Medicalization describes the shift in authority regarding abnormal human conditions. Peculiarities previously seen as byproducts of maturation began to come under scrutiny and were classified in medical terms. As a result, recent decades have seen an obscene number of compulsions and disorders considered medical conditions, further exacerbating the needless institutionalization of many harmless irregularities. This string coincides with the growing popularity of sex addiction and the debate over its inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Just the thought of such a neurotic desire potentially joining the DSM alongside major mental and learning disorders exemplifies the depths to which society has sunk in recognizing truly painful anomalies. The medicalization of sex addiction demonstrates the lengths to which medical authority will go to inject another invented disease into society's blood. Although alleged sex addictions have existed for many years, they have only recently become accepted as valid excuses for sexual deviance. Attitudes towards sex addiction in the past are in stark contrast to how it is viewed today, as the constantly medicalised society insists on putting everything under the technical microscope. Sex addiction is commonly associated with a person's inability to control their sexual behavior, which involves an abnormally high sexual desire and obsession with sex that have negative effects on their personal life (MedicineNet 2007, 1). Rather than analyzing the science behind the disorder, a common practice in today's medicalized society, old attitudes towards sex addiction cast it in the same light as alcoholism, where lack of control and reluctance... in between a la carte... ....the gap in attitudes between pre-medicalized and modern periods. Trends in technological progress and human understanding project a fully medicalized future in which medical authorities solidify their place above an obedient society. Canada Detox and other medical alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs.Sunshine Coast Health Centre, nd Web. March 3, 2010.Addiction-Treatment.html#whatis>."Sexual Addiction." MedicineNet. The Cleveland Clinic, December 26, 2007. Web. March 1, 2010. "Treatment of Sexual Addiction." HealthyPlace.com - Trusted mental health information and support.HealthyPlace, September 25, 2009. Web. March 2, 2010.porn/treatment-sexual-dipendenza/menu-id-54/>.