Monogamy is extremely, achingly difficult for me [32 M], like fighting off a drug addiction. I love my girlfriend [25 F] and want to spend the rest of my life with her. This is a very isolating feeling.

I'm not going to put in effort to do extensive research for a casual conversation that bears no importance to me. These are studies I've come across in the past when I was studying psychology. I am sure they still exist, so if you are interested you can look them up yourself. The general takeaway is that most men do not struggle to your extent. Most men, attractive or not, do not sleep with 100 women in their lifetime. 60-70% of men never cheat on their partner.

For any given trait there will be variation. Noise in the system. It would be surprising if people like me didn't exist

Absolutely. But what makes you think YOU are the noise in the system, and do not fit into the category?

I mean, take a look at this generic sex addiction checklist: https://saa-recovery.org/BasicOutreachPamphlet/

Just from reading your post, you fit a lot of the criteria.

In particular what stands out to me is not even your need for a lot of sex, but your need for a variety of partners. It's well documented that interacting with new partners provides a temporary "high." It is also well documented that for some people, that high can be miswired and become addictive (usually overactive dopamine in mesolimbic systems). Could it stand to reason that perhaps the reason why you feel the need to sleep with a variety of women is because you are craving that high? Could it stand to reason that you might be one of the men whom this normal system is functioning abnormally?

I mean you certainly exceeded most people's need for sexual variety based off of pure partner count alone.

The other thing that stands out is what I said earlier, that this comes across as a measuring stick of self worth to you. And you seem very resistant to challenges of that notion. That could make the act of pursuing a woman and bedding her extra rewarding to you compared to the individual. What makes you believe this doesn't apply to you?

/r/relationships Thread Parent