Close-Up Talk Radio spotlights Pine Grove Behavioral Health's Gratitude Program

Hattiesburg, MS – Sexuality is core to who we are – it’s part of what brings pleasure to our lives – but the same factors that may influence a person to abuse drugs or alcohol can also lead to sexual addiction.

Sexual addiction is a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and behavior. Like all addictions, its impact on the addict and family intensifies as the disorder progresses.

Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services is a treatment facility for individuals suffering from chemical dependency and sexual addiction. Since 1984, the facility has asserted itself among the country’s most comprehensive treatment facilities, offering a continuum of care ranging from outpatient services to full 90-day residential treatment.

Pine Grove’s internationally renowned Gratitude program offers treatment for people seeking help and hope from sex addiction, sexual anorexia, love and relationship addiction and sexual trauma.

“Sex addiction is just one form of a larger thing. A fix is a fix and addiction is addiction,” explains Deborah Schiller, Gratitude’s program director. “Patients come through our doors begging for help because their sexual behaviors are robbing them of the life they want to live. We’re happy to help them.”

Through education, treatment experiences and integration, Pine Grove’s Gratitude program strives to help patients gain understanding of their disease and the necessity of maintaining connection with a broad support network.

“What we’re doing is a program of recovery based on the most up-to-date work of researchers in our field,” says Schiller. “Sex addicts have a lot of shame associated with their behavior. If they can hear their story being told by someone else, they’re more likely to be engaged by the process.”