How Do you know if you are a nymphomaniac?

Nymphomania is much more than just wanting a lot of sex. It’s a overwhelming compulsion that disrupts just about every other aspect of the person’s life.

I think they call the condition “hypersexuality” these days.

Your name says it all…

If it doesn’t interfere with your life, I don’t think it’s a problem. Just get a vibrator or something for when your boyfriend gets too tired, and don’t worry about it! You just have a higher-than-normal sex drive.

If it does interfere with your life (for example, you go have sex instead of doing work when you have an important deadline the next morning, or you cheat on your boyfriend merely because he can’t provide enough sex for you) then I’d say it is a problem, and you should seek help.

According to wrongdiagnosis.com :

“Symptoms of Nymphomania

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Nymphomania includes the 12 symptoms listed below:

Persistent thoughts about coitus or sexual images
Compulsive masturbation
Promiscuous sexual activity
Out of control behaviour
Personality change
Anxiety
Depression
Low self esteem
Substance abuse
Alcoholism
Repeated unsuccessful relationships
Person becomes obsessed with obtaining sexual gratification, to the detriment of their normal (social, occupational, recreational activities); often repeated attempts to cease behaviour are unsuccessful.”

Some people are just horny a lot. Nymphomania is, as the latinate name implies, a medical condition. IE, it is a sexual compulsion that interferes with your normal life. If frequent sex doesn’t feel like an interference, and doesn’t, say, make you stay up late at night wondering how to stop yourself or causes you to jump people’s bones when passing them on the street, then you are probably just horny. Good luck to your BF!

If your pursuit of sexual gratification is getting you in trouble, causing problems for the people you’re trying to get sex from or you feel not much in control of where you seek sex from anymore then that’s Nymphomania. Also, if it takes more and more sex and more extreme means of sexual stimulation then that’s a problem too.

You might consider Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous to try and decide if you need help, or to get help.

I’d love to answer this question, but im en route to pick up my late evening hooker.

You could try multiple sex partners. I know someone who did that; she’d have a date with one guy, and go on a date with another guy immediately after.

I’m wondering about you attitude towards your sex drive. You say “I’ve wanted things that were bad” and you talk about the urges getting “worse”. I could be waaaay off here, but maybe changing your negative thoughts about your sexual appetite could help you get it in perspective.

Let me ask you a question back: even if we told you you were, what would the problem be?

Sex is natural, is fun, it makes you fit, it helps the body regenerate, it improves your self exteem, makes your hair stronger and releases dopamine, why would it be strange to want it? as long as you’re not doing something you regret what’s the problm with a strong libido?

But i knew I wanted things that were bad
“Bad”? unless we’re talking of something entirely different i don’t see how sex could be considered “bad”.

Also: if your BF can’t satisfy you, ask him to buy toys and use them on you. We did (me and my GF) and it works splendidly, first i wear her out with toys then i go for the kill, that way everybody is happy!

“The kill”? Who’s attitude needs readjusting here?

If you have to ask… you probably are.

I’m not sure there’s such a thing as “Nymphomania”. It’s just an ugly word designed to make women feel badly for behavior that would be admired among men. The wisdom in the posts above that have said it’s only a problem if it causes you distress is profound. Unless you are unhappy about it, don’t worry about it.

@pdworkin It’s called “figure of speech”, dude…

It’s quite an evocative, loving one, dude

@pdworkin yeah, man, i’m not english, i do know what “go for the kill” means LITERALLY, but here i have to work with what i have, the italian equivalent dosn’t imply violence of any kind

@pdworkin:

“It’s just an ugly word designed to make women feel badly for behavior that would be admired among men”

YES!

@hungryhungryhortence: I do agree with that statement, even though there is a male equivalent which is Satyriasis

I think theres a difference between making women feel bad about having a “sexual appetite” and being obsessed with sex to the point where youre cheating on your SO, or sex is disrupting your daily life.

@pinkparaluies That sounds more like sexual addiction, which is not pejorative, nor is it restricted by gender. “Nymphomania” is so fluid as to have no real meaning. That’s why it has been abandoned in the DSM IV as a disorder.

Do you experience love through sex?

I was never abused as a child, either. At least, not to my memory. However, I don’t think I was ever given enough love to make me feel secure. Now, I find myself seeking more and more love. The way I know someone loves me is if they make love to me.

