Posted on 01/12/2007 8:59:12 AM PST by CANBFORGIVEN
Sex and Consequences 1/10/2007 By Janice Shaw Crouse
On college campuses, counselors are seeing double the number of depression cases and triple the number of suicidal students.
On college campuses, counselors are seeing double the number of depression cases and triple the number of suicidal students. The American Psychological Association reported in 2003 that counselors on the nation's college campuses were seeing significant increases of these and other "severe psychological problems." Why are the nation's brightest young adults flooding the student health centers to overflowing? What has changed since the late 1980s to produce such emotional and psychological devastation among the nation's college students?
A campus psychiatrist at a major American university has written a book attempting to answer the questions about what has gone wrong. The book, Unprotected, (written anonymously but revealed to be Dr. Miriam Grossman from the student health services of the University of California, Los Angeles) reveals that "radical politics" has replaced "common sense" in the campus health and counseling centers to the detriment of students' well-being. In short, Dr. Grossman declared that her profession was "hijacked" and that college students are the "casualties" of "radical activism" by the health professionals on college campuses.
The nation's 17 million college and university students are being denied truth while their risky behavior is condoned by the prevalent social agenda on campus. Dispassionate objectivity and compassionate concern for an individual's health and well-being have been replaced by social activism. Now, the "polarization" of "opposite" sexes and a "binary gender system" must be replaced by androgyny and "alternative sexualities." Nobody dares mention that emotionally destructive behavior produces negative consequences. Ideology takes precedence over consequences. In fact, consequences are never mentioned except in the context of smoking, diet, exercise or sleep. Certainly, no one mentions the "fascinating research on the biochemistry of bonding" which reveals that casual sex is hazardous to a woman's mental health.
When I was an academic dean, I found that there was often (though not always) a relationship problem -- usually a broken romance -- behind a sudden drop in a student's grades. Dr. Grossman describes story after story of students who came in with academic and psychological problems that, she discovered with a little probing, turned out to coincide with sexual intimacy that produced one-sided attachment. Dr. Grossman quotes a neuropsychologist who described the effect of oxytocin (the attachment hormone that produces bonding and trust): "You first meet him and he is passable. The second time you go out with him, he's OK. The third time you go out with him, you have sex. And from that point on you can't imagine what life would be like without him."
Ironically, Dr. Grossman (who laments political correctness) uses the term, "sexually transmitted infections" (the politically correct designation because "infections" seem less serious than "diseases") instead of "sexually transmitted diseases." Today, on and off campus, STDs are considered no big deal. Yet, human papillomavirus (HPV) -- a major cause of cervical cancer -- is so common and so contagious that some doctors recommend that women "assume" that a partner has the infection. Condom use among college students is a joke -- one study revealed that less than half of college students used a condom during their last vaginal intercourse. Discussions about HIV/AIDS are even more off-limits: while definitive information is available about the specific behavioral risk factors, myths spread misinformation -- anybody can get it or AIDS doesn't discriminate. Dr. Grossman lays out the facts: HIV is spread through anal sex, shared needles or a partner who does those things.
Dr. Grossman reveals, too, that God is not welcomed in college health clinics. In fact, psychologists are almost five times more likely to be agnostic or atheist than the general public. Almost 90 percent of Americans believe in God. Among students, over three-quarters say they pray, and an equal number say that they are "searching for meaning and purpose in life." In fact, "cultural competency" (respecting the values of inclusion, respect and equality, especially in respect to gender, race, sexual orientation, disability and other identities) is replacing religion, even though evidence reveals that religion protects against drug and alcohol use, early sexual activity and suicide.
While the public generally sees abortion as a "woman's issue," Dr. Grossman cites a Los Angeles Times survey indicating that post-abortion men experience more regret and guilt than post-abortion women do. She also reveals that chlamydia is far more serious than generally perceived and that the college years are a good time to address the ramifications effectively; instead the dangers of chlamydia are ignored or profoundly sugarcoated. As a result, untold numbers of women discover too late for intervention that they are infertile.
Another profound misrepresentation takes place on college campuses: by focusing exclusively on career, many women will pass their window of opportunity for finding a husband and having children. After age 30, a woman's chances of conceiving drop by 75 percent; if she gets pregnant, her chance of miscarriage triples, the rate of stillbirth doubles and the risk of genetic abnormality is six times greater. Sadly, as Unprotected points out, the waiting rooms of infertility centers are crowded with professional women who bought into the myth that they should focus on career and wait to have a husband and children.
