It is evidenced directly in the enormous increase in the use of prescribed medications including antidepressants (up 400 percent since 1998) and opioid painkillers.

In these studies, I also wanted to understand more about female sexual response, which was so understudied, and how exactly the brain is involved. I looked at how some of my ladies of the lab responded under two different conditions: orgasm brought about when a woman stimulated her own genitals, and that induced by a partner’s stimulation of her

It is my experience that people are literally afraid to “indulge” in the release of pleasure—as they have been conditioned by culture or bad experiences to associate having pleasure with the threat of danger or punishment. It is as if having “too much fun” evokes the sense that feeling good is bad or shameful. This connection may be even more

Our relationship with our sexuality gives us a way to assess our capacity for pleasure, and, as we do so, evaluate the functioning of the emotional brain.

We’ve been told by sex experts that the cause of an inability to enjoy sex is sexual dysfunction, brought on by age, hormonal disruptions, or other diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or depression. And yes, these conditions all play a role in sexual shutdown. However, the underlying causes for sexual dysfunctions that

Driven by the neurotransmitter dopamine, our SEEKING system is meant to cue us to feel enthusiastic about going into the world to pursue what we need and want through experiences. When this system becomes overstimulated and hijacked by chronic stress and attention overload, a domino effect occurs, disrupting all the systems at once, making us

(Counterintuitively, young men are among the biggest consumers of Viagra-type drugs.)

It’s a vicious cycle of emotional dysregulation: the inability to have pleasure drains us of enthusiasm for life; anxiety and depression rob us of the appetite and enthusiasm to pursue pleasure; and these negative emotions keep feeding off of one another.

What this distinction actually misses is the important role that pleasures of mind and body play in our emotional lives—moving us toward what will be good for us and moving us away from painful or toxic experiences that will harm. Pleasure as an emotion is meant on some level to help us live more effectively.