Sexual addiction is not free. Even the person with a porn addiction who gets his porn for free on the Internet pays for his addiction by investing his valuable time and precious effort into fantasy. Everything has a price. Sometimes the loss of money is the least painful price. The toll that sexual addiction takes on a relationship and the emotional isolation it causes cannot be healed by money.

Those sexually addicted people who spend money on their addiction usually don't realize how much they're spending. They don't want to look at the financial costs because adding up how much they've spent can ruin the fantasy.

A sex addict can invest hours surfing the Internet and not even realize he's lost an entire evening to sex addiction until the sun comes up to remind him that there is a life outside of fantasy. Every addicted person deludes him or herself about the real costs of their addiction.

Money can buy plenty. But you can't buy your way into love and you can't buy your way out of addiction.

The worst price paid for sexual addiction is loss of an intimate relationship. Another high price is finding yourself trapped in a world of emotional isolation. Losing your job, being sued, sinking into bankruptcy, or loss of savings are some of the other consequences of sexual addiction. They're the lesser ones compared to the loss of genuine loving intimacy.

There is an old saying, "The best things in life are free." Another way of expressing this sentiment is, "The smallest personal consequence is money." The real riches in life are gained through intimacy and effectively dealing with reality. You can escape reality, avoid intimacy and still make lots of money. But money can't buy you love.

The Sex Addiction Interview and The Most Personal Addiction offer more advice about the personal and financial aspects of sexual addiction.

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