Dear Readers: Kurt Vonnegut, in his short story, "Welcome to the Monkey House," posited an America, where, due to the population explosion, all citizens were mandated to take a medicine which made their genitals feel like cotton wool. The idea was that this would stop sex, which would stop babies. A renegade named Billy the Kid roamed the nation to gain recruits to his cause--stop the meds, use birth control. You have the right to feel jolly down under.
Could Vonnegut predict a world where Americans would VOLUNTARILY pay to make their genitals feel like cotton wool, pay for reduced libido? It isn't our future, it is our present.
So many Americans, especially females, take anti-depressants daily--especially the SSRI's such as Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft. They take them daily--for decades now. And yet, they come monthly to the psychiatrist for a refill--why don't they feel better? The standard philosophy is that they need the pills to keep from being depressed. But the pills keep them depressed anyway. So, the logic eludes me. What does it mean when they say they are depressed? Is it a weltschmertz which no pill can weaken? Depression is a term like boredom--what does it mean. Why are you bored? When someone complains of boredom, we don't ply them with pharmaceuticals. We brainstorm with them ways of making their lives more meaningful, becoming more engaged.
Maybe they are depressed because these pills make their genitals feel like cotton wool. Numb. But worse than numb. Unpleasant numbness. Well, there is a long history in American psychiatry of suppressing female sexuality. Is this continuous medication the new fashion in the old vogue?
I say American women. Women are more likely to go for Outpatient treatment and they are more likely to be compliant with medication. Men, regardless of health insurance, regardless of nationality, are less likely to voluntarily seek out treatment and less likely to continue.
Why doesn't any therapist or physician say to the female---have you tried self-comforting as a treatment (I'm assuming the word, "masturbation" would be too inflammatory). Especially for females, who may be either less likely to masturbate or less likely to admit it. Or even, not be quite sure how to.
Self-comfort is a potential treatment, with benefits across the lifespan. Women live longer then men and are more iikely to wind up in assisted living facilities. Private practice is a delightful occupation therapy, where there is always some sort of happy ending. Some endings are even happier. Private practice of self-comfort is a mood elevator, as well as a way of keeping fingers nimble and the arthritis at bay. The end result is a feeling of elation. This is what it is to be alive. It is something you can give yourself, at any time that you are in privacy.
After all, when men's mind go to mush, their hands go to their genitals. That is their first place of comfort. Sonograms reveal male fetuses reaching for their rod. Observations of male infants indicate that as soon as their hands can grasp, they reach into their diaper and spoon with themselves. Not matter how old, no matter how young, men need to know that their wood works. It is not a behavioral problem. So in their senescence, It reveals an issue of privacy--which assisted livings need to prioritize.
And what about women? Duh. We know they do it. But none talk of it. It is briefly hinted at in a SEINFELD episode. But little elsewhere or since. TWO AND A HALF MEN make much of the fact that a male character does it habitually and openly. In popular culture, female self-comfort is not seen as a viable option, let alone a treatment which is better than a pill.
Self-comfort is a potential treatment for women who are depressed and/or insomniac. Nothing focuses the mind so much as the knowledge that one is due a happy ending. One cannot ruminate on the wrongs and petty injustices of life. One must concentrate on the goal. And sleep often comes, sometimes before, sometimes after. But a peaceful, REM-filled sleep, which does not come with zolpidem aides.
Women should be encouraged to experiment with self-comfort. Positions, comfort aides (which don't have to come in a brown paper bag). Even an ice cube has erotic potential, when you know how to use it. Be safe. Be aware that even "natural" could mean "bacterial infested." No happy ending in any UTI, even when self-inflicted with produce. Produce a happy ending, but not with groceries. But other than that, let your fingers do the walking and mental health ensues.
Perhaps book publishers need to reissue OUR BODIES OURSELVES. Since so much has been lost or delegitimatized, this is a resource with which we start.