Masturbation Can Become a Problem
Sexuality is a wide world full of many different practices, self-discovery, and richness. Masturbation is a part of this world, and it brings many benefits. Various myths have been told about it, but these false statements are far from reality.
Masturbation is not selfish, immoral, or exclusively for single people. Anybody who has entered sexual maturity can masturbate. Whether you have a partner or not, regardless of your sexual status, masturbation is healthy.
However, masturbation can be similar to alcohol. One or two glasses of wine a day can be beneficial, but if you consume a bottle a day, you might end up having a stomachache, and problems with your daily life, including the development of alcoholism.
“So virtue is a purposive disposition, lying in a mean that is relative to us and determined by a rational principle, and by that which a prudent man would use to determine it. It is a mean between two kinds of vice, one of excess and the other of deficiency.”
-Aristotle-
I can’t stop doing it
With most people, masturbation is completely healthy and recommendable. Generally, it is practiced with normal frequency, it doesn’t affect daily life, and it is performed as a pleasurable activity that serves to relieve tension. However, not everybody uses it this way.
In some cases, masturbation can take control of the person’s life and become an obsession. They spend the entire day longing for the moment they’ll be alone. They change plans and routines just to be able to have a minute alone, and this causes problems.
“I can masturbate at least seven times a day, but if I use toys it can be more, sometimes even twelve, others every half hour. I’ve lost eight jobs because of my addiction, and some of them were pretty good, but I had to leave when they start to get suspicious of me.”
-Documentary: I Can’t Stop Masturbating –
Sometimes, difficulties arise due to the frequency of masturbation. The person might masturbate so much that they get to a level where their body resents them and masturbation causes them pain. In other cases, problems arise because of a change in routine or too many absences from work due to the need to masturbate.
When life gets overwhelming
Masturbation is a way to relieve tension and feel pleasure. Some people use it as a coping strategy to reduce anxiety and stress. This is a method that offers them the kind of pleasure and disconnect that they often can’t achieve in their daily lives.
“The pain was unbearable and I resorted to the best painkiller I knew: masturbation. I isolated myself. I began a period of compulsive masturbation. I did it between 1o and 15 times a day…Masturbation and fantasies were the only way I could tolerate that reality and such painful failure.”
-Addiction to Masturbation (story of Josué): Ramiro Calderón.-
Episodes of compulsive masturbation tend to increase during difficult times, for example, during personal crises, relationship issues, the birth of a child, or too much pressure at work. This problem only aggravates all the other problems, pushing the person into a maze where it’s difficult to find the exit.
Break the silence
Talking about this subject continues to be taboo in certain environments. Problems with compulsive masturbation tend to be silenced, and people who suffer from them can feel embarrassed and alone because they can’t share their experience with other people.
Often, with the goal of alleviating the distress, they turn to home remedies, advice from friends, or treatments that have no effect or that may even be harmful. Trying to stop it and realizing that it’s not going away can cause more anxiety, which only aggravates the problem.
Masturbation is a healthy and advisable habit, but it can become a problem for some people that they need to get help for. If thoughts about masturbation constantly plague you, the frequency of masturbation causes physical problems, or your life is affected and impaired by it, it’s time to break the silence and go to a qualified professional who can help you.
“Obsession does not seek out problems and correct them; it manufactures them out of nothing, feeds them, makes them stronger.”
-One False Move, Harlan Coben-
