Relationship screwed up? Maybe teenage sex damaged your brain.

Did you have sex as a teen? Well, according to a new book, that might be the reason you’re so messed up when it comes to relationships. Your brain may have been damaged!

That’s what Dr. Freda Bush and Dr. Joe McIlhaney, the authors of Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children, would like us to believe, according to a recent CanWest News Service story:

“When we are involved in sexual relations, the brain is actually flooded with neurochemicals that cause us to attach to each other, emotional bonding and also a powerful desire to repeat the behaviour,” says Bush in a telephone interview from her home in Jackson, Miss.

“These chemicals can imprint the brain and can cause addictive behaviour with lifelong consequences.”

But wait!  It gets worse:

Both sexes also experience a dopamine rush — dopamine is a hormone that makes you feel good and rewards you for exciting behaviour.

Bush says that when two people are in a committed relationship, that addictive hormone is a good thing, as it ensures a strong union.

However, for young people whose brains are susceptible to pattern-forming behaviours, that may set them up for a lifetime of seeking the thrill and reward from sex, and make it hard for them to attach themselves long-term to a partner later in life.

And worse still:

Bush and McIlhaney also point to research which shows that the younger a person has sex, the more partners he or she is likely to have.

“Because they are imprinted so early with the sexual behaviour and because of the multiple partners, they can mould or gel the brain to eventually accept that pattern as normal,” says Bush. “And when they are ready to have a long-term relationship, it interferes with their ability to develop it, because those neurological circuits have been weakened in the ability to attach, and the dopamine rush rewarding you for the behaviour has taken precedence.”

 The good doctors, who incidently worked on some of Bush II’s abstinence-only initiatives, (surprise, surprise) recommend no sexual activity until one’s mid-twenties (and a committed relationship), certainly a realistic, not to mention appealing, option for most people. Good luck.

Over at Bahamas Blog, Dr. Marty Klein offers a detailed indictment of the book’s claims. Check it out while you think about what you’ve done.

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Tagged as: creepy, feelings, Health, windbags