by Nelly Patterson ’10

A Bethel lecture hall was filled to overflowing as students and faculty gathered on a recent Friday night to learn about the neurological effects of casual sex. The speaker was Freda Bush, M.D., appointee to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, a board member of the Medical Institute of Sexual Health, and co-author of the book Hooked. Bush helps the Presidential Advisory Council decide policies regarding funding, treatment, and prevention of HIV/AIDS in the United States.

Bush strongly encourages abstinence for unmarried couples. “What I’m trying to do is help young people make healthy decisions so they don’t sabotage their futures,” she said. She makes her case by touring the country to present her research about the neurological effects of sexual intimacy.

According to Bush, Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Vasopressin are three chemicals released into the brain during physical contact. Dopamine “makes you feel good,” she says, and makes you want to repeat the act; and Oxytocin and Vasopressin are chemicals “released through intimate contact and results in those two people bonding together.”

She used the example of a Band-Aid to describe how this bonding becomes more difficult as a person has multiple relationships. Just as a Band-Aid loses its adhesive power the more it is used, so do partners lose their capability to bond if they enter a relationship having previously bonded with others.

“It’s like driving fast: after a while, the breaking and bonding becomes your new ‘normal’ and you become immune to the risk of the fact that you partially bonded with multiple partners,” said Bush.

In order to maintain the ability to bond, she claims it is one’s personal responsibility to provide the protection for his or her brain and apply “the brakes.” But if boundaries have already been crossed, Bush offers a voice of encouragement and hope for change.

“The good news is that, whether you have done it one time or one hundred times, you can make a decision: I don’t want to be on this train. I have a new destination and I’m going to map out a road to get there,” said Bush.

Bush’s visit was co-sponsored by the Bethel Pre-medical Club and the Office of Relationship Education.