Sex File: Her PDAs are too much for me 

"For most people the high of new love is a time-limited experience and after six months or so very few couples are still snogging spontaneously in the street. If they are, their PDAs tend to be about putting on a performance rather than passion."

Picture: iStock 

I've recently started seeing a woman who is very physical in public. She seems to get a kick out of getting me excited at inappropriate times. It's rarely subtle and can be embarrassing. She doesn't take me seriously when I ask her to calm it down. It's not that she wants to have sex, so it makes me think she gets a thrill from making me feel awkward.

PDAs (public displays of affection) are much more common in new relationships. When couples can't keep their hands off one another, spontaneous outbreaks of hand-holding and caressing are a natural and inevitable expression of what feels like mutual obsession. The anthropologist Helen Fisher describes the all-consuming focus that defines new romantic relationships as like having someone camping in your head. You can't think about anything else, so the public aspect of PDAs is almost immaterial. New couples are so focused on each other that they barely notice where they are, let alone people rolling their eyes and silently mouthing 'get a room'.