David Duchovny, the actor who plays a sex addict on Showtime’s “Californication,” is in rehab for sex addiction. He joined a long list of men and women who have walked up to the camera and said they were addicted to sex. Celebrities on that list include Michael Douglas, Woody Harrelson and Rob Lowe.

For some reasons, many doubt if there really is anything like sex addiction. Some see it as mere excuse by self-possessed shameless men and women who are determined to follow their raw instinct. These men and women, some think, call their indiscriminate dalliances an addiction when caught.

Of course, just like gambling, alcohol and drugs, is sex addict. If an alcoholic is someone who cannot stop drinking when it is apparently abusive to him or her or to others, then a sex addict is someone who cannot stop sex activities when it is apparently abusive to him or her or to others.

Alcoholics use alcohols to escape from something. Sex addicts use sex to escape from something.

Drinking alcohol at legal age and in moderation is not illegal. Having sex with consenting adult in a proper place is not illegal.

Drinking alcohol in secret is a sign that something is wrong with the act. Having sex in secret is also a sign that something is wrong with the act.

Experts in sexual addition like Patrick Carnes named the inability to resist impulses to engage in extreme lewd sexual acts as a sign of an addition. He also mentioned the act of engaging in such sexual behavior for a period longer than one had intended as another sign of an addition.

So essentially, the inability to stop, even when you are aware of the cost in financial, psychological, social and physical terms are what make sexual behaviors an addiction.

Many who are addicted often have this need to up their antics. If they were having two partners at once they will now make it four. If they were having sex three times a day they will now make it six. For most addicts, the urge to intensify the behavior and the risk associated with it is overwhelming.

So, essentially, you are a sex addict if you cannot get enough. It is a medical disorder. You do not have to blame yourself anymore. You just have to acknowledge that you are an addict and head to the nearest rehab.

Already there are treatments for sex addiction and support groups available for those brave enough to admit they are addicts. Just like alcoholics have Alcohol Anonymous, Sex Addicts have Sex Addict Anonymous.

And once there are treatments, then it follows that the aliment is for really. If you doubt it, ask those who suffer from restless feet syndrome.

You are a sex addict if you worry that others will be appealed if they find out your sexual activities.

You are a sex addict if your sexual activities make you feel bad.

You are a sex addict if you think about sex beyond anything else.

You are a sex addict if you think your sexual behavior is abnormal.

You are a sex addict if your sexual behaviors are illegal.

You are a sex addict if sex controls your life.

Now tell me that you are not. Swear and let us see if lightening will not strike you dead at once.