Sex Is NOT a Drive Like Hunger, and Here Are 2 Reasons This Fact Matters
No one has ever died from a lack of sex.
I always thought sex was a drive. You often hear people talk about their low or high “sex drives.” Even scientists occasionally refer to sex as a drive. The words go together like apple and pie.
But I recently read the NYTimes best-selling book Come as You Are by Dr. Emily Nagoski, and she explains that thinking about sex as a drive is not only factually wrong but dangerous.
Sexual desire is not a drive like hunger or thirst. And that fact is pretty damn important to know.
First of all, what is a drive?
But before I get into why it’s important you know that, let me first explain what a drive actually is.
Nagoski explains “a drive is a biological mechanism whose job is to keep the organism at a healthy baseline — not too warm, not too cold, not too hungry, not too full.”
She goes on, “we can starve to death, die of dehydration, even die of sleep deprivation. But nobody has ever died because of not being able to get laid.”
In other words, drives are motivational systems that keep you from croaking. The desire for sex does not fall into this category.
