Just came across this article on how pre-marital sex makes you
cerebrally bond with those not necessarily meant for you. This is an occurrence
we should see as obvious, yet it’s interesting to know the science behind it.
This may come in handy for me as I’ve just taken over the teen Sunday school
class at church and of course sex and relationships are an important topic to address
at this age. Lack of understanding has led many young people over the years to
jeopardize their spiritual lives as they allow themselves to be drawn away by
relationships outside of the best that God’s wants for them…
Article from www.christianpost.com, May 30th 2013
How Premarital Sex Rewires Your Brain, Affects Your Chances of Finding Life Mate
Dopamine, Oxytocin and Vasopressin are three powerful and important products released during sex between a man and a woman in a committed relationship and helps couples bond. When they are introduced in casual sexual relationships, however, they can cause much trouble.
Working together, the two hormones and one chemical produced by the human body during sex helps to bond a man and a woman together for long-term relationship.
"When someone is involved sexually it makes them want to repeat that act. Their brain produces lots of Dopamine – a powerful chemical, which is compared to heroin on the brain. Dopamine is your internal pleasure/reward system. When Dopamine is involved, it changes how we remember," notes a Conquer Series report.
Oxytocin, a hormone produced primarily in women's bodies, helps women become bonded to the object of her affection. "When a woman has a child and she is breastfeeding, she produces lots of Oxytocin, which bonds her to her child. For this reason mothers will die for their child, because they've become emotionally bonded due to the Oxytocin that is released when they're skin-to-skin with their child," explains the report.
So when a woman becomes intimate with a man, her body also releases Oxytocin and she becomes emotionally bonded to him. "Have you wondered sometimes why a woman will stay with a man who's abusing her? We know now, it's because she bonds to him emotionally, because of the Oxytocin release during sex," the report said.
Also referred to as the "monogamy hormone," men produce Vasopressin which serves the same purpose as Oxytocin. "It bonds a man to a woman," according to the report.
But while these "bonding" agents are great for marriage relationships, they don't work so well for dating relationships because "you lose your objectivity when you're searching for your potential life mate."
According to neuropsychologist Dr. Tim Jennings in the Conquer Series report: "When you have premarital sex, your reward circuitry is bonded to them now, and it will be much deeper and hurtful. Oftentimes, in breakups of people who've been sexually active, they can't tolerate the sense of emptiness, so they rush into another relationship. The neuro circuits did not have time to reset, and so they're impaired in their ability to bond with the next person, and they may become sexually active with them. This is just a repetitive cycle, and there are real impairments in bonding going on."
"Knowing how these neurochemicals interact and change the brain help us understand why sex is meant [to be kept] within the boundaries of marriage," the reported noted.
"You see the overtones here about God's design for His pure temple. This is another reason why the devil attacks our sexuality so much because in attacking human sexuality, it actually interferes with human bonding. So, for those practicing sex outside of marriage, they are creating a bond with their partner, thus inhibiting their discernment whether they should remain in that relationship. God wired and designed our brains for a specific purpose: to bond ourselves with the person we marry."
