Charlie Sheen, Gays, Transexuals, and Dopamine

You knew there was more going on when you heard he caught AIDS:

Sex maniac Charlie Sheen not only bedded porn stars, groupies, call girls and strippers — he also slept with transsexuals and men!

Multiple sources have informed RadarOnline.com the 50-year-old television star — who admitted he was HIV positive in a bombshell interview on Tuesday morning — regularly forked out tens of thousands of dollars to sleep with sex swap escorts and gay lovers.

There was an anecdotal case highlighted in the book of a heterosexual man with a family who was prescribed a dopamine agonist for Parkinson’s symptoms. Once he was hopped up on synthetic dopamine, the father then went on a gay sex binge which he said he couldn’t control, until he went off the medication and became heterosexual again.

Sexual stimulation requires a mild level of amygdala stimulation. Too little is what you have between a husband and wife who have been married for decades, and for whom sexual activity is totally routine. Too much is what you have when a Grizzly Bear smells the deer hormones you put out by your tree stand, decides he feels a little randy, and, well, you just happen to be in the wrong place at the right time for the bear.

My own theory is, when you are hopped up on dopamine, you need more amygdala stimulation than you would normally need, to overcome the amygdala-quieting effects of the dopamine and get into that sweet spot where sexual drive arises. Hence you begin to look for more than the simple feminine partner and illicit getaway. Sexual conditions which otherwise would over-stimulate the amygdala and shut off sexual stimulation normally, such as extreme disgust, suddenly place the amygdala stimulation in that middle-ground where things activate the amygdala just enough to trigger desire. Dopamine deadening effects, plus amygdala over-stimulation all equals out to normal amygdala activation.

So if you are Charlie Sheen, and you’ve just polished off that fifteenth dopamine-receptor-agonizing crack rock in five minutes, suddenly that hot porn star you just met looks to your amygdala kind of like the wife you’ve been married to for forty years, and that gross tranny with a third penis in the middle of his forehead, looks kind of like the hottest girl you’ve ever seen. Eventually, it might even take the grossest thing of all, ie regular men, to turn you on.

There is probably a structural thing underlying it, most likely relating in many cases to DRD4 7r. These Sheen-types are the extreme r-overshoots, so I’m sure not every person has the wiring to make this transition, even overloaded on crack and porn stars. But it may have some effect farther from the margins. As an example, a guy I knew years back who had a history of cocaine use liked girls with lots of tattoos (as in full sleeves and stockings), while I find them highly off-putting. I also find it interesting that the girls I’ve known with lots of tattoos struck me as more r, and they’ve altered their bodies in such a way as to appeal to men who themselves are already leaning toward a more r-mating preference. It is almost as if they are both designed to keep their rabbity bloodlines more pure.

I’ve sometimes wondered if I won the powerball, landed in Ibiza on a private jet, and then spent a year overloading on dopamine from fine food, beautiful environs, drugs, women, and ease, whether I would suddenly find girls with tattoo sleeves attractive, and prefer a government that controlled everyone so I would never have to face them myself.

Somehow I doubt it, though I’ll bet I would enjoy my Apocalypse a little bit weirder.