Internet, Cybersex and Infidelity

Increasing use of internet has numerous reflections on relationships. Within the range of chatroom friendship and flirting to shared sexuality, cybersex addiction and criminal behaviours are among the most intriguing. Searching for sexual satisfaction on internet may have a number of functions such as decreasing anxiety and distress; expressing emotions such as loneliness, depression, anger and disappointment; or providing support to not being able to judge the level of intimacy in a realtionship. The incredible ease with which one obtains sexual content on the internet, at home, at the work place or even through mobile phones is one of the most important reason for its widespread prevalence. Another important allure of the cybersex is its anonimity, the relative ease to disguise normally disturbing characteristics and its being mostly ignored by others. It is also low-cost. On the other hand it causes increased social isolation, damages trust in relationships, and causes the individual to seek for help due to dramatic consequences following a period of virtual mirroring, when the feeling of finding a soulmate causes mutual adoration and idealization. This review examines the definition of infidelity in the context of internet use, its characteristics, types and various aspects; its negative consequences on relationships; its effects on couples and families; and treatment alternatives. The problems caused by increasing compulsivity of cybersex are also highlighted

Misinterpretations of intrusions, obsessive beliefs and thought control strategies in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Objective: Misinterpretations of intrusive experiences are suggested to play critical role in the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Some faulty belief domains are also assumed to contribute to the immediate misappraisal of intrusions and thus, patients with OCD try to control their thoughts with various thought control strategies. This study aims to examine these cognitive concepts among Turkish patients with OCD and comparatively review the psychometric characteristics of three instruments in clinical samples. Methods: The sample of the study was constituted of patients with OCD and any other anxiety disorders and undergraduate university students as control group. An instrument set on immediate misinterpretations, beliefs, control strategies, responsibility attitudes, fusions of thoughts and actions, thought suppression, OCD symptoms, self-esteem and personality characteristics was administered to the sample. Results: Having acceptable reliability values, instrument tools of immediate interpretations, beliefs and thought control methods were found to be higher in OCD patients. These three factors were found to be significantly associated with other relevant cognitive correlates, while they were not related to some other factors such as psychoticism. Conclusion: These findings show that misinterpretations of intrusions, beliefs and control methods are also valid concepts in Turkish clinical samples that live in a different cultural context, and the self-report instruments of these cognitive factors were shown to display satisfactory psychometric properties