-----Original Message-----
From: Cynthia <cyn386@flash.net>
To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
Date: Wednesday, October 13, 1999 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: Reducing your sex drive.
>James Daugherty wrote:
>
>> >The anti-depressants Paxil and Prozac have the effect in many men of
>> >reducing or eliminating the sex drive and/or causing impotence.
>>
>> I tried Prozac for awhile as an experiment based on
>> the "Listening to Prozac" book and found that Prozac
>> reduced the frequency of my spontaneous thoughts about
>> sex and reduced the desire for sex. However, I found
>> normal response and ability once the decision was
>> made to have sex....perhaps this is just a reduction
>> in obsessive/compulsive psychology surrounding sex,
>> not really a reduction in sex drive...???
>
>Aren't you afraid that if you suppress your sex drive, instead of
channeling
>it into something creative, that you will become a dull and uncreative
>person?
>
Wanting to reduce your sex drive is not a healthy desire in my opinion. I think that even an unsatisfied sex drive is better then none at all. Emotions, especially of the sexual type, drive you to do strange things sometimes, and get in the way of things you'd rather be doing. I used to wish I wasn't as horny as I am, didn't feel things as deeply as I did, and didn't think as much as I did.. but I realized these impulses (impulses to repress drives) are of the same sort as the suicidal impulse. It's a lot easier not to think about sex, in the same way that it's a lot easier to be dead then alive. I think you're cheating yourself if you try to kill or lessen your sex drive, and you'll be a happier person in the long run if you don't. The only people who should consider this reduction are people with desires that are as dangerous as they are intense (pedophiles, people with rape fantasies), and need to do so to prevent themselves from causing harm. Everyone else should quit the prozac and start taking aphrodisiacs.