Sexual addiction
Sexual addiction is a conceptual model devised in order to provide a scientific explanation for sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one's control—in terms of being a literal addiction to sexual activity. This phenomenon is not newly described in the literature, but it has been described by many different terms: hypersexuality, erotomania, nymphomania, satyriasis, Don Juanism, and—most recently—sexual addiction, compulsive sexual behaviour, and paraphilia-related disorders.:12 Hypersexuality is a related continuous theoretical construct. Higher hypersexuality has been associated with addictive or obsessive personalities, escapism, psychological disorders, low self-esteem, self-destructive behavior, lowered sexual inhibitions, and behavioral conditioning. Alcohol, hormone imbalance, change of life hormone levels, behavior modification, operant conditioning, and many drugs affect a person's social and sexual inhibitions, while reducing integral human bonding abilities for intimacy.