The company includes co-founders Dr. Randy Hyde, the primary clinical psychologist on staff who has overseen this type of therapy at his own clinic in Provo for 12 years, and Dr. Bernell Christiansen, who deals with the same problems as a licensed marriage and family therapist in Draper.

The first thing Kastleman and his cohorts want people to understand is that porn addiction is an illness and an addiction, like alcohol and drugs. The viewing of pornographic materials releases neurochemicals in the brain, among them dopamine, which provides euphoria or a high.

"It's a chemical addiction," Kastleman says. "The brain science absolutely proves it. It's close to street drug use. It's often compared to cocaine. There's a chemical response in the brain that's similar to the use of those drugs. The primary chemical that viewing porn releases is dopamine. It provides immense pleasure.

"People need to understand that they are not bad people, and they need to understand what's happening in their brains. MRIs show that the brain chemistry and wiring in the brain is changed. The pleasure center of brain takes over and the frontal lobes — or the logic part of your brain— begins to check out. Dr. Hyde has treated people who are addicted to coke and porn, and he says pornography was more difficult to break."

As an example, he notes the reports of actor David Duchovny's recent stay at a rehab clinic for treatment of sex addiction — this despite his marriage to actress Tea Leoni. Duchovny has freely discussed his love of pornography in interviews.

"People say, 'Why would he turn to pornography; he's married to a beautiful woman,"' says Kastleman. "It's because it's chemical; it's not about how attractive a woman is."

It doesn't make matters easier that society is filled with sexual stimulus everywhere, whether it's the swimsuit section that's a regular feature of the Sports Illustrated Web site or television or movies or the magazine and video racks at the store.

"That's the great challenge," says Kastleman. "Imagine a coke addict walking around and his drug is everywhere. Plus, we're genetically designed to be attracted to that drug in the first place."

Not to mention the challenges of the Internet. It once took effort and the risk of embarrassment to find pornography; now it's available with the press of a button on the keyboard in the privacy of a room.

"If you want to be an instant millionaire, set up a porn site," says Thomason. "It's a $100 billion industry."