Here’s one to both make you feel inadequate about your sex life and put you off having children for a very long time.
A self-confessed sex addict who has slept with up to 200 men has said becoming a mum has made her adopt celibacy.
But before you start feeling a bit short in the numbers game, 30-year-old mum Laurie from Sheffield’s story is one of sex addiction and how she’s overcoming her habit that started at a worryingly young age.
Up until last year Laurie was sleeping with several strangers a week.
She told The Sun:
I’ve lost count of the men I’ve slept with, but it must be between 100 and 200.
I could never get enough. And it was only when I realised how that might affect my son Henry that I got help.
Laurie’s now written a book, Diary Of A Sex Addict, based loosely on her own life.
Her sex life started dangerously young at just 12 years old, and she had her first boyfriend a year later.
Laurie explained:
I was underage so it was wrong – but I just knew I was highly sexual from very early on.
I fancied both boys and girls (something quite a lot of sex addicts have in common) and couldn’t wait to start dating.
Her compulsion grew as she did into her twenties.
She said:
I would go to a sex club after a night out with mates because I wanted a hit so badly.
My ex even took me to a big sex party in Liverpool where he watched me have sex with six men at once.
I was sleeping with several men a week even when I didn’t feel like it.
I felt powerless to control my desires – and would turn to sex to soothe me all the time. I guess I wanted the thrill of the connection.
I met strangers on Instagram, they’d message me with compliments about my photos, and then we’d meet for sex.
Aside from the dating apps she says she’s struggled to find a long-term partner. Laurie told The Sun she’s had ‘six big relationships’ but ‘guys can’t handle an open relationship’.
Laurie has also admitted she dated abusive men:
I’ve often gone for controlling men and other addicts. To be dominated has always been my thing but I became a slave to this type of guy.
Laurie ended up getting stalked by two men who ‘got the wrong idea’, and it was at this point she realised she needed to get help.
She signed up to Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA) and started attending meetings with other addicts.
Her partner at the time, Ian, supported her, but the pressure of recovery got between them and the couple split.
It was during this time that Laurie had the idea for her novel.
She said:
I’d always kept a diary of what I was going through and thought it would make a good story.
Then I started my SLAA meetings and was stunned how similar we all were. Many women, now close friends, had the same problems in childhood as me.
We all had dysfunctional families – and other abusive or neglectful relationships. We also felt the same burning shame for turning to sex time and time again.
I used to feel such guilt. If you’re a man, you’re seen as a legend or a player. But people say the worst things about highly sexed women. So it was a huge relief to meet women who felt judged in the same way.
Thanks to SLAA, Laurie’s now been celibate for four months, and hopes to find a new partner and make monogamy work.
She adds:
Of course, I’m still me. I’ll always be highly sexual but if I find a partner, I hope I can make monogamy work.
But I accept myself for who I am. And I don’t need to be ashamed any more.
You keep doing you.
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This story has been reposted and is not contemporary news.
Tim Horner is a sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated with a BA Journalism from University College Falmouth before most his colleagues were born. A previous editor of adult mags, he now enjoys bringing the tone down in the viral news sector.