Am I Ready For Sex?: 7 Things To Think About

By Katie Naymon in SEXUAL HEALTH

Whether you’re a virgin or are contemplating having sex with a new partner, first times can be nerve-wracking. There are many factors to consider, both emotional and physical. We talked to Heather Corinna, founder and executive director of Scarleteen, an independent, grassroots sexuality education and support organization and website. Corinna is a sexuality, contraception and abortion educator and counselor as well as a writer and activist. Read on for her and collegiettes’ advice on how to know when you’re ready for sex.

When is the right time to have sex in a relationship?

Some girls wait until marriage, some wait a few months and some just a few dates. There’s no recommended timeline—the right time to have sex is when you and your partner feel ready. Eva, a collegiette at Colby College, decided to lose her virginity a month into hooking up with the girl she liked. She says you know it’s a good time to have sex “once you stop thinking about it and don't doubt the person and trust they're on the same page,” she says. “I had a first time that was genuinely lovely. We fell hard and fast.” For others, it takes a bit longer to get comfortable. Veronica, a collegiette at Johns Hopkins, has dated her boyfriend for four months but has decided to wait to have sex. “I want to make sure I’m in love. I don’t want to have any doubts about it. You hear about a lot of people who do it and then regret it,” she says.

Understanding Anxiety Disorder

By Katherine Spitz

Maybe you know a woman who checks her stove three times before leaving the house. Or, perhaps you have a friend who refuses to fly on a plane, or who seems to worry excessively about her children’s health. These women may brush off their quirks, but they are likely suffering – just like the millions of other women - with an anxiety disorder. While depression gets more media attention, anxiety disorders are actually the most common type of mental health problem in the United States. While the disorders affect about 13 percent of the general population in any given year, women are much more likely than men to be affected by certain anxiety problems, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. All too often, people suffer in silence, embarrassed. It’s a good bet that the suffering person won’t talk about having a problem at the sisterhood fund-raiser or by the office water cooler. All too often, people suffer in silence“The average person would be surprised at who has an anxiety disorder,” says Dr. Jeffrey Moore, a psychiatrist at Akron General Medical Center in Ohio. “There are many people you run into on a daily basis who have a diagnosable or diagnosed-and-treated anxiety disorder. While you don’t think they are especially calm people,” Moore continues, “You wouldn’t think they would have to seek therapy or be on medication.”

S t i g m a

By Lizzie Simon

I've always thought that stigma against people with mental illness came from ignorance. And when I'm confronted with someone who simply doesn't know much about mental health, I can explain myself, my story, and my viewpoints and stay pretty relaxed through the conversation. After all, there's plenty of stuff I'm ignorant about, and I generally like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

But what happens when the person expressing stigma is extremely intelligent? For me, it's far more complex and uneasy.

Her thesis was that mental illnesses didn't really existRecently at a party, I was introduced to a small group of people by someone who praised my book on mental illness. One of the women in the group asked me what it was about, and I told her that it was a cross country memoir in which I interviewed people who had been successfully treated for bipolar disorder. I had written the very book I needed to read when I was seventeen and diagnosed.

Successfully treated? She said, and she pulled me aside to talk further.

She was incredibly articulate and well educated, a university professor. And yet, her thesis was that mental illnesses didn't really exist. That wellness through medical treatment was a conjured fantasy by the marketers of medicine. In her view, the ways in which people are diagnosed and treated for mental illnesses are nothing more than shoddy methods devised by institutions with profit motives. These methods, she said, stripped individuals of their agency, their humanity and their money.

Charity urges more action on young male suicide

 By Sima Kotecha
                 Newsbeat reporter Danni Mather says he overcame his suicidal thoughts after seeking help

A national suicide prevention charity is demanding that the government launches a major campaign to raise awareness of suicide.

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 35 in the UK.

Shoulders hunched and legs pressed together, Danni Mather, 23, told Newsbeat about his experiences of feeling suicidal.

"I just felt empty - that's the only way you can describe it," he says. "It's just complete emptiness."

"You can't smile. You can be told the greatest joke in the world, the greatest news in the world, and you'll just feel like it's nothing. You just exist."

The musician says he did not have much to be depressed about but was unable to push the dark thoughts away.

Continue reading the main story

Every time something goes wrong it becomes the first thing that pops into your head

Danni Mather, 23

On several occasions he considered suicide, he says: "Every time something goes wrong it becomes the first thing that pops into your head: just do it.

"You're waiting for a train and the first thing that pops into your head as you're waiting for it is get in front of it - because if that hits you you're not waking up."

Luckily for Danni, he received professional help and says he overcame his depression.

But more than 3,000 male deaths in England and Wales in 2010 were ruled as suicides or undetermined fatalities according to latest figures.

A total of 868 of those were aged between 15 and 35 - that is three times more than the number of women in the same age bracket.

Advice if you're affected by the issues in this article

Unemployment worries

Jane Powell, director of Calm - a charity that concentrates on preventing male suicide, says more needs to be done.

"Nine out of 10 people aren't aware that suicide is the biggest killer of young men under the age of 35," she explains.

Continue reading the main story

I think awareness of the dangers of salt is higher amongst parents then suicide, and that can't be good

Jane Powell, Calm

"That disempowers both family and parents, plus the young men themselves.

"I think awareness of the dangers of salt is higher amongst parents then suicide, and that can't be good."

She wants the Department of Health to set up a campaign and says she is worried that economic problems, like high unemployment, could make the problem worse.

"For men, they are defined by in many people's eyes by what they do," says Powell.

"If they haven't got a job, then they're no one. I think that is part of why suicide is such a male issue."

Male suicides in the UK have reduced over the last 10 years but the figures are still far higher than those killed in road accidents or knife and gun crime.

Despite that, the man who used to head up the Department of Health's mental health division says the government's current approach is working.

"It took 25 years for the suicide rate in young men to double," says Louis Appleby.

"It took 12 years for it to fall back again to the same level, so something very beneficial has happened.

"Part of that has been the awareness of the front-line agencies that they are dealing with a very troubled, potentially high-risk, group of people."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17338696

Naked Therapy?!

Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss a video of Sarah White, someone engaging in 'naked therapy' where she removes her clothes during a therapy session. Is she really helping guys with their mental health or is she just a glorified stripper?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U44J_G8AAV8