♡ A fool for your love ♡
Love chemistry has only given me heartache over the years. Especially when it's externally induced the synthetic aphrodisiacs have made me respond in
'Drunken gibberish'. I become too heady and subservient in a dramatized setting for the swooning of the opposite sex. These theatrics have only made me a loner and as for the part of feelings of love that was spontaneously generated in me, well they were all relegated to the confines of the domain of platonic. However, the policing of my life by unseen
forces, not eliminating the possibility of indirect involvement of the same lasses with whom I've been foolishly courting with; have demanded a strict code of conduct in my faulty attempts to woo my fantasized vis a vis. Eventually all that verbose cajolery has found retribution in one way or
another.
I believe the borderline between self gratification and coupling with a sexual partner is subtle as far as the cocktail of chemicals that oozes from the brain is concerned. Be it autoeroticism or fornication there is a Parallel in the three stages of the fabrication of passion. Namely, lust, attraction and attachment. There is a set of hormones and neurotransmitters that is responsible for giving us a tumescence in certain erogenous zones of the body.
However, love is not considered an emotion a psychiatrist would call it a motivation system. The chemicals are secreted by different, yet connected brain systems. Lust is driven by androgens and estrogens that makes us crave for sexual gratification. Attraction is driven by three neurotransmitters, this is a stage when a suitor is love-struck or in passionate love with someone they met for the first time. A combination of high levels of Dopamine and norepinephrine together with low levels of Serotonin.
Norepinephrine is a stress hormone. It increases your blood pressure, races your heart and your mouth goes dry. Dopamine calibrates your brain to perceive reward in a circumstance and prompts you to take action in procuring it. Since it also helps to control the pleasure center of the brain it increases energy, lessens the need for sleep or food, focuses attention and lets you find delight in the slightest detail of the
relationship. Low levels of Serotonin are characterized by euphoria when fortune smiles on you and being depressed when you're unfortunate. It makes you obsessively think of your lover and intensely crave for the person.
Attachment is driven by the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin. According to the studies conducted by the scientists these two hormones are responsible for keeping a couple together long enough for them to raise their children.
Oxytocin is released when a man or woman has reached orgasm. It even promotes greater bonding in the post-coital afterglow. Deeper bonding arouses for an increase times in the repetition of sex. It also spurs to establish the bond between the mother and her newborn baby. Likewise sight or the sound of the suckling simulates her breasts to secrete milk.
Vasopressin is a stimulant for long-term commitment. This too is a post-coital hormone. The hormone is said to play a role in the stability of a relationship.
However, there's a flip side in the hormonal mechanisms that affect the body in making love. Especially, when you intake it as anti-depressants.
That is to say If your body cannot tolerate the drug it will wreak havoc on yourself. Believe me, I once had a dreadful experience after taking prescribed anti-depressants. A single dose of a potent selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) brought all hell down on me. The drug increases the serotonin levels in the brain and blocks the reabsorption (reuptake) of the neurotransmitter in the brain. It is called selective because it primarily targets serotonin. Here's a list of side effects that I've experienced after using the drug. It rapidly increases the heart rate, agitation and restlessness, and certainly insomnia. There's loads more other symptoms associated with it.
I'm sure a potent Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitor will have the same side effects if the patient cannot tolerate the drug.
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It is printed on the prescription drug brochure that escitalopram oxalate might cause mania/hypomania in patients. I swear I didn't have either of the two. I was diagnosed on the belief that I had symptoms of depression. Along with it, I was advised to take Risperidone an antipsychotic drug that is prescribed for the treatment of Schizophrenia which is a mental disorder characterized by loss of sense of reality and Bipolar disorder where patients switch between periods of depression and elevated moods. If you think of generalizing the term 'elevated' with the normal behaviour you have misunderstood its usage in psychiatry. It refers to mania or hypomania. The drug also has the potential to enhance the action of Serotonin and is used in patients who have not responded to SSRI therapy. But if it was given for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) for which Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SRIs) are said to be the only approved medication the symptoms of the disorder might find reciprocity with few of my eccentricities. I do wash my hands regularly when I'm cooking my meals. Sure, I do it habitually if I think the kitchenware is dirty. But these behaviours do not interfere with my routine activities and its repetitions are certainly not obsessively chronic. I have no problem engaging in chores for longer periods of time.
Benzhexol and Risnia are the other two drugs that made up the cocktail of pills that were handed over the counter at the pharmacy. Benzhexol a.k.a Trihexyphenidyl is an antiparkinsonian agent. Parkinson's is a chronic and progressive movement disorder. It affects the nerve cells in the brain and causes malfunction and death in them. Causing a decreases in the levels of dopamine. Weaken activities of the motor function include symptoms such as tremors in the body, slowness in movement, rigidity and impaired balance and coordination. However, the drug is also used for treating extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) occurring from intake of antipsychotic medicine. The symptoms in the definition of extrapyramidal include drug-induced movement disorders such as continuous spasms and muscle contractions, Motor restlessness, irregular and jerky movements, etcetera. The symptoms are considerably evident after using a dose of antipsychotic drugs that aggravate dopamine D2 receptors. Any reuptake inhibitors of the neurotransmitters of Serotonin, Dopamine or Norepinephrine that are used as antidepressants have known to cause the symptoms of EPS.
Risnia too is an antipsychotic drug used for the treatment of Schizophrenia or Bipolar disorder. In conclusion, all I want to say is that even prescription drugs come with a warning of contraindications for the patients especially if their bodies don't tolerate heavy doses of the drugs. It is up to the patients to think wisely if they should continue with the drugs when It could have adverse side affects on their health.
It is worthwhile to note that antidepressants with reuptake inhibitors namely, Serotonin, Dopamine or Norepinephrine, and Antipsychotic drugs have an adverse side effect on patients that decrease sexual interest and erectile dysfunction in them. The symptoms include a decrease in sexual interest or libido, a decrease in physiological arousal such as less lubrication in women and erection in men, delayed or inability to reach orgasm and abnormal ejaculation.
A post from my retrospective archival.
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