Ted's on the "down low"

I'll admit, socio-cultural responses to homosexuality fascinate me. In large part because the area of psychology that most interested me when I began was prejudice, and it seems that prejudice towards homosexuality is one of the few remaining explicitly condoned (by some people, at least) prejudices. So the Ted Haggard story has been interesting to me (as well as the whole general Denver religious leader theme). Ted says he's exclusively heterosexual. Good for him. I could go into the topic of repressed homosexuality as a theoretical explanation for homophobia, but that's not what most interests me about Ted's journey. It's more his counseling for "sex addiction" (I can't see that site without thinking of the Demetri Martin line: "I've met many chocoholics but I ain't never seen no chocohol. We've got an epidemic of people who love chocolate and don't understand the rules of word endings") - why do so many people claim "addiction" after they've f*c*ed up? Just once I want to hear: "Doc, ya gotta fix me! I'm a compulsive gambler. I've been going to Vegas every weekend and coming home with TONS of money! Make it stop!"

First posted at Psyche Killer qu'est que c'est on 2/8/07