There are plenty of tests/quizzes online to take that will tell you if you're an addict or not. Things like if it consumes the vast majority of your thoughts, if you spend ridiculous amounts of money on it, or if you take extremely unnecessary risks.
I might be sex addict too. When I see anything perfect, I might say for myself, I'd touch her ass or put it inside her right away... I think this everytime I see someone perfect in shopping mall, library, anywhere. Even for almost 17 or sometimes less. I am tired of these thoughts, sometimes it may lead for your masturbation. I'd recommend thinking something else, or trying to go places where less people.
I think each person gets to decide what the definition is, that's what I see people doing with most words . And even beyond that I just decide to call myself an addict despite not having had sex with anyone but myself and my one committed partner. most of the difficulty is that sex addict sounds really bad compared to "I got addicted to pornography ". pornography is very safe digital sex and masturbation is sex with self.
Another way to answer the original question "can you be considered a sex addict if you don't carry out the actual sex act?" Would be"which sex act?". I was obsessed with sex and watched a lot of sex acts on screens and in magazines etc so I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch to call myself a sex addict.
When you truly become addicted to something, you will remain addicted to it regardless if you are acting out or not. That's why an alcoholic always identifies him/herself as alcoholic even if they didn't drink anything for 10 years. Same thing with sex addiction. You have to act out to develop the addiction but then you are an addict regardless.
You're a sex addict if you're addicted to sexual behavior. If you're compulsively masturbating 6x a day, you're a sex addict, because masturbating IS a sexual behavior. If you're just watching porn for hours but not masturbating, you could just call yourself a porn addict ... but I've never met a porn addict who wasn't also using masturbation right alongside it. A lot of users here feel like the term "sex addict" is reserved for perverts, pedophiles, rapists, people jerking it in public, etc--but that's just not the case. Someone is very likely addicted to a sexual behavior: if they continue doing it despite serious negative consequences in their life, if they have repeatedly tried to quit or moderate the behavior, but have failed to do so, and/or the behavior is getting worse or more severe over time,
I think sex addiction and masturbation addiction are different because one is only harming you and the other can break a lot of hearts if you aren't careful. But who knows
