Sex Addiction (or hypersexuality) refers to a behavioral pattern that involves excessive engagement in sex-related behaviors, which result in disruption to daily life as well as distress with a partner, family members, or friends.
The life of an individual with sex addiction is preoccupied with sex-related thoughts, which are regarded as more important than any other aspect in their life. When sex dominates a person’s life, he or she may choose to give up or ignore things that were once important to him or her in order to have sexual encounters. There is no one single profile for people with sex addiction because any sex-related matter may dominate the person’s life to the extent that it is out of control. Common behaviors manifested by people with sex addiction include masturbation, heterosexual or homosexual sexual intercourse, browsing pornographic materials through the internet, obtaining sexual services from prostitutes, exhibitionism, voyeurism, sexual harassment over the phone, or cybersex.