IN AN unfortunate case of life imitating art, actor David Duchovny has been admitted to a rehab clinic for sex addiction.
The married American actor, who plays a sex-obsessed womaniser on the Five series Californication, has confirmed he is receiving treatment.
Duchovny, 48, said he had signed himself into a treatment facility voluntarily, stating: "I ask for respec
t and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family."
Duchovny, most famous for his part in the science-fiction TV series The X-Files, had an early role as narrator of the TV erotica series Red Shoe Diaries. He recently won a Golden Globe award for Californication.
He has been married for 11 years to actress Tia Leonie, with whom he has two children.
Leonie moved to quash rumours of his addiction in 1998, when she told Elle magazine the idea was "very exciting".
But Duchovny is not the first celebrity to claim sex addiction.
Michael Douglas received treatment at a Los Angeles clinic in the early 1990s; his wife at the time gave him the label.
Actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton, the former husband of actress Angelina Jolie, and stand-up comedian Russell Brand have also received treatment for the condition.
One of the most recent cases in Britain was that of Lord Irvine Laidlaw, who in April signed himself into a clinic for sex addiction after it was revealed that he had spent £27,000 hiring four call girls and a male gigolo to join him in Monte Carlo's Hermitage Hotel, in the £6,000-a-night presidential suite.
The condition is relatively new, though clinics, support groups and websites addressing it are widely available.
According to Phillip Holden, a fellow with the British Association for Counselling and Therapy, disagreement remained over whether it could be classed as addiction. "There's a battle within the therapy world between the pros and antis," he said. "You've got psychiatrists on the one hand who like labelling conditions as medical, because then they can treat them. But it's equally true that behaviour that causes distress to self and others about sex is different to heroin, cocaine or tobacco."
Mr Holden said it often masked other personal issues such as depression or mid-life crisis.
He said Mr Duchovny's issues might spring from a lack of direction brought on by career success, adding: "It's like any addiction; it's behaviour lacking in meaning, and humans are meaning-seeking creatures."
There are no hard statistics to measure the full extent of the problem, though experts have said it is more visible among males, who are more likely to pay for sex or visit porn websites, but as many as one in three addicts are believed to be women.
Denise Knowles, a relationship councillor with Relate, said the condition was becoming increasingly prevalent. She said: "At Relate, we see it is on the increase. We have to be careful about what we define as addiction and I think a lot of people who want to have more sex than their partners automatically assume they have an addiction; that might not be the case. It may be that a discrepancy in libido."
Mrs Knowles said sex addiction did not necessarily mean infidelity. "People assume there's some sort of infidelity or visiting prostitutes going on," she said. "But it's not always the case.
"Many people who come to Relate will complain about their use of the internet, because they can become addicted to looking at sexual images or going into chatrooms, and that can cause distress in the relationship."
BACKGROUNDSEX addiction revolves around a set of destructive, compulsive behavioural patterns.
They are distinct from what would be a naturally high libido as they impinge on the addicts everyday life, placing great strain on relationships, and in some cases making it difficult to function as a normal person.
Among the behaviour traits that are common among addicts are the need to keep secrets about sexual activities from loved ones; the drive to have sex in places with people they would not normally choose; looking for sexually arousing articles or scenes in newspapers, magazines and the need to increase the variety and frequency of sexual and romantic activities than previously to bring the same levels of excitement and relief.
This behaviour is invariably accompanied by feelings of personal shame at the addict's behaviour, leading to feelings of hopelessness, alienation and, in some cases, suicide.
Experts have attributed the rise in the problem to the increased sexualisation of society bringing it out into the open.
