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 Dispassionate objectivity and compassionate concern for an individual's health and well-being have been replaced by social activism.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.
Please explain your point...
We didn't have that angst in the '70's. Xaviera 'splained it all to us.
Wouldn't you be depressed if you had those professors?
Investigate what was going on in Altanta in the Junior High Schools in 1996.
There was a special on this on PBS years ago (maybe it was the Discovery channel? I think it was from before I had cable, but anyway...)
Around the time of the Olympics (hence, the date), there was an outbreak of STDs in a junior high school. Starting with one girl, they contacted her sex partners (and were initially surprised that there were several). Those partners had had several partners. They showed the Web of names connected to each other.
The kids found it to be no big deal when they heard that someone was being called into the clinic for an examination. They even thought it was funny when they found out that someone had caught something.
The more they researched they discovered that these kids were just gettting together in any kind of groupings for sex. There were no gangs or groups, no leaders or followers, just kids getting together with whoever from school was around. At this was in one suburb of one major city. You can imagine that behavior like this was happening elsewhere.
And this was a decade ago.
The feminists should be soooooo proud.
It's like the Left's policies vis a vis blacks. If you wanted (really wanted) to hurt this demographic group, what policies would you put into place? Why, the policies and beliefs of the Left, of course!
Interesting to hear that there is a hormonal basis for this principal. Any bachelor know this to be the truth, and most use it rather cruelly, to get what they want from women, sexually, emotionally, etc. I regret that I did, waaaaaaay back in the day.
Now, as the father of a daughter, this scares the @#%! out of me.
I want my daughter to treat herself with more respect than the women I knew as a bachelor. She deserves better, and so did they.
They can't be too bright if they are looking to off themselves. Blaming "radical politics"? I can see that. Moonbat Democrats and their conspiracy theories, drug parties and excessive pot smoking can make anyone depressed.
"Correlations are not causes.
Thats a true statement. What does it have to do with the story?
there was another article several months ago on FR about this very fact. Depression and suicides were up, not because of sexual promescuity, but because these kids have been so sheltered that colelge is the first experience many more have had on their own than in the past. They were babied by their parents and some parents still involve themselves in their college kids lives like they were going to kindergarden for the first day of school. Many kids have never had to face up to even a minimum of responsibility for their daily living and it is a sudden shock to them that they themselves are largely responsible for their lives at this point in time.
FREE LOVE isn't free. It comes with a price.
I'm not sure I get your point. Correlations absolutely do contribute to cause. Let me challenge you on this point. What do you think would happen to you if you put your hand on a hot stove burner?
hmmmm...past experience would predict that you would burn your hand. Do you see the correlation. All of the human race operates on correlations. If you do this, the outcome will be either A,B or C.
When that message gets convoluted the recipients of the message become confused. The society is declaring that any type of sex outside of monogamous marriage is acceptable. By claiming this as morally acceptable and there is NOTHING wrong with it, now we have confusion. They engage in sexual encounters and all the sudden they are stunned to learn of negative consequences, in some instances, life threatening consequences that are irreversible. For example, once you have AIDS, you have it forever. Once you have herpes, you have it forever.
They are finding out that what they believe to be truth is all a lie, but wait a minute....all they see is Hollywood, the media, political leaders, and activist groups telling them just the opposite.
Confusion begins and they seek an answer, continually finding the message and messengers the same. They then become depressed because they hear something, yet have experienced something entirely different.
Now do you see the correlation?
How do you explain that?
Yes, and sometimes the price is your life!
"Correlations are not causes."
Correlations are not necessarily causes. All causes are correlations, but only some correlations are causes. Right?
There has been a sharp rise in depression over the past century. It is not unique to college students.
I'm not sure I agree with this point of view. It is my experience that most the kids in the schools have very little, if any, parental guidance. Most have two divorced parents, fighting for equal attention and devotion from a mixed up and confused child who is continually caught in the middle.
Society has devalued the role a Father plays in a childs life and they have redefined it only as monetary support, rather than emotional or physical safety.
I don't have the reference available right now, but it is proven that girls who have a full-time Father, who is involved in her life, will tend to value herself more than those who have part-time dads.
So, I am not discounting your point of view, rather I believe the majority do not fall into that catergory.
Well, they have sexual equality, but that does not automatically come with love, security or happiness. Someone should have reminded them that "you don't get it all" and that sexual equality would come at a high price.
This can't be true ... we all know girls just wanna have fun! </ sarcasm>
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