What is happening inside our bodies when we feel sexually attracted to someone?
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Large amounts of “happy chemicals”—dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin—are released, and blood flow increases. The combination of a rush of happy chemicals and the disorientation from a change in blood flow causes the well-known symptoms of attraction: blushing, feeling woozy (blood flow changes are disorienting), butterflies, and the results of increased blood flow to sex organs.
The chemical release during intimacy is comparable to the chemical release when taking certain drugs. A study compared the brains of cocaine addicts to the brains of new lovers and found they were almost identical.
This explains why sexual attraction can be so intense: it is literally addictive. Also, human instincts drive most people to have sex, so when a person is sexually attracted to someone else, the combination of chemical changes and instinctual urges make it difficult for that person to ignore it.
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