Sexual Disorders

Doesn't everyone you know think about, talk about, and worry about sexuality? Sexuality is taught about in classrooms, whispered about in school hallways, worried about on the nightly news, and made scandalous on talk shows and late-night television. People express their sexuality in many ways, and we receive many, often conflicting, messages about what are appropriate and inappropriate expressions of sexuality. As you grow and learn about your own and other people's sexualities, many things can be exciting, confusing, and even frightening. It can be disturbing to have sexual fantasies and urges and not know the boundary between so-called normal thoughts and behaviors and those that might be considered disordered. Prior to 1960, sexually deviant behaviors were poorly understood and were considered to be failures in morality or a result of poor upbringing. People suffering from these conditions were often treated with electro-shock, talk therapy, jail sentences, and confinement in mental institutions, all of which had little positive effect on the patients. Today, with advances in treatments like drug therapy, there is new hope for those who have spent so long suffering in silence and shame. Sexual Disorders defines different sexual disorders, explains the criteria that put them over the boundary line into the realm of psychiatric illness, and examines methods of treatment available to help individuals with these illnesses. In this book's pages, you will learn about treatments used throughout history, the newest drug therapy available, and alternative approaches for managing these disorders.