Love
on the Mind
Recent research suggests romantic attraction is a primitive,
biologically based drive, like hunger or sex.
While lust makes our eye wander, it's
the drive for romance that allows us to focus on one person, though
we often can't explain why. The biology of romance helps account for
how we think about passionate love and explain its insanity: why we
might travel cross-country for a single kiss and plunge into blackest
despair if our beloved turns away.
What
is LOVE, actually? The be-all and end-all for so many people turns
out to be something quite mundane, really.
Sex chemistry 'lasts two years
'.Couples should not worry when the first flush of passion dims -
scientists have identified the hormone changes which cause the switch
from lust to cuddles.
I
get a Kick Out of You - Love as a Chemical Addiction
Scientists are finding that, after all, love really
is down to a chemical addiction between people.
The
Brain in Love and Lust
Romantic love, Dr Helen Fisher explains in a lecture
at the 2004 American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting,
is not an emotion. Rather, it’s "a motivation system, it’s
a drive, it’s part of the reward system of the brain."
It’s a need that compels the lover to seek a specific mating
partner. Then the brain links this drive to all kinds of specific
emotions depending on how the relationship is going. All the while,
she went on to say, the prefrontal cortex is assembling data, putting
information into patterns, making strategies, and monitoring the progress
toward "life’s greatest prize."
Your
Dopamine or Mine?
Romance junkies will not be surprised by the finding
that falling in love is akin to a cocaine hit.
When it strikes, romantic love can
feel like a kind of madness. Infatuated people act irrationally. They
lose concentration. They feel giddy, wretched and wonderful. It is
one of life's most powerful experiences. Emily Dickinson described
it as "a perfect - paralysing bliss - contented as despair".
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Communication
Suffering
in Solitude - A humorous account on how different
men and women can be in their thinking. Men
want solitude, women want sympathy - getting sick is an ailment
in itself.
Staying
Silent a Killer for Wives
Women who force themselves to stay quiet during marital
arguments appear to have a higher risk of death, a new study shows.
Depression and irritable bowel syndrome are also more common in
these women.
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Divorce
and Separation
Divorce
Rate Falls as Marriage Lasts
The report, Divorces Australia, found that the national
divorce rate had dropped, for the fifth year in a row, by 1024,
or 2 per cent, from 52,399 in 2005 to 51,375 in 2006.
Divorce:
A Man's survival Guide
"If you're a man facing
separation and divorce, the way you respond to the crisis can make
a big difference to your health," writes Stephen Pincock for
ABC Health and Wellbeing.
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Health
Issues
Love
Hurts: Living with Herpes
"Dealing with the symptoms of
herpes is bad enough, but as Kathy Graham discovered, getting an
accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment was even more painful."
Reported for ABC Health and Wellbeing.
Herpes
Simplex virus
"The two strains of the herpes simplex virus
cause both cold sores and genital herpes. Both cause a lifelong
infection." Chris Smith writes for ABC Health and Wellbeing.
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Infidelity
Our
Cheating Hearts
Last year, A Gallup poll on moral issues revealed
that Americans were more offended by adultery than they were by
either polygamy or human cloning. Forget mortgages, politics and
footy, the real dinner party stopper is talk of infidelity. But
if it's so abhorrent, how do so many of us find ourselves caught
up in it?
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Sexuality
The
Female Orgasm - Radio National Health Report
Professor Emerita Beverly Whipple from Rutgers University
in New Jersey is co-author of the famous bestselling book The G
Spot. In this interview presented by Norman Swan, she talks about
the female orgasm in detail, about some myths, some assumptions
and facts.
How
Porn is Wrecking Relationships
For some Australians, the rising tide of internet pornography
has offered a form of sex education. It has helped extend sexual repertoires,
re-invigorated flagging sex lives, and assuaged anxieties or hang-ups.
It has been, some argue, a liberation.
But internet pornography is also emerging
as the new marriage-wrecker. More and more clients, counsellors say,
have begun to cite internet pornography as a factor in their relationship
breakdowns.
The technology has created what some
call an addiction. Others are more cautious, describing it as a compulsion.
Whatever the label, internet pornography is becoming yet another outlet
for those with pre-existing compulsive personalities while for others,
it has made it easier to do the things that a former head of the American
Academy for Matrimonial Lawyers, J.Lindsey Short, says "traditionally
lead to divorce".
One
in Three Porn Viewers are Women
RECORD numbers of Australians are visiting pornographic
web sites, including sexually explicit dating sites - and one in three
of them is a woman.
Does
Size Matter?
Sex columnist, Maureen Matthews answers Sydney Morning
Herald readers' questions on relationship issues. In this article
Maureen discusses penis size and whether or not it matters in intimate
relationships. Men's self esteem and insecurity around whether they
"measure up" is also discussed.
2busy
4Sex
10 unlikely shortcuts for more bedroom action.
Hot
For It? Or Not?
"When
one partner wants more sex than the other, tensions can run high.
But mismatched libidos need not mean the end of an otherwise good
relationship," writes Nicky Ruscoe for ABC Health and Wellbeing.
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Love
is Blind
"Turning a blind eye to a partner's faults is
the key to a happy relationship, research suggests." An Article
by Cathy Johnson reported in ABC Health and Wellbeing.
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