Recorded: “Real” vs “Perceived” Addiction

**This course will provide the participant with 1 General Learning Type BACB® CEU**

Description of Learning Type CE Event: Have you ever heard someone say they -- or their client -- is/are addicted to sex or porn? How about candy in specific contexts (i.e., “He’s addicted to stealing candy from any open container”)? This is something that, in our experiences, happens relatively often, despite there being very specific criteria for something being addictive and there being highly differentiated approaches to treatment, depending upon whether an addiction is indeed present. So, as objective behavioral scientists, it is our job to be aware of what is potentially an addiction and what is potentially a behavioral compulsion -- two things that topographically share many elements but are not the same. This talk is not intended to help Behavior Analysts diagnose addiction, nor does it prepare someone to work directly with addictions; however, it is designed to help clinicians understand the differences between addiction and compulsive behavior, with specific suggestions for approaching compulsions and, separately, steps for when it is believed that true addiction is at play in a client’s life.

About the Instructors: Nicholas Maio-Aether owns Empowered: A Center for Sexuality in St Louis, where he and his occasional teams of partnered Universities' students work to assist humans with and without disabilities achieve sexual access, sexual freedom, gender affirmation, and self-control of compulsive behaviors. Nicholas works throughout the US training BCBAs/Behavior Analysts so persons in Individualized Supportive Living (ISL) programs gain access to applicable and generalizable comprehensive sex ed and sexual opportunities. Nicholas provides Sexual Behavior Analysis, and has assisted polycules, kinksters, gay couples, trans and nonbinary humans, among others, on their journeys. Trained by GLSEN in 2003, Nicholas started Gay-Straight Alliances across Alaska while in high school, and provided them sex ed materials and trainings. Nicholas spent five years managing Hustler Hollywood in St Louis before moving into Behavior Analysis, and joined AASECT, where he currently sits on two committees. He then completed a Sex Therapy practicum under Linda Weiner, LMSW, CSTS, in 2019 before getting a second Masters in Marriage & Family Therapy, and meeting those hour requirements under Angela Skurtu, LMFT, CST, along with his LGBTQIA+ Family Systems Specialist certificate in 2021.

Target Audience: Any Behavior Analyst who has been working around clients that indicate (or whose stakeholders indicate) a “sex addiction” or “porn addiction” is at play in regard to perceived out-of-control sexual behaviors.

Learning Objectives for Participants:

• Objective 1: Attendees will operationally define the following terms: chemical addiction, impulse, compulsion, cyclical compulsion, and moral incongruence.
• Objective 2: Attendees will discern differences and similarities between known experiences of those facing addiction and those engaging in cyclical compulsion behaviors.
• Objective 3: Attendees will engage with, apply, and generalize these topics through a model of selection within treatment options: address directly, refer out, and wraparound model.

To earn credit, you will be required to watch all video portions and pass a quiz about it with a score of 80% or higher. You can retake the quiz as many times as needed, but you may not receive exactly the same questions each time.