It’s Not About The Sex

Moving from Isolation to Intimacy After Sexual Addiction
Author: Andrew Susskind, LCSW, SEP, CGP

Ending compulsive sexual behavior is just the beginning.

A recovering sex addict-turned-psychotherapist explores the psychology of sex addiction, the challenges in recovery, and illuminates the path to achieve long-term happiness and intimacy.   Out-of-control sexual behavior results in broken relationships and deep anguish ”sometimes even ending in death” and since the 1980s, this growing epidemic has become even more conspicuous in our culture.

Drawing on personal and professional experience, psychotherapist Andrew Susskind examines issues such as shame, grief, narcissism, and codependency to demonstrate how people use out-of-control sexual behavior to cope with broken-heartedness and trauma.   He offers strategies to cultivate sustainable sexual sobriety, sharing his own healing narrative, as well as those of others who’ve chosen to bare their truths.

No one is ever too hurt or isolated to achieve reliable relationships and emotional intimacy.   This is a guidebook for every person seeking long-term healing from sex addiction.

Because most behavioral health professionals get minimal training in the area of sex addiction, It’s Not About the Sex can help them better understand this disorder and how to more effectively assist their clients who struggle with it.

Susskind, a recovering sex addict and psychotherapist, applies the latest mental health research to help at-risk readers out of the shame, isolation, and secrecy in which sex addiction thrives.   Each chapter includes snippets of interviews with sex addicts in long-term recovery, in addition to “action steps” readers can take specific to the chapter’s focus.   The author starts with immediate recovery challenges, considers the roots of addiction, and moves through various psychological issues and strategies to arrive, lastly, to long-term recovery models that allow for deep intimacy in healthy relationships.