It has been held responsible for eliminating self-esteem. It has been held responsible for destroying careers. It has been held responsible for claiming countless marriages-and families for that matter. Worst of all, it is not drugs or alcohol. It is so called sex addiction-the latest addiction to break out and be nationally recognized as an epidemic by many scholars in Western culture. According to an article in Newsweek titled, “The Sex Addiction Epidemic,” sex addiction is being diagnosed in record numbers in America. Can it be true, though? Can something as natural and organic to our very nature as human beings be the root of such damage? To get to the very bottom of this will require an analysis of the arguments of the two opposing sides, but before the arguments for or against can truly be analyzed addiction must first be defined. Dictionary.com provides this definition based on the Random House Dictionary. Addiction is “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” One of the opposing sides argues sex can be addictive while the other side dismisses it as myth or simply states there is something there, but it is more of a compulsive disorder than an addiction. Patrick Carnes, PhD is the author of the book, Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction. He is a strong proponent of the idea that sex can be very addictive, although it is not to everyone. To Dr. Carnes those with sexual addiction have extreme difficulty coping with day to day life without engaging in some form of risky sexual behavior (Carnes, 2001). Whether it is the married man who frequents the prostitute hot spots or the grandfather who gets caught masturbating by his grandchildren, the sexual addict believes sex is their most important need. His side acknowledges that sex addiction is not identical to drug or alcohol addictions because sex is vital for human survival, but it still is an addiction nonetheless. The other side says that while some sexual behaviors are considered dysfunctional, the term sexual addiction makes many common forms of sexual expression seem problematic although they are not. For example, would a man making love to his wife every single night of their marriage be considered a sex addict? Or a woman who occasionally masturbates in her locked bedroom while her children are asleep in their bed rooms? In this school of theory two of the proponents are Lawrence and Richard Siegel. Both are sex therapists while the latter doubles as an educator as well. They view what others call sexual