Are You Happy With Casual Sex or Looking For More?

Can sexual relationships ever turn into anything more? The answer is – there is a chance. Whilst many people have the emotional wellness and wellbeing to withstand a relationship that is purely sexual, others find that their emotions start to take over and things become complicated.

 

Many people enter into casual sexual relationships because they are simply looking for physical pleasure, and nothing more, so you have to be aware that if you get involved in this type of relationship, it is quite likely that your ‘partner’ will not be receptive to getting any more out of the relationship than just sex. If what you actually want is a lasting relationship, you would be better off finding someone who is interested in a relationship from the world go, rather than starting a casual relationship and then attempting to change the ‘rules’.

 

Sex can, however, be very bonding, so you may find that if you are in a sexual relationship with someone it naturally becomes something more over time as the intimacy brings trust with it.

 

If you are involved in a sexual relationship, however, and you want to move things up to another level, there are certain ways that you should go about it. First of all, don’t hang around, waiting for the right moment. As soon as you know that you want something more than casual sex you should speak out. The longer you put it off, the worse you will feel if it turns out that your feelings are not reciprocated. You will also have wasted a lot of time when you could have been moving on to a relationship that is healthier for you.

 

Be honest with your partner, too – you have nothing to lose. You know that there is a risk they will not feel the same, and the worst that can happen is that they don’t reciprocate and you will then have the emotional space to move on.

Categories: casual, casual sex, feel, nbsp, relationship, Sex, sexual, sexual relationship, Sexual Relationships

Good or Bad: How Does Casual Sex Affect Your Mental Health?

Some people say the best way to get over an ex is to get under someone else, but this may do more damage to your mental wellness – not to mention your sexual health – than the ego boost you were looking for. This is according to a new study, published in The Journal of Sex Research, which found that young adults in college suffered from ‘higher levels of general anxiety, social anxiety, and depression’ after engaging in casual sex.

 

For the study, casual sex was defined as ‘having intercourse with a partner one has known for less than a week.’ Over 3,900 18- to 25-year-old college students, who consider themselves to be single and heterosexual, participated in the study. The results revealed that, after having casual sex, both men and women experienced a decrease in wellbeing and an increase in psychological distress, in spite of the fact that men reported engaging in casual sex more than women. The researchers surmised that the negative sense of wellbeing could be due to sexual regret, and casual sex could be a symptom of general problematic behaviour.

 

Still, this was not the case in 2009, when researchers at the University of Minnesota found that ‘young adults engaging in casual sexual encounters do not appear to be at increased risk for harmful psychological outcomes as compared to sexually active young adults in more committed relationships.’ So as casual sex becomes more prevalent in our society, how does this type of sex really impact physical and mental health?

 

In an American Psychological Association report released earlier this year about the “sexual hook-up culture,” studies were outlined as showing both positive and negative mental health effects from casual sex. In this report, hook-ups were defined as ‘brief uncommitted sexual encounters between individuals who are not romantic partners or dating each other,’ and one 2008 study showed that 57% of women were glad they hooked-up the morning after. Yet other studies found that while, in certain cases, casual sex can relieve some depressive symptoms and loneliness, it can also lower your self-esteem depending on who you are as a person.

Categories: casual sex, Mental Health, Research

The End of Casual Sex? Students Favour Commitment Says Study

Contrary to popular belief, university students report excellent sexual health and wellness. This is according to a forthcoming sexual health study done by Trojan (the condom manufacturer) and the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN), who found that most Canadian university students are happy with their sex lives, most of which involves someone with whom they are in a committed relationship.

For the study, which was presented last month at the annual Guelph Sexuality Conference at the University of Guelph, the researchers conducted a multi-faceted online survey of 1,500 university students aged 18 to 24 years. For 60% of the men and 70% of the women surveyed, their last sexual partner was either their spouse, fiancé or an otherwise committed romantic partner. At the other end of the scale, casual sex was the most recent experience for 30% of the men and 23% of the women polled.

According to University of Ottawa sex researcher Jocelyn Wentland, young people are clear on the distinctions between different types of casual sex relationships. ‘They’re very, very clear on what these relationship types are,’ she said. ‘And it doesn’t matter whether you have engaged in one or not, you know the definition of it and you know the appropriate behaviour that goes along with it.’ However, these findings are a stark contrast to the sexual wellbeing of students across the border.

Donna Freitas, author of new book, The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy, commented that in the US ‘Mostly, students are ambivalent or they’re fairly unhappy. And one of the things I thought was really shocking was that when I asked students to talk about their hook-ups, pleasure almost never came up. They didn’t talk about pleasure, as if pleasure was not even a part of the bargain.’

However, when the Canadian survey asked students to rate their overall happiness with their sex life, 67% of men said they were “happy” or “very happy,” as did 80% of the women. Alex McKay, SIECCAN’s research coordinator, explained, ‘men and women, particularly young men and women, use different criteria to assess their happiness with their sex life.’ He noted that there’s a ‘greater propensity for males to assess their own happiness simply in terms of the quantity of sex they are having’ while a young woman is ‘more likely to be looking at the quality of her relationship.’ Wentland added, ‘Maybe this is a reflection of women being accepting and pleased that there are various relationship options available to them.’

Categories: casual sex, Research, students