Neurology of Casual Sex In Young People

Sexuality has always intrigued the human imagination and continues to do so. Sex for ages has been a driving force of human instincts and dominates our rational actions.  The rational mind therefore seeks some pertinent questions, How do we select a partner? Why do we engage in sex? How does sex shape up a relationship? We live in a society, which encourages young people to explore and experiment with their sexuality, even before they are mature enough to form their identities. Sexuality today is a choice of the young to be “The COOL ONE” among their peers. What remains a constant source of worry for parents and doctors is the rising number of teenage pregnancy and scores of sexually infected young people.


The Teenage Sex Connection


A new research indicates, our interest in sex is built in our brains. Modern neuroscience research has uncovered some startling new information about how sex affects our brains. Sex is an appetizer that every human yearns for in his life. Why sex sells? Why is it so pervasive in our society?

Most of us are unaware what our complex, three-pound brain has to do with our sex life.

Until just a few years ago, scientists, psychologists, and physicians had little in the way of research and data to connect the dots. They knew instinctively, just as countless generations of sexually experienced people did, that sex is more than just a physical experience. They knew it engaged the mind in powerful, if largely unknown, ways. But they had no way of really knowing what was happening in the brain when people experienced love, passion, lust, sex, or other emotions and activities.

The messenger chemical dopamine makes a person feel good when he or she does something exciting or rewarding. Dopamine, therefore, has great influence over human behavior. The official term for what dopamine does is “reward signal” that is, when we do something exciting, dopamine rewards us by flooding our brains and making the brain cells produce a feeling of excitement or of well-being.

The danger, of course, is that if young people have been receiving a dopamine reward of good feelings from dangerous behavior such as driving too fast, smoking, sex, and others, they can feel compelled to increase that behavior in order to achieve the same good feeling.

Oxytocin is released into the woman’s brain when two people touch each other in a warm, meaningful, and intimate way.

The oxytocin then does two things  increases a woman’s desire for more touch and causes a bond to develop with the man she has been spending time in physical contact with. Oxytocin, however, is values-neutral. Much like dopamine, it is an involuntary process that cannot distinguish between a one-night stand and a lifelong soul mate.

There is a warning here for young people, particularly young women. If a young woman becomes physically close to a man, it will trigger the bonding process, creating a greater desire to be near him and, most significantly, place greater trust in him. Then, if he wants to escalate the physical nature of the relationship, it will become harder and harder for her to say no. The adolescent girl who enters into a close physical relationship may therefore find herself, because of the normal effect of her brain hormones, desiring more physical contact and trusting a male who may be using manipulative pledges of love and care only to get her to have sex.


The inability to bond after multiple sex encounters is almost like tape that loses its stickiness after being applied and removed multiple times. With the aid of MRI; scientists have made an important discovery about the brain’s growth and maturation. The part of the brain that controls the ability to make fully mature judgment, decisions is not physically mature until an individual reaches their mid-twenties. In other words, the part of a brain that is responsible for complex assessments about future consequences and responsibility is still growing throughout the teen years and into their mid-twenties.


An obvious question is that if skin-to-skin or sexual contact causes such bonding, why don’t more of these young couples stay together? And the truth is that a few do. The healthy progression of relationship strengthens the brain cell connections associated with “attachment” of one person to another, helping to ensure the permanence of the relationship that finds its healthiest expression with sexual consummation in marriage. Then a relationship that is an early intense romantic relationship breaks up it is felt in the same brain centers that feel physical pain and can actually be seen on brain scans. Like any other powerful experience, an intense romantic relationship molds the mind.

A selfish and manipulative person may have an intense desire to have sex with another person. To accomplish that goal, they may lie about being in love. It is important to know the desire someone has for sex can exist without any feelings of caring, love, or romance. This is something that takes some life experience to recognize, which is why even young adults still need guidance.


Love or Infatuation?

What can we possibly learn from neuroscience about something as indefinable and personal as love? One of the most startling findings of all in this brain research about love and lust is that they are each handled distinctly differently by the brain. Recent studies showed certain brain centers to light up in subjects as a result of being shown pictures of their beloved. These patterns of brain activity were distinctly different from the brain activity associated with lust as shown by other experiments. While it is normal for a human being to have lustful sexual urges, lust in the context of a loving married relationship is certainly normal. The acting on lustful urges alone is out of sync with human nature. This is critical to understand if we are to be emotionally healthy, and an understanding that is necessary for a future that is as free of problems as possible. To practice sex out of sync is to ignore the fact that healthy human behavior demands the integration of all of what we are body, mind, emotions, and spirit.



We humans have a built in desire for attachment. Every time a person has sexual intercourse or intimate physical contact, bonding takes place. Whenever breakups occur in bonded relationships there is confusion and often pain in the brains of the young people involved because the bond has been broken. Becoming sexually active and having multiple sexual partners can damage an individual’s ability to develop healthy, mature, and long-lasting relationships. This seems to especially hold true for a future healthy and stable marriage. The term “post-traumatic stress disorder” describes the condition that results from these and other traumatic experiences. Research has shown that adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to the impact of stress and this is exactly the time when rape, date rape, and sexual coercion are most likely to happen. Warning sign for parents and mentors to watch for in young people is involvement in risky behavior such as alcohol, marijuana, or tobacco abuse. Adolescents involved in these behaviors are more likely to initiate sex early and to have an increased number of sexual partners.

Humans have a built-in desire for attachment. When we exercise the choices that tie us to others we are at our most human. However, because of immaturity, poorly directed peers, the pressure of society, the attraction of sex to which they are prematurely exposed, abuse, and a myriad of other factors, young people can become involved in behavior patterns that are destructive. In fact, as we have seen, the likeliest outcome of premarital sex is simply more premarital sex.



YOUNG PEOPLE ARE FULL OF HOPE


They want to be accepted and truly valued for who they are. They need authentic relationships that are stable and loving in character. Teens fear being alone and not belonging. They fear that they may not actually measure up. Life is difficult enough without the added challenges discussed on these pages. An individual who is forewarned about the consequences of a decision or behavior tends to avoid. It can perhaps pave the way to a better life in the future. This information is not offered as a moral statement.

Sex is more than a bodily urge. Its implications on a relationship are far greater than what the teenage minds can consider. Sexual choices need to be weighed. Decisions considered: for relationships in the teenage years may sound an extra load of baggage and the cycle of broken hearts and rebound relationships easy to be dealt with but in the longer run the consequences of a broken heart, untended relationships and tarnished soul will remain to haunt the life forever.