Conditions treated at Iron Ridge.

Iron Ridge treats one clinical picture: adult men whose primary mental health condition presents through compulsive sexual behavior. The behavior is the presenting concern. It is not what treatment is aimed at.

That distinction is the whole basis of the program, and it is what separates Iron Ridge from a general mental health practice that has added sex addiction as a service line.

What we actually treat

Underneath the behavior, in nearly every case admitted, is a mental health condition doing the driving — OCD, ADHD, an anxiety disorder, depression, PTSD, attachment trauma, or an adjustment picture. Often more than one. Frequently undiagnosed for years.

How that driver shows up also depends on how a man handles closeness in the first place — attachment style shapes the form the behavior takes, what sets it off, and which part of treatment is hardest.

Every case has a formal CSBD (ICD-11 6C72) formulation in the record, and every case has a treatment plan oriented against the condition underneath it. We do not treat the sexual behavior in isolation.

The pages below are organized by how men actually describe what is happening to them, because almost nobody arrives saying "I think I have 6C72."

The presentations we see

Whatever it is called, the clinical work is the same eight-week arc — the language differs because the way men search for this differs enormously.

• Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) — the diagnostic frame the program operates under.
• Sex addiction — the addiction-medicine framing. Iron Ridge draws on it; our clinical director holds the CSAT credential. It is not the diagnostic frame we use, and the difference matters clinically.
• Pornography addiction — by a distance the most common presenting behavior.
• Online sex addiction — camming, chat, and behavior that lives entirely on a device.
• Sexual compulsivity — where the pattern is about compulsion and relief rather than desire.
• Love addiction — repeated intensity-seeking inside relationships rather than outside them.
• Infidelity — where the presenting event is an affair, or a pattern of them.

Who we do not treat

Iron Ridge is a specialized outpatient program, and being specific about the limits is part of being useful.

We are not the right level of care for active psychosis or an unstable mood-disorder presentation, substance use requiring primary SUD treatment, or active suicidality and acute self-harm. Each of those needs stabilizing in a different setting first.

We also refer out when compulsive sexual behavior is not actually the presenting picture — including cases better served by an OCD specialist or a general mental health program. We say so on the consult call rather than after admission.

If you are in immediate danger or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 — the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day — or call 911.

Partners are treated too, separately

Roughly nine in ten cases arrive with a partner in acute distress. Betrayal trauma is its own clinical picture, not a side effect of his.

Partners at Iron Ridge are clients in their own right — their own intake, their own clinician, their own record — through the Partner & Family Program, included in the program cost. A partner does not need him to be in treatment, or in agreement, to get care.

How treatment works

An eight-week clinical arc at 9 to 12 hours per week, in person in Austin or by secure telehealth across Texas. Three phases: stabilization, trauma processing, and relapse prevention.

Full detail: treatment programs · the clinical arc · what to expect · our approach to CSBD

Not sure which of these describes you?

Most men are not. The categories above overlap heavily and the labels matter far less than the formulation, which is built during intake assessment rather than chosen from a menu.

If you cannot tell which page applies, that is not a problem to solve before calling. Request a confidential consult or call (512) 877-8616, and the conversation will sort it out.