And the best approach to address it. Many people wonder if their own or their partner’s sexual desires and practices may be abnormal, or even addictive. There is a constant messaging in the culture about sex/porn addiction, hypersexuality, and people acting out their sexuality in harmful ways due to childhood abuse or trauma. These narratives overlook an even more pressing issue, What I call Sexual Authenticity Disorder. I believe that an innate, inherent sexuality is a distinct psychological dimension of every individual. This distinct sexuality includes the types of sexual and life partners they are instinctually attracted to, the core themes their fantasies follow, and their innate frequency for sexual engagement. In the great majority of cases I have encountered, someone’s inherent sexual nature transcends developmental influences and experiences. But one’s authentic sexual nature can be negatively impacted by those influences. These negative influences often entangle one’s innate sexuality and its healthy expression in shame, fear, secrecy, dishonesty and more that can harm both the individual and their relationships. Anyone’s authentic sexual expression needs to be intimately linked to sexual integrity. This means adhering to [...]