Jan. 25--TAMPA -- It's difficult for some not to think about sex these days. Television, movies and music are filled with images and references to whoopee. There are scenes on network prime time now that were considered pornographic not too many years ago.

With all that exposure, it's no wonder teenage boys, awash in testosterone, think about sex almost constantly. Grown men, a recent poll found, think about sex more than once every two hours. That adds up to almost 5,000 lewd thoughts a year.

That's the average guy. Guys like David Duchovny and a boatful of rock stars and pro athletes might think about it more. Add to the list now: Tiger Woods, who has reportedly checked himself into a sex addiction clinic in Hattiesburg, Miss., seeking help after stories of numerous affairs surfaced after he crashed his car into a tree near his home in Orlando.

Unlike addictions to alcohol, drugs and even nicotine, addiction to sex carries a stigma all its own. Celebrities admitted to sex addiction rehab centers always are fodder for late night talk show hosts.

Brett Favre admitted to an addiction to pain pills a few years ago, but it isn't what people think about at the mention of his name. The sex addict label, though, probably will dog Woods for years, if not the rest of his life.

For those who constantly wrestle with thoughts of sex and act out their desires, sex addiction is all too real, often ending in shame, ruined relationships, jobs lost, and possibly a rap sheet.

And the number of sex addicts seeking treatment -- about 80 percent are men -- appears to be growing.

"It's relatively new," said Barbara Cook, a relationship and sex therapist who has practiced in Tampa for about a decade.

The Internet's offering of pornography and easy and sometimes anonymous connection to others interested in casual sex has increased the number of patients seeking therapy for sex addiction, she said.

"Before the Internet, people would go out to bars," she said, "and pick up women or prostitutes."

With sex addicts, the sex isn't the driving force, she said. It's more complicated than that.

"It's not so much to have sex as it is a challenge to get partners to say OK," she said. "Sex addicts get a sense of, 'Job well done.' It's the very same dynamic with each patient.

"People want to feel something other than what they're feeling," she said. "It's the same as with alcohol, nicotine, drugs; they want to be something other than what they are."

One problem seen by therapists is self diagnosis. People see a celebrity caught in a cheating scandal and then seeking sex addiction treatment and think they have the same thing, said Jo-Ann Bird, a sex therapist in Brandon.

"When news of celebrities seeking sex addiction therapy crops up in newscasts, business increases, she said.

"There's a lot of people self diagnosing," she said.

That's not necessarily a good thing.

Just because someone enjoys looking at pornography or is caught in an extramarital affair doesn't mean they are addicted to sex, she said.

Talking to a therapist can help someone determine if they need psychiatric help, she said.

She said the term sex addiction itself is unclear.

"There's a debate in sexology right now with the term addiction," she said. "Is it addiction, or compulsivity or a mental health problem that is untreated?"

Too much sex, like too much booze or dope, can ruin lives.

"Like an alcoholic unable to stop drinking, sexual addicts are unable to stop their self-destructive sexual behavior," Patrick J. Carnes, author of "Out of the Shadows" and director of the rehab clinic treating Woods in Mississippi, wrote in a recent article. "Family breakups, financial disaster, loss of jobs, and risk to life are the painful themes of their stories."

Sex addiction doesn't claim just celebrities, Carnes wrote. Sex addicts are preachers and physicians, homemakers and accountants, therapists and executives.

Carnes' research indicates most were abused as children, either sexually, physically or emotionally, and most grew up in households in which some sort of addiction already was present.

On the plus side, Carnes wrote that recovery from sex addiction may be easier to treat than physical addictions.

"Sex addicts have shown an ability to transform a life of self-destruction into a life of self-care," Carnes wrote, "a life in chaos and despair into one of confidence and peace."

Gone untreated, sex addicts can have lives that spiral downward, leading to obsessions with pornography, prostitution, exhibitionism, voyeurism, child molesting, incest and rape, he wrote.

A survey of sex addicts in 1991 found that 40 percent had lost their partners or spouses and nearly one out of every three said they lost career opportunities. Three quarters of those surveyed said they had thought about suicide and nearly 70 percent had been exposed to AIDS or venereal disease.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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