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It is listed in the DSM-5 as part of the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder, as one of the primary symptoms. It is understood that there are increased incidences of risky sexual behavior with people who have bipolar manic episodes. However, due to ongoing changes to diagnostic criteria, there remains no formal definition of hypersexuality itself as a disorder. The diagnostic criteria for mania include “excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences.”
People with hypersexuality stemming from bipolar mania typically have a dysfunctional preoccupation with sex. They may experience the following symptoms: they think about sex constantly, have one-night stands, have multiple sex partners, be more interested in pornography, notice a difference in their sexual behaviors and engage in other reckless behaviors like driving too fast, gambling or spending beyond their limit.
As bphope blogger Gabe Howard explains: “Hypersexuality doesn’t mean having a lot of sex. It isn’t spring break; it isn’t your honeymoon. There is a world of difference between having a lot of sex and having many partners or sexual experimentation. The primary difference is motivation.”
It is a pervasive and damaging symptom that has wrecked marriages and caused life-threatening health problems. Olympic runner Suzy Favor Hamilton’s manic-induced hypersexuality symptoms found her reputation damaged when it was publicly revealed the married mother was engaged in escort prostitution. Luckily, Hamilton was able to seek help from medical professionals and from her family.
At least one study found that hypersexuality appears to play a larger role in women’s lives than in men’s: “women with bipolar tend to be far more sexually provocative and seductive than their male counterparts … twice as many women as men reported sexual intensity as very much increased during hypomania.” The women in this study also rated sexual intensity as the most important and enjoyable part of mania.
Barbara Geller, MD, professor of psychiatry at the Washington University in St. Louis, is the author of a groundbreaking study about hypersexuality behavior in children with bipolar, and has helped overturn widespread assumptions through her research. She found that flirtatious sexual behavior was a common symptom in 30 percent of young, prepubescent children with mania and in 60 percent of the adolescents.
Just as someone coping with mania might not stop at $50 when his credit card allows him to spend $5,000, he may also devote hours each day staring at Internet porn or searching for partners. It’s the excess that gets him into trouble. In his book Electroboy, Andy Behrman said the fixation “becomes your secret little world … you escape to this world of fantasy, your mind I racing, and this is the direction your mind is racing to.”
Louis J. Cozolino, PhD, a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, says to think of hypersexuality as an addiction because the compulsion and obsession can feel much the same as what’s felt by drug addicts and alcoholics. “As an addict you never get enough of a drug … with bipolar disorder you have people who are more vulnerable to using sex as an addiction because they use it for soothing.”
Some signs include a person is taking risks, missing school or work, and/or shirking responsibilities because sex has become more important than personal commitments. This may be a warning sign one is “unable to act with an eye toward future consequences of their behavior.”
Many psychiatrists refer to hypersexuality almost as an afterthought—if at all—when forming a diagnosis; however, it can be the most challenging parts of bipolar disorder. All psychiatrists should first ask, ‘has your physical energy increased? Has your sexual energy increased?’ This should be followed by a question about impulsive new relationships and impulsive sex during the mood swings.”
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I have SchizoAffective Disorder and I have many manic episodes now. I’ve been off of my meds since May due to insurance problems I had since joining a union. I am usually irresponsible and have no desire to change anything at least until it’s a problem. I feel afraid because people around me could be in danger and my hyper sexuality causes me not to even touch myself at all. Can’t even brush my hands along my stomach without feeling like I might masturbate. And I can’t watch anime without feeling bad. I’ll pick everything I watch carefully, using “Christian” reviews and usually sticking to cartoons from the 2000s since they are less sexual and less likely to get me experimenting.
When I’m on my meds, I am open to just a straight relationship. But when I am not I’d usually watch a lot of hentai to self medicate. But obviously I want one person. I am told one thing from the Bible and it leads me to not look at other people like that. But I am still told masturbating is wrong and has a perverse spirit attached to it. So whenever it happens I run away but get no where.
I write stories about my life through other characters but they usually aren’t 100% clean.
I isolate myself, but want others to help. However, by my fears of something that probably wasn’t even serious and has happened years before,I isolate more. (Narcism?) and flock to the people who have a similar problem.
I am getting my meds soon but it’s been a hard few months!
I wish I could talk to you or someone about this. I never knew it was a thing until it happened to me and it left a wake of shame and pain. Very hard to forgive myself. Never would have thought in a million years I could spiral so out of control and out of myself.
My 21 year old (bi polar 1) daughter is now a performer on onlyfans and has distanced herself from both her mother and me. She feels earning money protects her from her narcissistic mother although feel that is the disease talking. Have a really hard time communicating understanding although I have empathy. She is an addict who has been clean for a year after being hospitalized for psychosis twice. She thrives on male approval and has moved from one man to the next since she was 17. Any advice for how to talk to her about this?
Her choice is not made only because of her disorder i can guarantee that.
It is hard to have this. It leaves you ashamed at your loved ones. I try to keep away from men in general because of myself. I will flirt, while I don’t want to.
Your expression on this topic is great.