{"id":1951,"date":"2013-11-25T19:28:38","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T01:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithonthecouch\/?p=1951"},"modified":"2013-11-25T19:28:38","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T01:28:38","slug":"study-sayscasual-sex-can-cause-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithonthecouch\/2013\/11\/study-sayscasual-sex-can-cause-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Says,Casual Sex Can Cause Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cThere\u2019s always been a question about which one is the cause\u00a0 and which is the effect.\u00a0 This study\u00a0 provides evidence that poor mental health can lead to casual sex, but also that\u00a0 casual sex leads to additional declines in \"\"<\/a>mental health.\u201d <\/em>Sandberg-Thoma conducted the study with Claire Kamp Dush<\/a>,\u00a0 assistant professor of human sciences at Ohio State.\u00a0 The research was published online recently in\u00a0 the Journal of Sex Research<\/a> and will\u00a0 appear in a future print edition. <\/em>One surprising finding was that the link between casual sex\u00a0 and mental health was the same for both men and women.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>\u201cThat was unexpected because there is still this sexual\u00a0 double standard in society that says it is OK for men to have casual sexual\u00a0 relationships, but it is not OK for women,\u201d Kamp Dush said.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c<\/em>But these results suggest that poor mental health and casual\u00a0 sex are linked, whether you\u2019re a man or a woman.\u201d\u00a0 Read More<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I need to give a hat tip to Elizabeth Scalia for pointing my attention to this piece.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll recall I asserted this exact same thing in my interview with drive time shock jock Tracy Jones on\u00a0WKRP<\/del> WLW\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>in Cincinnati several months ago.\u00a0 The researchers seem mystified as to why it is that casual sex causes depression and why this is true for both women and men.<\/p>\n

The Christians reading this will probably be face-palming right about now because we accept these facts\u2013for the most part anyway (I think the male casual sex\/depression link would surprise a lot of my Christian friends infected with the secular culture\u2019s double standard about men)\u2013as biblical truths.\u00a0 But we have to do a better job of explaining why casual sex\u00a0is wrong beyond just saying \u201cJesus said, NO!\u201d\u00a0 (as if he was \u201cGrumpy Cat<\/a>\u201d or something)<\/p>\n

As I assert in my book Holy Sex!\u00a0 the brain is wired to view sex as a sign of intimacy and unity.\u00a0 In fact, the brain responds to break-ups the same way it responds to physical pain.<\/a>\u00a0 When two people make love, their brains begin to think of the other as part of each self.\u00a0 The lovers literally become wired together.\u00a0 When they break-up, the brain responds to the social wound as if the lovers experienced a physical wound; a broken arm or a broken leg.\u00a0 Now imagine intentionally\u00a0setting yourself up to get physically wounded again and again.\u00a0 You would call that person \u201cmentally ill\u201d right?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s what casual sex is\u2013setting your brain up to be wounded again and again.\u00a0\u00a0 And setting oneself up to get hurt again and again\u2013especially in the name of fun\u2013is a depressing thought.<\/p>\n

Sex is a powerful drug.\u00a0 In particular, it is a drug that literally bonds two people together\u2013not just metaphysically, but neurologically.\u00a0\u00a0 The brain can\u2019t tell the difference between a one night stand and an LTR.\u00a0 It just knows that it is being bombarded by chemicals that make it start to bond with another person and think of that person as part of oneself.\u00a0 Losing a part of yourself is depressing.\u00a0 The brain processes a break-up after sex like it would process an amputation and, to respond to the other question the study asked, the reason that causal sex negatively affects both women and men is because male and female brains are more alike than they are different.\u00a0 Yes, there are differences between the sexes, but those differences tend to be more qualitative than structural. It isn\u2019t as if women have entire swaths of brain territory that men don\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that some areas of the female brain light up a little differently than other parts.\u00a0 But both men and women have all the parts of the brain that make them human beings, and the bonding process is a basic human response.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The mental health of both men and women is negatively affected by casual sex because we weren\u2019t physically made to do it, and acting in a manner that is contrary to our design causes us to feel broken down and depressed.<\/p>\n

The good news is that the flipside is also true.\u00a0 People who have fewer sexual partners (for instance, one) and who remain faithful to that partner are happier, and both mentally and physically healthier than people with more sexual partners.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to learn more about having a healthy, joyful, life-long love, or how to effectively articulate the truth of the Catholic vision of love, check out Holy Sex!\u00a0 A Catholic Guide to Toe-Curling, Mind-Blowing, Infallible Loving.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere\u2019s always been a question about which one is the cause\u00a0 and which is the effect.\u00a0 This study\u00a0 provides evidence that poor mental health can lead to casual sex, but also that\u00a0 casual sex leads to additional declines in mental health.\u201d Sandberg-Thoma conducted the study with Claire Kamp Dush,\u00a0 assistant professor of human sciences at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4,93,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression","category-marriage","category-mental-illness","category-sexuality","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nStudy Says,Casual Sex Can Cause Depression<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cThere\u2019s always been a question about which one is the cause\u00a0 and which 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