A woman who developed a sex addiction after having her third child said it made her leave her partner, change jobs and move to France.
Rebecca Barker, 37, from North Yorkshire, says her urges meant having sex five times a day wasnt enough.
The mother-of-three said she constantly asked her partner for more, and was diagnosed with depression in 2012.
She told the BBC: It was literally the first thing I thought about when I woke up, I just couldnt get it off my mind.
I felt like everything reminded me of it. I think it was linked to my depression and the lack of serotonin. I felt like my whole body was craving it.
It was giving me the instant hit and five minutes later I wanted it again.
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Her partner enjoyed the added attention at first, but after a few months, he started to raise questions about where it had come from and accused her of having an affair.
Rebecca said: He thought I must have been feeling guilty about it and thats why I wanted sex with him.
When she needed a break from their relationship, Rebecca went to stay with her mother to try and recover.
Their relationship broke down soon after.
In an attempt to get her life back together, Rebecca decided to leave her job and move to France, and says that has worked for her.
She said: I stayed at home because I felt ashamed. It felt very uncomfortable to be around other people.
I had to make many lifestyle changes in order to get over the depression and the addiction.
Although sex addiction is not formally recognised by the NHS, the World Health Organisation is expected to approve the inclusion of compulsive sexual behaviour disorder in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) list in May 2019.
What is sex addiction?
On its website, the NHS says: Some sex and relationships experts believe people can become addicted to the enjoyable feeling or “high” experienced during sex and sexual activity, but others disagree
Relationship charity Relate defines sex addiction as any sexual activity that feels out of control.
This could be sex with a partner, but it can also mean activities such as pornography, masturbation, visiting prostitutes or using chat lines
91% of this who seek help for sex addiction are male.
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