Hyderabad: Compulsive sexual behaviour or addiction to sex has been declared as a mental illness by the World Health Organisation, but in India, to identify or treat such a disorder will be a humungous challenge, explained mental health experts. In the Indian sub-continent, sex is not an open topic and there still a lot of taboo attached to it. To identify and assess such cases would not be easy.
The major challenge, state psychiatrists and psychologists, would be for the person to come to any centre and talk about his addiction. With the country accepting disorders like anxiety and depression only now, psychiatrists state that it will be quite a task to identify sex addiction.
Dr. Pragya Rashmi, consultant psychologist at Yashoda Hospitals, said “In India it is going to be a major challenge as often these acts are carried out in closed rooms and no one is willing to speak of it. What is mostly coming out is in the form of criminal cases. But there are many other acts like consensual sex, pre-marital sex and many others which have to be understood identified as mental health disorders.”
Digitisation has brought out sexuality blatantly among the masses and that has been one of the major reasons for WHO to declare sex addiction as mental health disorder. Dr. Sharmila Majumdar, chief sexologist at Avis Hospital, said, “Sex addiction in the Indian context will be a challenge. We have to keep in mind the different cultures and also the different manners in which people perceive it.”
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