Casual sex is a health hazard for young women
March 11th, 2008I’m getting this book:
I’ve heard about this book for a while. It was written anonymously by an MD who works at a university health center. Warren Throckmorton interviewed this doc back in late 2006:
A superb storyteller, she describes patients who do all the right things: They eat well, exercise, and structure their lives around getting a good education. What they don’t do well is manage healthy intimate lives. One young woman, Heather, told Dr. Grossman that she was depressed but never considered that her depression might relate to a loveless “friends with benefits” relationship with a young man. Dr. Grossman quotes the girl saying, “I’m confused, because it seems like I don’t get the ‘friend’ part, but he still gets the ‘benefits.’” Apparently no mental health or health professional ever told Heather that, for women, an increased risk for depression is associated with casual sex.
Unprotected. I think about the concept of protection a lot, because I have small children. I think about my seven-year-old constantly. He has already survived a bout with cancer at this tender young age. But my neighborhood is full of hazards (one dwelling away from me, a car rolled up on two teen girls, pointed a gun, and pulled the trigger on an empty chamber - two weeks ago). Even more, I think about bullies or twisted-minded minors who might pressure him. They idea of leaving him to fend for himself is crazy. Yet that’s what happens all over our society. It happens in the hood, yes. But this book argues that we have left the hearts and minds of young adults - regardless of their level of affluence - unprotected, and they are suffering because of it. I’ll let you know if I think the book lives up to its hype.