Addiction or compulsion: Politics or illness?

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Abstract
Confusion exists about the use of the terms addiction and compulsion. In the case of sexual addiction and compulsion, the issues seem to be more volatile. In part this reflects our cultural ambivalence about sex, and in part this reflects professional ambivalence about sex addiction. This article summarizes the clinical usage of the terms sexual addiction and sexual compulsion and the issues that result across five separate disciplines: sexual medicine, addiction medicine, trauma medicine, psychiatry, and criminal justice rehabilitation. The summary reveals many parallels in the five disciplines and their reactions to the terms sexual addiction and sexual compulsion. Research across the disciplines points to a paradigm shift which may resolve issues of clinical understanding of the terms.