Science
There are three phases to falling in love and different hormones are involved at each stage. Events occurring in the brain when we are in love have similarities with mental illness.
Stage 1: LUST
Lust is driven by the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen. Testosterone is not confined only to men. It has also been shown to play a major role in the sex drive of women. These hormones as Helen Fisher says "get you out looking for anything".
Stage 2: ATTRACTION
This is the truly love-struck phase. When people fall in ‘love’ they can think of nothing else. They might even lose their appetite and need less sleep, preferring to spend hours at a time daydreaming about their new lover.
In the attraction stage, a group of neuro-transmitters called 'monoamines' play an important role:
Dopamine - Also activated by cocaine and nicotine
Norepinephrine - Otherwise known as adrenalin. Starts us sweating and gets the heart racing.
Serotonin - One of ‘love's’ most important chemicals and one that may actually send us temporarily insane.
Stage 3: ATTACHMENT
This is what takes over after the attraction stage, if a relationship is going to last. People couldn't possibly stay in the attraction stage forever, otherwise they'd never get any work done!
Attachment is a longer lasting commitment and is the bond that keeps couples together when they go on to have children. Important in this stage are two hormones released by the nervous system, which are thought to play a role in social attachments:
Oxytocin - This is released by the hypothalamus gland during child birth and also helps the breast express milk. It helps cement the strong bond between mother and child. It is also released by both sexes during orgasm and it is thought that it promotes bonding when adults are intimate. The theory goes that the more sex a couple has, the deeper their bond becomes.
Vasopressin - Another important chemical in the long-term commitment stage. It is an important controller of the kidney and its role in long-term relationships was discovered when scientists looked at the prairie vole
The frisky prairie vole
In prairie vole society, sex is the prelude to a long-term pair bonding of a male and female. Prairie voles indulge in far more sex than is strictly necessary for the purposes of reproduction.
It was thought that the two hormones, vasopressin and oxytocin, released after mating, could forge this bond. In an experiment, male prairie voles were given a drug that suppresses the effect of vasopressin. The bond with their partner deteriorated immediately as they lost their devotion and failed to protect their partner from new suitors.
With thanks to the BBC Science & Nature page for the …magic.
Stage 1: LUST
Lust is driven by the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen. Testosterone is not confined only to men. It has also been shown to play a major role in the sex drive of women. These hormones as Helen Fisher says "get you out looking for anything".
Stage 2: ATTRACTION
This is the truly love-struck phase. When people fall in ‘love’ they can think of nothing else. They might even lose their appetite and need less sleep, preferring to spend hours at a time daydreaming about their new lover.
In the attraction stage, a group of neuro-transmitters called 'monoamines' play an important role:
Dopamine - Also activated by cocaine and nicotine
Norepinephrine - Otherwise known as adrenalin. Starts us sweating and gets the heart racing.
Serotonin - One of ‘love's’ most important chemicals and one that may actually send us temporarily insane.
Stage 3: ATTACHMENT
This is what takes over after the attraction stage, if a relationship is going to last. People couldn't possibly stay in the attraction stage forever, otherwise they'd never get any work done!
Attachment is a longer lasting commitment and is the bond that keeps couples together when they go on to have children. Important in this stage are two hormones released by the nervous system, which are thought to play a role in social attachments:
Oxytocin - This is released by the hypothalamus gland during child birth and also helps the breast express milk. It helps cement the strong bond between mother and child. It is also released by both sexes during orgasm and it is thought that it promotes bonding when adults are intimate. The theory goes that the more sex a couple has, the deeper their bond becomes.
Vasopressin - Another important chemical in the long-term commitment stage. It is an important controller of the kidney and its role in long-term relationships was discovered when scientists looked at the prairie vole
The frisky prairie vole
In prairie vole society, sex is the prelude to a long-term pair bonding of a male and female. Prairie voles indulge in far more sex than is strictly necessary for the purposes of reproduction.
It was thought that the two hormones, vasopressin and oxytocin, released after mating, could forge this bond. In an experiment, male prairie voles were given a drug that suppresses the effect of vasopressin. The bond with their partner deteriorated immediately as they lost their devotion and failed to protect their partner from new suitors.
With thanks to the BBC Science & Nature page for the …magic.
posted by Anonymous | 6:15 pm
This would suggest there is a cure / suppressant for each of those stages, right?
Eunuchs managed to cut it off at Stage 1 (fuck the pun), but that's a little extreme. Lust is great!
What we need are Stage 2 suppresants which we can pop whilst meeting emotionally vampiric slappers. Or a Stage 3 enema which we can cook up and shoot in the case of catastrophic relationship failure.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Would not a vaccine or some kind of hormonal prophylactic be a better idea? I'd sign up for the clinical trials provided it didn't result in facial hair. Hrm. Facial hair would certainly preclude my involvement in Stage 1.
No stage four: Pain?
Or in the words of Leonard Cohen,
All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky
The holy books are open wide
The doctors working day and night
But they’ll never ever find that cure for love
But I find a nun or two can help, and if I may be allowed some shameless self promotion, (and I know nothing amuses JiB as much as debauched nuns), you may care to look at:
Buvons, buvons
Amuses and arouses.
oxytocin is a significant factor post baby, where couples experience sexual difficulties. The mother is bonding with the baby, more oxytocin as she breastfeeds...it's a weapon of massive sexual destruction (for a short period of time anyway).