dopamine receptors so it doesn’t get overwhelmed. That means the next time you masturbate, you don’t get the same dopamine high you first received. Because of this, you need to masturbate more often to achieve the same euphoric effects. And this is how chronic masturbation and masturbation addiction enter your life.
Because addictions are often rooted in past trauma, you may also be using your chronic masturbation or hypersexuality as a coping mechanism for daily stressors, unresolved adverse childhood experiences, negative feelings, and more. This makes a masturbation addiction even harder to break.
Signs You May Be Addicted to Masturbating
How much masturbating is too much? There isn’t necessarily an official “magic number” that defines whether you’re a chronic masturbator or not. Instead, you need to pay attention to other signs or symptoms in order to give you better context for your struggles. According to VerywellMind.com, masturbation addiction symptoms can include:
- Spending a majority of your free time and energy masturbating
- Neglecting personal or work responsibilities to masturbate
- Prioritizing masturbation over activities with others
- Masturbating in public or in inappropriate places (such as a public restroom, in your vehicle, or during work)
- Masturbating even when you don’t feel like it or are not aroused
- Masturbating to cope with negative feelings
- Feeling upset or guilty after masturbating
- Regularly thinking about masturbating
With a masturbation addiction, you also may choose masturbation over having sex with your partner. Your chronic masturbation can also cause genital injuries such as chafing or bruising, and yet you still continue to do it in spite of the pain.
The Fallout of Chronic Masturbation
Because a masturbation addiction can be a hidden struggle, you may not think it’s that big of a deal. However, there are several downsides that make its impact more consequential than you’d realize.
Because you’re constantly experiencing sexual stimulation from your chronic masturbation, your dopamine receptors are regularly shutting down. As a result, sexual satisfaction will begin to wane, leading you to experience less pleasure from sexual activities with another person. And if you’re choosing to masturbate over having sex with your partner, your partner will feel hurt as well, leading your relationship to suffer.
At the same time, your overall well-being will begin to tank as well. From experiencing lower self-esteem due to your out-of-control masturbation to fighting regular shame and guilt, these feelings may sadly drive you further into your addiction. And your addiction may drive you into further isolation, keeping you from the relationships and social connections you need to improve your well-being.
Get Help for Sexual Addiction at Integrative Life Center
Reading all of this may make you feel like you’re at a crossroads. How can you overcome your chronic masturbation? Like any addiction, it’s not something you can quit through behavior modification alone. There are deeper issues you need to address, so it’s best to seek professional help from a CSAT therapist or treatment facility.
At Integrative Life Center in Nashville, TN, we understand what you’re going through and are here to help. With our personalized intimacy disorder treatment programs, you can break free from your sexual addiction and reclaim your life. Contact our team now to learn more.
