Love, Sex

Why Orgasms Actually Ruin People's Love Lives (Says Science)

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can orgasms lead to depression

Brace yourselves because this is going to sound like craziness spewed from way out left field. But it turns out that orgasms are ruining your life by making you depressed and are becoming an enemy to great sex. But how can orgasms lead to depression?

Have we been duped? Do those blissful 10 seconds actually sign us up for a lifetime of crankiness, despair, and anxiety? Would the pharmaceutical industry experience a huge decline in med sales if we all just settled for sex sans the big O? 

Marnia Robinson, author of Cupid's Poisoned Arrow: From Habit to Harmony in Sexual Relationships, certainly thinks so. Robinson has spent years studying "ancient sacred-sex prescriptions" and the verdict is in: your orgasms are worthless.

Orgasms are fun at the moment, but apparently, they are not conducive for humans in the long-term. In short: stay away from them.

Robinson cites the ancient Taoists and their use of "angelic dual cultivation." Angelic dual cultivation (we already dislike this) is a form of orgasm-less lovemaking meant to unite "spirit with spirit, mind with mind." 

Related: 4 Brave Men Reveal What A Male Orgasm REALLY Feels Like

Instead of smashing one's sex organs together in hopes of getting off, this "angelic dual cultivation" is a sweeter, slower, more sensual act that doesn't focus on an ending. (Probably because there is no ending without orgasm.)

The Yale-and-Brown-educated scholar writes, "Despite its glorious pleasures, orgasm whips up inner turbulence — without our awareness." Indeed, a Dutch scientist reported that brain scans of people having orgasms resemble those of people shooting heroin.

However, just like a drug high, this temporary infusion of feel-good neurochemicals at climax does not last.

"This neurochemical roller coaster ride (or "passion cycle") typically creates unnecessary turbulence for up to two weeks, although most of us certainly will not connect any wobbles in perception with the great sex that caused them. At most, we realize that we, or more likely our partner, seems irritable, over-sensitive, defensive, unforgiving, apathetic, unloving, clingy, hyperactive, or whatever."

Whoa! We get hit with post-orgasm crankiness for up to TWO weeks?

Ladies, propose this "no orgasm" rule tonight, in the name of the ancient Taoists. Sure, you may notice an increase in "irritable, over-sensitive, defensive, unforgiving, apathetic, unloving, clingy, hyperactive" behavior, but at least you'll know it isn't from an orgasm, but from one of those dirty, druggy ruin-your-life orgasms. 

RELATED: Unfinished Business: 7 Reasons You're Not Getting Off

Robinson says she and her husband have been happy (according to her) without a climax for eight years now. Apparently, her current relationship is free of the "unsettling dramas" of their previous relationships and this kind of sex is totally working for them.

While we're 100 percent in favor of sensual sex, we fear we're too far down the rabbit hole of the big O. We'd rather view an orgasm as one of life's eternal treats, and take up kick-boxing as a way to quell our aggression... if there's any afterward.

Watch the video below to learn more about the science of orgasms:

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Melissa Noble is a freelance writer and blogger who lives in Brooklyn. She enjoys writing and advising about relationships because as Woody Allen said in Annie Hall (her favorite movie): those who can't do, teach.