The "Slut" Gene?

Updated: Jan 27, 2022

ADHD. The Slut Gene?

"Neurodivergence is a grab bag of "cognitive conditions", once considered "abnormal" but now in these Woke times called "disorders", to be "treated" by drugs (all hail Big Pharma) or through therapy (if you have the money and the time), with the promise of living a “normal” life, whatever that is.

"Neurodivergence" includes everything from Tourette's to epilepsy to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to ASD and ADHD, with the last two most newsworthy since Elon Musk claimed to be an “Aspie”.

Sex is in your jeans, but in the case of ADHD it’s in your genes.

DrD4 R7

There is no scientific consensus on this but the culprit seems to be the DrD4 R7 allele.

It has been called the "Slut Gene" because people with it can be hypersexual if not polyamorous. Big words meaning: they get laid a lot.

Why?

If you read my book, you know that the answer lies in human evolution. Should you be ashamed of what comes naturally?

Hunters and gatherers lived in small bands of 25 to 30 people—the optimum Dunbar number for engagement and cooperation in any group—then and also now.

Our ancestors avoided inbreeding, as wolves do, with the young, leaving for neighboring bands, easy to do since several bands generally shared one territory, cooperating for big hunts—and, if successful, big feasts—with singing, dancing-- and lots of gratuitous sex. Today, we have Spring Break.

“Evolutionary psychologists” like Stephen Pinker, say our ancestors were brutal and violent, always at war with their neighbors. That’s nonsense—as is most of what Pinker writes. Popular – but still intellectual posturing.

Equality and Dual Mating

What distinguishes Homo Sapiens is not a capacity for violence but our unique social nature, leveraging empathy and altruism and a need for play. Early humans were the first hippies. Peace and love and parties. We are puppies not attack dogs.

Back 35,000 years ago, everyone in a band of 25 was a "chief" -- women were equal to men and made their own choices.

Besides one night stands at prehistoric wine and dine parties, women often sought out genetically fit partners during oestrus, when their perception of sexual attractiveness changed. Form triumphs over content; the moment over tomorrow.

This is known as the “Dual Mating Strategy”, among its various names and social anthropologists and psychologists hate it. No doubt because they aren’t getting any.

The scientific debate aside, studies show large percentage of children today have fathers different from the one they regards as “Dad ”. And when today’s women have one nighters they usually do it during oestrus, or when they come off the pill, when hormone levels change. It's more about optics than compatibility. The first time your eyes meet, you melt. The next day...oh...WTF!

Psychologist Calcida Jethra co-author of Sex At Dawn says, “Darwin says your mother’s a whore. Simple as that.”

As with Bonobos, sex is a social lubricant. (Pun intended). But what turns us on in fantasy or in a mad moment is not the same as what we want for a long-term companion, which is more about caring and sharing.

Neanderthals by contrast were not as social –and became inbred, which is likely why they died out.

Then came Climate Change

But then came climate change, which as today, generates social evolution. We invented agriculture to cope. With that came notions of property, large scale society, first tribes, then civilizations and of course “work”, which is, of course, a four letter word, although not one known to our ancestors.

Many of these new societies went so far as to mutilate women’s sexual organs to prevent them expressing their true, profoundly sexual nature. Gotta keep those bloodlines pure.

In Western countries, we just mutilate young girls psychologically. "Don't touch THAT-- it's not NICE".

However, ADHD people and Aspergers interact with reality and feelings in a very immediate way, often with very low latent inhibition which means "filtering" perception through social norms.

That includes sexual feeling, of course.

But while 30 to 50% of people in Paleo societies carried the genes of ADHD and Asperger’s which conferred advantages for the survival of their groups, what we need today is conformity and malleability. So, we preselect genetically and now just 5 and 10% of children are born with DrD4 R7.

The “Slut Gene” means more testosterone, which among other things generates sexual feeling women. Why do you feel horny after a glass of wine. The wine generates testosterone, Dear.

The Genius Gene and more

But DrD4 R7 does whole lot more than that, thanks to low latent inhibition.

It is also the Genius Gene , enabling creativity. Every genius has it.

It’s the Wanderlust Gene because people tired of same-old, same-old just move around.

It is the Adventure Gene because you high on challenge and adrenaline.

It is the Longevity Gene since upwards of 70% of centenarians -- have it. Curiosity, activity, humor and living in the moment are the keys to survival under any conditions.

The gifts conferred by ADHD were essential to survival for hunters and gatherers. But do not play well in our highly regimented societies, which value order and control above all else.

Asperger's

Asperger's could be linked to ADHD. Or a form autism. Genetically it’s associated with GABRB3 which ma enable hyper empathy --and hyper altruism—as is with Julian Assange and Greta Thunberg .

The "lack of empathy" conventionally ascribed to ASD is actually oversensitivity to other's feelings and or the alienation of “not fitting in"

Most ADHD and Asperger’s’ “symptoms” are really a caused by a clash between nature and nurture, being forced to conform to inherently “abnormal” and unnatural values.

If you have ADHD and /or Asperger’s as I do, people will often just tell you to “grow up”. Don’t. That’s just another way of saying “fit”. You will be happier and make the world a better place.

Just keep in mind that you are not superior in any way to “normal”, who are just more capable to adapting to a crazy world. They have things you lack-- just as you have things they lack. You need each other as much today as you did 35,000 years ago.