The official Tumblr for the Center for Sexual Pleasure & Health!Word Of The Day: oxytocin
A lot of people talk about oxytocin - especially on the Internet - but not everyone knows as much as they claim to. It’s a hormone that is released in your brain, colloquially known as “the love hormone”, and rumors have linked it to all forms of intimacy and sexual activity. Getting ahold of it could be as easy as just tapping into your imagination. So, what’s myth, and what’s known?
MYTH: Oxytocin creates emotional bonds.
REALITY: Based on current studies, oxytocin can have a propensity to incite feelings of intimacy or “cuddliness”, especially after sex (since orgasm can trigger a flood release of oxytocin). However, oxytocin cannot CREATE emotional bonds where they do not exist. The effects it has on the brain chemistry may only emphasize emotional intimacy - or a *feeling* of intimacy - in a moment between two people who already care about each other.
MYTH: Oxytocin is essential to mother-child bonding, as it passes from the mother to the child during breastfeeding and stabilizes their emotional bond.
REALITY: Oxytocin IS transmitted through breastfeeding, and could very well be a feel-good factor that gives both mother and child a lil’ bit of a fuzzy feeling. But just as it is patently obvious that children who are not breast fed - or children who are not breast fed by the people who raise them - can still cultivate loving relationships with their caretakers, it is in no way “essential” and has not been proven to play a crucial role in the bonding process. In other words, while oxytocin is involved in breastfeeding, it does not create bonds.
MYTH: Oxytocin is *crucial* to feelings of love!
REALITY: Oxytocin is just one chemical of the many that work in your brain. We still don’t know a whole lot about it, or about many neurochemicals in general, but it is clear that “love” is much more complex than any one chemical. Furthermore, not all studies show that oxytocin creates happy feelings. In some studies, oxytocin has been shown to emphasize fear, stress, or envy.
MYTH: Oxytocin only “surges” during orgasm. That’s why it’s so important to only have sex with people you love, because afterwards the emotional bond between you will be so strong that breaking it could lead to tragedy!
REALITY: There are a lot of myths packed up in there. First of all, oxytocin surges during a variety of activities, not all of which are intimate or even sexual: studies have found that your oxytocin levels spike when you eat chili peppers, do yoga, or pet dogs. Secondly, contrary to a number of commonly reblogged fables, since oxytocin cannot create emotional bonds out of nothing, linking oxytocin to the dynamics between two sexual partners seems to just be a myth created by those who would also advocate against premarital sex.
Source: Heather Corinna from Scarleteen has written a very in depth article debunking the oxytocin myth which includes these facts and more - we highly recommend you check it out here!
