ABSTRACT
Objective
Sex addiction as a sexual concept is affected by social-cultural factors and needs to be studied in the context of each society. The purpose of this study was to examine what self-identified sex addicts think and feel about the causes of their addiction in their own words.
Method
Thirteen self-identified sex addicts participated in a semi-structured interview. They were asked to explain their feelings and motivations in regard to their problematic sexual behaviors. The data was analyzed though conventional qualitative content analysis.
Results
Analysis of the interviews revealed 222 codes which were summarized in 3 themes and 11 subthemes. Three themes were as follow: " personal related issues", "messy family" and "inattentiveness of the society about sex education".
Conclusion
when a society system neglects sexual issues and does not provide facilities and conditions for education and protection of people, parents and family play a pivotal role not only in providing a supportive and nurturing atmosphere but also in educating and monitoring of children and adolescents.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the participants who took part in our interview.
Disclosure of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest.