Ted Willis talks to experts, therapists and those who say they have become addicted to sex.
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Ted Willis headed to Arizona to talk to counsellors and those recovering from compulsive sexual behaviour for NBC's Left Field.
"Sex addiction is more like hooking up with prostitutes all the time, having porn all the time, multiple affairs, consensual behaviour that is problematic within a day to day life but doesn't rise to the level of illegal or physical violation of somebody " said Robert Weiss, an author and expert on sex addition.
However, it's sometimes used as an excuse by celebrities caught out cheating on their partners, Weiss observes.
He says around 30% of the people he treats are women.
"It's definitely more of a common thing than either people realise or people want to realise," said Greg Higgins, who is recovering from sex addiction.
The condition often follows the pattern of other addictions, beginning with pain or shame, pushing the brain into a state of preoccupation. That then leads into a ritual of behaviour that leads to acting out the condition, returning the person to another situation of shame, according to therapist Floyd Godfrey.
Addicts told Willis that it was often discovering the damage their behaviour was causing to their personal relationships which led them to address the issue.
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