Sexual addiction (sometimes called sex addiction) is a popular model to explain hypersexuality—sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one's control. Hypersexuality is typically associated with lowered sexual inhibitions. Alcohol and some drugs can affect a person's social and sexual inhibitions.

There are differences of opinion among sexologists, sociologists, psychologists and other specialists as to whether the phenomenon represents an actual addiction or even a psychological/psychiatric condition at all. Proponents of the sexual addiction model draw an analogy between hypersexuality and substance addiction or behavioral problems like gambling addiction, recommending 12-step and other addiction-based methods of treatment. Other explanatory models of hypersexuality include sexual compulsivity and sexual impulsivity.

Sexologists have not reached any consensus regarding whether sexual addiction exists or, if it does, how to describe the phenomenon. Some experts believe that sexual addiction is literally an addiction, directly analogous to alcohol and drug addictions. Other experts believe that sexual addiction is actually a form of obsessive compulsive disorder and refer to it as sexual compulsivity. Still other experts believe that sex addiction is itself a myth, a by-product of cultural and other influences. Some who have expressed doubts about the existence of sex addiction argue that the condition is instead a way of projecting social stigma onto patients. Clinical sexologist, Dr. Debra Laino, argues that the difference between having a high sex drive and being a sex addict is that a high sex drive does not usually "involve the negative feelings of guilt and shame, the double life, relationship difficulty or the legal issues which often accompany sex addiction."

Patrick Carnes, PhD, is an expert in the field of sexual addiction in the United States. Carnes is currently the Executive Director of the Gentle Path program at Pine Grove Behavioral Center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Carnes is author of many books, including Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction (1983) and Recovery Zone, Volume I (2010), in which he examines sexual compulsions, and the tangled web of trauma, love, addictive sex, hate, and fear often found in sexual addicts' family relationships.

He has worked in the field of sexual addiction in a number of other capacities:

He is the primary architect of Gentle Path treatment programs for the treatment of sexual and addictive disorders.^{[citation needed][self-published source?]} Carnes also pioneered the founding of the Certified Sex Addiction Therapist program, which is offered through the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP). This has evolved into a network of local, regional, and residential programs which specialize in this work.

Tyra Lynn Banks (born December 4, 1973). is an American model, media personality, actress, occasional singer, author and businesswoman. She first became famous as a model, appearing twice on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and working for Victoria's Secret as one of their original Angels. Banks is the creator and host of the UPN/The CW reality television show America's Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Tyra Banks was born in Inglewood, California. She is the daughter of Caroline (née London; now London-Johnson), a medical photographer, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant. She has a brother, Devin, who is five years older. In 1980, when Banks was 6 years old, her parents divorced. Banks attended John Burroughs Middle School and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. Tyra Banks is one of four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.