Like addicts of all stripes, compulsive masturbators engage in their
addiction not to feel better, but to gain a sense of control over what
they are feeling. For them, masturbation is a coping mechanism utilized
less for self-pleasure and more for escape, self-soothing, and emotional
distraction. In other words, compulsive masturbation is a way to avoid
the emotional and/or psychological discomfort caused by life stressors
and underlying issues like depression, anxiety, and unresolved childhood
abuse, neglect, and trauma.
Most often compulsive masturbators learn in
adolescence (though sometimes earlier or later) how to use/abuse the
intensity of sexual arousal and masturbation to mask and distract from
emotional discomfort. Over time, especially in a “chronic stress”
household (a house with ongoing substance abuse, neglect, mental
illness, physical abuse, sexual abuse, etc.), a person can learn to use
masturbation as his or her go-to “coping response,” an escapist answer
to any and every form of pain and discomfort, including issues as
seemingly benign as boredom or loneliness.