Sex, as powerful as a drug

• April 27, 2024

What happens when the sexual desire upsets the body and the mind? When a person feels sexual desire almost all the time, it is uncontrollable and does not postpone the need to satisfy it, despite causing conflicts, you could say that it has developed an addiction to sex.
 

The sexual desire It is a natural response of the human being. It is an energy that runs through the body, provokes erotic fantasies and it makes us close to someone that we find attractive. It is a physiological reaction that activates neurons that trigger bodily functions necessary for sexual activity.

The ventral tegmental area and the nucleus Acummbens are brain structures that are activated every time we feel sexual desire and contribute to generating the pleasure response. Also, the prefrontal cortex is responsible for regulating the expression of this desire, explained Oscar Prospéro García, from the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM .

"Suppose a woman I like a lot, even fantasize that I have sex with her; However, when I have her near I talk about other topics, I do not express directly to her sexual desire, because it would be socially inappropriate; So what I do is generate a strategy of seduction. This ability comes from the prefrontal cortex. "

The researcher from the Neurosciences group of said faculty added that because the expression of the sexual desire not only depends on social and cultural patterns, but also varies between one individual and another, "you must be cautious when describing someone as a sex addict."

However, Prospéro García stressed that addiction has very specific characteristics.

"We call reinforcers the elements that we seek to obtain a satisfaction, it can be alcohol, cigarettes, food or sexual contact. Something that distinguishes the addict is that the lack of reinforcer generates extreme discomfort: the withdrawal syndrome.

"Suffering is the main indicator of addiction, because if someone has sexual excesses and he enjoys them we do not consider him an addict, but if he suffers with it and causes problems, it definitely requires treatment."

In certain addictions there is a functional problem on the right side of the prefrontal cortex. Something similar is suggested in the case of sex addiction, although research is still insufficient to determine exactly which region of the prefrontal cortex presents the damage.

While continuing to study the brain of sex addicts, the researcher stressed that "we should not confuse ourselves and think that the fantasies or certain sexual practices that a couple performs are abnormal. As long as you both agree, nothing is forbidden. "

He clarified that sometimes sex addicts go beyond sexual relations. "They can reach compulsive masturbation, prostitution and even sexually abuse someone."

However, some studies indicate that sexual abuse or rape are not always the result of compulsive sexual behavior. Horacio Sánchez, member of the Mexican Association for Sexual Health, He indicated that these acts "generally derive from the need to exercise power over another being".

Video Medicine: Sex, Drugs and California's Most Powerful Political Couple (April 2024).