If having little or no sexual desire is a problem, what about wanting too much sex? The term "sexual addiction" was coined a few years back to describe people with an obsessive sex drive. Yet psychologists have been slow to believe that wanting too much sex isn't a problem.

Even psychologists have a decidedly pro-sex bias. For proof, look no further than the "bible" of the psychological profession, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. Psychologists use the definitions in the DSM as a means of diagnosing—and treating—mental health problems. The DSM provides a three-part clinical definition for hypoactive sexual desire:

• Persistently or recurrently deficient (or absent) sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity. The judgment of deficiency or absence is made by the clinician, taking into account factors that affect sexual functioning, such as age and the context of the person's life.
• The disturbance causes marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.
• The sexual dysfunction is not better accounted for by another disorder (except another sexual dysfunction) and is not due exclusively to the direct physiological effects of a substance (a drug or medication) or a general medical condition.

No diagnosis for sexual addiction is described in its pages. That doesn't jibe with the experience of mental health professionals, who see people coming into their offices displaying symptoms of out-of-control sexual desire. And according to Robin Cato, executive director of the National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity (NCSAC) in Atlanta, the lack of DSM acknowledgement hinders attempts to help such patients. "Without a DSM listing, few insurance companies are going to pay for treatment," Cato notes.

Not all professionals are enthusiastic about the movement to make sex addiction a disorder; some dismiss the effort as financially motivated. Michael Ross, Ph.D., a professor of public health at the University of Texas and the past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, doubts that the evidence is all in. "Sexual addiction," says Ross, "does not meet the criteria for a classic addiction."