We are the bridge between research and recovery
There is a wide gap in this country between what science is learning about sex addiction and what a hurting person can actually reach. Discoveries sit in journals while families search in the dark. Treatment moves without a shared map. And millions of people quietly carry a condition the system has not yet fully recognized.
The American Foundation for Addiction Research exists in that gap. We fund the science, lead the advocacy, and build the public understanding that turn a private struggle into a treatable condition with a path forward. That is the whole of who we are, and it is why everything we do points in one direction: connecting research to recovery.
The story behind why we do this
Picture someone who has told no one. He holds down a job and a marriage while fighting a compulsion he cannot break, certain he is the only person in the world who feels this way, convinced he is broken beyond repair. What finally reaches him is not judgment. It is information. The first time he reads a clinical description of compulsive sexual behavior, he realizes he is not uniquely damaged. He is a person with a treatable condition. That single shift is where recovery becomes possible.
Composite account, drawn from the experiences of many people and stripped of identifying details.
AFAR exists so that no one has to wait years to learn that what they are living with has a name, a cause science can study, and a way forward. Multiply that one person by the millions living the same silence, and you understand our work.
Our Mission
To advance the understanding and treatment of sex addiction and betrayal trauma.
It is a simple sentence carrying an enormous amount of weight. Understanding, because you cannot treat well what you do not understand. Treatment, because understanding that never reaches a suffering person is understanding wasted. We hold both together, always.
Our Vision
We envision a world where sex addiction and betrayal trauma are universally acknowledged, understood, and accepted as a mental health disorder. Through pioneering research, public education, and persistent advocacy, we work toward a world where individuals, families, and communities can experience freedom from the disease of sex addiction and healing of relational impacts.
AFAR's Proud Sponsors
Our Focus
Where we have been
Since its inception in 1991, AFAR has been dedicated to research and advocacy concerning sex and porn addiction. Our focus is encompassed by three broad areas
Where we are going
ADVOCATE
Champion a Sex Addiction Diagnosis to be included in the DSM. Develop effective public relations campaigns to increase awareness and reduce stigma.
SUPPORT
Support the publication of scientific journal articles based on pioneering AFAR funded sex addiction genome-wide association study (GWAS). Identify and support research that will further the understanding and treatment of sex addiction and betrayal trauma.
EDUCATE
Construct a comprehensive, easily accessible database showcasing all research backed by AFAR. Establish a user-friendly database cataloging scientific journal articles pertaining to sex addiction and betrayal trauma
A renewed foundation for an urgent moment
AFAR has always cared about addiction in all its forms, because addictions are deeply interconnected. But something has shifted, and it demanded a sharper focus.
Clinicians are reporting a surge of new cases that are younger and more intense than anything they have seen before. A generation raised with unlimited access to high-intensity content is developing compulsive patterns earlier, and faster, than the research and the system can keep up with. This is not a niche issue. It is a public health crisis forming largely out of public view, because the shame surrounding it keeps people from ever saying it out loud.
That reality called for more than business as usual. After an extensive, several-month planning process, our Board came together to refine our mission and vision and to build the strategic plan now guiding our work. The result is an organization rebuilt for the size of the problem in front of it, sharpening its focus on sex addiction and betrayal trauma, and committing to the research, advocacy, and education the moment demands.
Why this matters now
Every year without recognition is a year of underfunded science, uncovered treatment, and unspoken suffering. Meanwhile the caseload keeps climbing and getting younger. The cost of waiting is not theoretical. It is the widening distance between a problem that is growing quickly and a system moving slowly.
The bridge has to be built now, while it can still reach the people who need it. That is the urgency that drives everything on this page.
An invitation to participate
This work belongs to everyone who believes people struggling with sex addiction, and the families affected by it, deserve better than silence. There is a place here for you, whether you give, partner, advocate, or simply help the truth travel a little further. Every one of those acts adds a plank to the bridge.