Obviously, it’s a problem, since I have to constantly fight the demands of my psyche, as expressed through my body. I seem to need a constant reaffirmation that I am loved. The urge to connect with people on an intensely deep level is like the pressure of a lake against a dam. I feel like I am horny most of the time. When I’m manic, it’s as if a huge thunderstorm has filled the lake to the overflowing. Is the dam strong enough to hold that energy in? Sometimes it isn’t.

Anyway, if sex is linked to other psychological needs for you, as it is for me, that might help explain what is going on. I think some people call it an addiction. My psychiatrist says he doesn’t know what hypersexuality is. I’m not sure it’s a universally accepted condition.

I think that some of us just need more sex. Some of us need it so much, it isn’t possible to get enough. I think it’s not just sex we need, but the kind of relationship that sex implies. It may be a need that one person simply can not fill. Of course, in this society, it is not acceptable to have more than one relationship of an intensity that has to be expressed through love making. You’re left hoping the dam is strong enough to keep the lake from overflowing.

I would never cheat on my boyfriend just to satisfy sexual needs. And what I meant by “bad” was when I was like 5 or 6. It was bad for a kid to want sex. Not sayin sex is a bad thing. Like when I would have homework in school, I didn’t pay attention in class cause I’d be thinking about it. At home I would touch myself as soon as I got from school. It was like medicine almost. When I was angry I’d do it repeatedly. It’s weird cause like I said I had never seen anything with sexual content. I’m not a slut so I’d never have more than one guy.

@daloon I never asked my doc about that cause it was embarrassing. I initially went to him to help me with bi polar disorder, sad, and add. I’ve never asked anyone about this.

@LuhvKiller Bipolar disorder? Then you must know this is very common amongst us. Or maybe not. A rather large sexual desire is one of the typical symptoms. It’s the guilty secret that few bipolar folk actually talk about. In my group, we don’t talk about it, but everyone knows it’s there, lurking in the bushes, so to speak.

And it’s hard to talk about because you feel shame in advance. People have a hard time believing it’s something you can have difficulty controlling. For them, that’s an issue of mental or moral weakness, whether or not you have bipolar disorder. Oh well. That’s how you get labeled when you are three or more standard deviations from the norm: crazy.

Nothing “bad” about what happened when you were 5, or about what you feel now. Everyone’s libido is distributed along a continuum, and you happen to have fallen on the “above the mean ” portion of the curve. That’s just you. Relax, enjoy, sex ia fun.

you sound like a healthy young woman with a normal healthy appetite. If your’e not out doing strangers- then you got nothing to worry about

People! Wake up! There is no such thing as a nympho!! Why is it that we call women with high sex drives nymphos(if you look it up, you cannot call a man a nympho)? There is such a thing as being a sex-addict(both women and men can be) but i wouldn’t go around calling myself a nympho just because I had a higher sex drive than my boyfriend!!

@mclaugh Bezackly.

@mclaugh I never called myself one. I used the word because that’s what people usually use to describe it. And i never looked the word up I had no idea this was used towards women. That’s why I asked here to see all the different responses or if there were any people with the same feelings. So I’m not “going around” calling myself anything. People like you are the reason people keep stuff inside because you critisise people. This was obviously an embarassing subject for me and I felt comfortable enough to ask questions about it.

i was not critisising anyone..i just let you know that there isn’t any such thing as a nympho and you shouldn’t feel ashamed or wrong because you like having sex. nobody was saying it so it had to be said. sorry if it sounded mean or hateful. that wasn’t the point.

@mclaugh actually the first four said with the exception of the second one.

they never said that nymphomania does not exist. i do not believe it does. i was taking a sexuality class in college and that is what the teacher(who was a sexologist) told us…i think it made perfect sense and i still think it does. as i said, i did not mean for it to sound harsh or hateful so stop trying to pick a fight. i was defending women who like sex…

@mclaugh Again, as i said you can’t call a man “nynpho” but you can call him “satyr”

well there you go, you learn something new everyday! :)

@mclaugh then again, i don’t think either exist as well.

One has his priorities, and since sex is one of the two primary instincts (the other being self preservation) i don’t see why “hypersexuality” should be considered a bad thing. It’s like saying that people who have never considered suicide are “hyperself-preserving”.

I would really love to see that one in a psychology paper: “Symptoms: will to live, genrally good life, average level of satisfaction in most of life’s aspects” Doesn’t sound like a disease to me.

Besides, sex is a fun pastime, some play videogames, some play football, others have sex, what’s the problem?

haha exactly my point. i totally agree.

@LuhvKiller Freud once said: the only abnormal sexual activity is no sexual activity at all.