Paraphilias

Paraphilia is a mental disorder that is characterised by sexual behaviours that are compulsive, long-standing and distressing to the individual or their partners. The DSM-IV (the American Psychiatric Association's classification system) describes paraphilias as "characterized by recurrent, intense sexual urges, fantasies, or behaviors that involve unusual objects, activities, or situations and cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning."

Some paraphilia can be harmful other then just a nuisance such as those whose focus in inflicting pain on oneself or others in various ways or which involve the humiliation or distress of the victim. The paraphilic activities sometimes occur episodically, while at other times, the person cannot function sexually without engaging in these deviant behaviors. Even when the unusual fantasies are not acted upon, the level of distress is enough to show that the person needs help. Most of the times, the persons would have acted upon their desires many times before the diagnosis.

Specific paraphilia is usually sought out by people suffering from paraphilias. The person may choose a job or develop a hobby that is associated with the desired stimuli, like selling women's lingerie in case of fetishism or working with kids in case of pedophilia. The person may view films and photographs depicting the paraphilic stimuli. In fact, the large commercial market in paraphilic photography and paraphernelia suggest that the prevalence of paraphilia is much higher than that indicated from clinical facilities.

Clinical research shows that males are more frequently diagnosed with paraphilias than females and that frequently people suffering from these disorders deny any stress and state that their only problem is the reaction of others to their behavior. Others report shame, extreme guilt and depression.

Here is a list of some of the most common paraphilias;

Antiandrogen Drugs - Two kinds of antiadrogen drugs are used to treat paraphilias. In the USA, IM medroxyprogesterone acetate is the preferred treatment whilst cyproterone acetate is prescribed in Europe. Typically, a male with a moderate to severe paraphilia is given medroxyprogesterone. Treatment is usually long-term, because deviant sexual arousal patterns tend to recur soon after testosterone levels stabilize at normal.