How many times have You thought 'perhaps a good Shag will cheer me up?' How often does a row end in some satisying horizontal folk dancing? Have you ever said about someone 'he is in a most dire need of a blow job'.
Researchers at Monash University think there may be a causal link between depression and increased sex drive. A study soon to be published in The British Medical Journal asserts that there may be a connection.
Dr Sabura Allen, a clinical psychologist at Monash University, and her colleagues found that depressed women are more likely to have sex than their counterparts who do not suffer from depression.
They also found depressed people have more sexually liberated and adventurous attitudes. In single women depression was linked with a wider variety of sexual encounters and a greater frequency of causal sex.
Why? Well, the researchers suggest that in women sex makes them feel more secure in their relationships. The intimacy that sex provides replaces something missing because of their depression.
Although we haven't done any research, we think It may go deeper than that. Sex may help with depression or sadness for both men and women. Two reasons. The researchers are probably Right. There is a reward from the sense of closeness that sex brings. But also it may be a case of self medication.
There is plenty of evidence that people self-medicate for undiagnosed conditions. People commonly use substances like alcohol and nictoine to ease the pain of stress. For some of us a good work-out helps too. Exercise and sex both produce endorphins - the body's natural pain killers.
The pure chemical reactions going on after sex or exercise induce a euphoric state. Is it any wonder that people who are suffering, for example, from depression seek out a natural cure.
Physiolgocially this has been studied already. Sexual activity creates and excess of dopamine in the human brain. Depression by definition is a lack of dopamine that prevents proper synapses from fireing.
Dopeamine is exactly as it sounds, a natural chemical in the brain that creates a feeling of euphoria. Sex increases dopamine production.
So yes a single sexual experience is a temporary cure for a depressive moment. Clinical depression, the studies are dubious, but there is some thought that healthy active sexuality slowly increases dopamine production and can 'cure' clinical depression and possibly manic depression.
Side note, marijuana or weed, also contains natural dopamine that is being used in some States of the U.S. as medical marijuana to treat depression over chemically created anti-depressants.
So sex, weed, it's all the same. Makes you feel good and activates the dopamine production in the brain.
I personally don't use any illicit drug, including alcohol, but I think the prohibition of marijuana is just as ridiculous as socially forced monogamy.
Side note, marijuana or weed, also contains natural dopamine that is being used in some States of the U.S. as medical marijuana to treat depression over chemically created anti-depressants.
Natural dopamine? What are you smoking?
Cannabis contains THC, which acts on cannabinoid receptors in the brain. The endogenous substance that stimulates these receptors is called anandamide, not dopamine.
You're probably thinking of crystal meth, which stimulates dopamine receptors, and is also reportedly great for sex.
Lepke is correct, and I miss-spoke, the research I was looking at, upon second glance was obscenely outdated. Here's a direct quote from something a bit more recent...
"The locations of the cannabinoid receptors are most revealing of the way THC acts on the brain, but the importance of this determination is best understood in comparison with the effects of other drugs on the brain. Neurons are brain cells which process information. Neurotransmitter chemicals enable them to communicate with each other by their release into the gap between the neurons. This gap is called the synapse. Receptors are actually proteins in neurons which are specific to neurotransmitters, and which turn various cellular mechanisms on or off. Neurons can have thousands of receptors for different neurotransmitters, causing any neurotransmitter to have diverse effects in the brain. Drugs affect the production, release or re-uptake (a regulating mechanism) of various neurotransmitters. They also mimic or block actions of neurotransmitters, and can interfere with or enhance the mechanisms associated with the receptor. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which is associated with extremely pleasurable sensations, so that the neural systems which trigger dopamine release are known as the "brain reward system." The key part of this system is identified as the mesocorticolimbic pathway, which links the dopamine-production area with the nucleus of accumbens in the limbic system, an area of the brain which is associated with the control of emotion and behavior. "
Seratonin has Come to the public's attention mostly because of the meteoric rise of SSRIs - Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors, a type of antidepressant.
One antidepressant, Wellbutrin (generic name - bupropion) is known to have little effect on serotonin, but clinical studies claim that Wellbutrin is No less effective than any other antidepressant.
Despite this, now rife is the unfortunate and inaccurate idea that a lack of seratonin causes depression.
Seratonin is produced in the brain on an ongoing basis and in response to pleasure-giving experiences, in a normally healthy system.
But if that system becomes less than healthy, if it is depressed for example, seratonin levels can drop. But low levels didn't cause the depression!
Serotonin's role in sexual function is that of constriction of smooth muscles in the genitals, and peripheral nerve function. Epinephrine appears to be involved in maintaining the penis in a flaccid state. This increases the rate and force of the muscle's contractions during sexual activity. Conversely, in women, epinephrine has been shown to increase vaginal pulse amplitude. Norepinephrine is another neurotransmitter that mediates chemical communication in the sympathetic nervous system, a branch of the autonomic nervous system. Like other neurotransmitters, it is released at synaptic nerve endings to transmit the signal from a nerve cell to other cells. Levels in the brain of neropinephrine vary according to sexual arousal. They increase significantly with arousal and sexual activity in men as well as in women.
THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, increases serotonin when smoked in low doses, similar to SSRI antidepressants, such as Prozac, according to researchers from McGill University and Le Centre de Recherche Fernand Seguin of Hôpital in Quebec and l'Université de Montréal in Montreal.
But at higher doses, the effect reverses itself and can actually worsen depression and other psychiatric conditions like psychosis.
As a side note, due to its effects on serotonin, sex also is a 'cure' for headaches. I didn't think it was worth posting the article with all the medical jargon in it. It does explain why my Biologoy professor told us that sex was the only viable hangover cure
This explains why I was addicted to sex between 2000-2006.
I can guarantee you at the time it didn't matter where sex came from, or how long it lasted, I relied on sex to get me through the days/nights for the better part of 6 years.
I knew that I was depressed/stressed during that time, however I would not have classified myself as chronically depressed and I was not on medication, however I sought out and used sex to cheer myself up on a regular basis.
Then again I may just be a horny bitch who liked getting her rocks off!
It is hardly rocket science that sex makes us feel good. We have known that for years....does it cure depression, NO but Hell it is a great way to spend some time!
You might find it interesting to note that during the stated time period I also happened to be single for 4 years by choice having walked away from a sexless marriage as my ex husband was too busy smoking dope and getting jolly off the THC to care about dopamine or sex for that matter!!
I can definately vouch for the fact that I had a wider variety of sexual encounters and a greater frequency of causal sex than my girlfriends during that period of my life.
I can also agree with the following quote "people self-medicate for undiagnosed conditions. People commonly use substances like alcohol and nictoine to ease the pain of stress. For some of us a good work-out helps too. Exercise and sex both produce endorphins - the body's natural pain killers".
Hell between 2000-2006 I was a smoking, drinking, fucking, running machine!
How many times have 
You
Dr Sabura Allen, a clinical psychologist at Monash University, and her colleagues found that depressed women are more likely to have sex than their counterparts who do not suffer from depression. 
please sweetness - just a little ... 