The basic message of Unprotected is that today's women are amazingly misinformed and unprotected. Casual sex has consequences, and the steady flow of students crowding campus health centers is a clear indication that somebody needs to be telling young women the truth. Dr. Miriam Grossman has begun the enlightenment. Let's hope that others will follow her lead.
That ideal was not always adhered to, but at least people felt that it was sensible.
It's my opinion that "making women equal" was partially an attempt to yank that skanky ho off the darn pedestal, and convince her to roll around in the mud with guys and then go off to work so that she could pay half the rent, until such time as Lover Boy found a babe who was younger and prettier.
Women's Equality was a great deal for guys (at least: guys of a certain type). But it was a seriously raw deal for women.
You are just not very smart.
I'm having some real difficulties understanding this. First of all, if it comes to a third base, he's more of a player than you've weeded out at first and second, which is the vast majority of men. So it's not as if you see a man three times and then suddenly are addicted to him by some glandular chemical.
Moreover, what does oxytocin have to do with anything? I don't recall bonding with my obstetrician over a tall draft of oxytocin. On the contrary.
How do men bond without tides of oxytocin washing through their bodies?
You may think that is true until you have daughters of your own.
I have two daughters now in college, thank you. And you didn't read my post very carefully if you missed the "< /sarcasm>" which showed my disdain for the "girls just wanna have fun" attitude.
"Correlations absolutely do contribute to cause."
While I don't agree with the implication behind post #2, in logical thinking, debate, research, etc. Correlation of two or more events, by itself, does NOT imply causation. When two events A & B, appear related (correlated), the reason could be: A causes B; B causes A; some other variable, C, effects both A and B; or coincidence.
In the case of this story, I believe the causal factor is the amoral culture of anything goes, damn religion and traditional values (that were made to oppress women{/s})which gives all young people a sense of aimlessness, and when things go badly, hopelessness.
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I have commented on a number of articles that make this general point. What this article explores from the point of view of mental health should be the normal concern of every parent.
Colleges are toxic for many young people.
This isn't a mysterious surprise to college teachers and administrators. College students are obviously desperately unhappy. Their parents know it. The colleges know it. They just hate to acknowledge their suspicions about the cause.
"What has changed since the late 1980s to produce such emotional and psychological devastation among the nation's college students?"
My guess is Bush Derangement Syndrome.
In other words, correlation has an exploratory, question-generating (heuristic) significance.
OK, so Dr. Grossman, a psychiatrist with extensive medical training and years of clinical experience, suggests a causality based on human attachment behaviors which have been known for decades to be triggered by hormones (e.g. oxytocin) which happen to peak with some well-known human experiences: uterine contraction and childbirth; lactation, milk let-down and breast-feeding; sexual intercourse.
Is this possibly more causally-related than global warming and pirates? Is it worth further investigation --- even urgent investigation, due to the fact that people's lives and futures are at stake?
Or ---is mockery and sarcasm a truly adequate response?
Bill
Uhhhhhhhh ... my last two churches taught that homosexual marriage was a good thing and that Jesus would have supported it. Currently, I haven't found a church to attend where I feel comfortable.
Times HAVE changed, and not for the better.
You have my respect. You've grown up. You are a man, a father, and a mensch the true sense of the word.
Maybe we can hope for the same for other members of Planet FReep.
Since when does college=bright? I've known plenty of high school grads with more smarts and common sense than a lot of their college educated peers. What a joke.
The desire for a caring and stable environment not only applies to children but also applies to young adults. I went to one of the forerunners of the modern university in the middle '70s - coed dorms, coed bathrooms, massive drug use, lots of liberal platitudes about diversity and choice -and it was in retrospect somewhere between a waste of time and a nightmare. The time I lost there will never be recovered. The child who was aborted by my then-girlfriend haunts me to this day. I can easily understand anyone being depressed and suicidal in the modern university environment if it is anything like the one I experienced.
I told my daughter to remember that if she ever had sex with a boy, she was having sex with everyone he had ever "bedded".
Wrong-o, Nathan. Bright people can also be morally clueless, emotionally obtuse, and spiritually empty. You can see it all the time.
The University student health service should at least tell students that, from a biological point of view, casual sex is dysphoric and destructive for most women because of hormonal-attachment issues which arise whether the woman wants them to or not.
There was a time when people didn't even have to be alerted to brain hormone levels. There was a time, for instance, when the boys eventually figured out that something was wrong because the girls were crying.
Reminds me of two oddly accurate feminist quotes:
"The major concrete achievements of the women's movement of the 1970's were abortion the Dutch treat." - Nora Ephron
"Abortion is the solution to the liberal boy's problem." Andrea Dworkin
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