From Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink web site:
COMMENTARY: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DEPRESSION — THE NEW STD?
Research reverses the thought that teen depression leads to risky behaviors.
T
From Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink web site:
COMMENTARY: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DEPRESSION — THE NEW STD?
Research reverses the thought that teen depression leads to risky behaviors.
Hmmm. So depression could be a result of promiscuity instead of a cause.
I just noticed how similar Don Wildmon of AFA and Warren Throckmorton look. So I wonder, is making your living from anti-gay activism the cause or the result of looking like that.
The look is very conservative white male, but beyond that I don’t see anything.
dunno, most white males just don’t look that smug (or I haven’t been around those who do, maybe)
what’s with the caps all of a sudden?
Depression may be the cause for some teens to have sex earlier than teens without depression. Based on what is known about how mental illness effects sexual behavior that doesn’t sound like rocket science. Depressed kids want to feel good! Everything they hear, see and are taught is that sex feels good.
but to say that some kids are depressed because they are having sex is just plain dumb….
I can hear little Johnny now:
“mom, I am so depressed that I am getting a litte”
Get real!
Dan, the caps are Focus’s. They capitalize the headlines in their e-mail advisories. I’ll lowercase ’em later.
Key, I’m more interested in what the study actually said. Maybe it supported Prof. Throckmorton’s claim, maybe it didn’t.
[That includes, Baehr explained, a “San Quentin-type rape scene” of sex between the two cowboys.]
Is a Sing Sing-type rape scene different than a “San Quentin-type rape scene”.
Heck, I’ve gotten depressed after hooking up with some people. I wonder if I could have taken something for that.
That’s the stupidest article I have ever read. It’s highly convenient that this quack picked and chose his candidates.
I’ve been suffering from depression for over 5 years now, and I have never been one to participate in deviant behavior, so, what does that make me??
It sounds to me like this “study” is really just another way of blaming the victim so that the accuser can feel better about hating people with problems.
My two cents.
BTW, I’m 16 so this is totally relevant to me. Also, none of my friends have ever developed depression after having used drugs. The depression already existed in the first place.
The only time I’ve seen depression follow sex is when a nasty breakup occurs and that usually affects the girls more than the boys. I don’t think that really has anything to do with the sex part of it though, other than the fact that the sex made it a more serious relationship than it was in the first place.
My four cents.
Keyboy1969 said:
but to say that some kids are depressed because they are having sex is just plain dumb….
To respond to this particular point, I don’t see this as all that impossible to believe. I can imagine that a child raised with certain core beliefs, such as that sex before marriage is wrong, could certainly become depressed after having acted against those beliefs. I have no idea what the study mentioned says because there is no real cite, so I can’t comment on it.
If Throckmorton is trying to say that a large percentage of teenagers who take drugs, have sex or in other ways act out are not “self-medicating” for one reason or another, I would disagree with that. But how many parents do you suppose tell their kids not to have sex, at least until they are older if not until they are married. Going against that can cause a lot of guilt, which certainly could lead to depression. It’s not that far out is it?
David
It may not be that far out, but I bet it isn’t that common either. I would be interested to see the “study” and fond out who paid for it, what was the methodology.
I’m not sure I see too much that is controversial here. We’ve been saying for quite some time that those ex-gays who feel empty and lonely because their only experience of the “gay lifestyle” is to go from one nameless one night stand to another should look at thier choices as a source of their depression, and not homosexuality itself.
If true, this finding (if indeed the researchers found this to be true — I can’t verify it until I get to the library in a couple of weeks) is pretty much in line with what most of us have been saying. If you think life sucks, look at the choices you’re making.
I would be interested to see the “study” and fond out who paid for it, what was the methodology.
Yup. Ditto here. The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, which published this study, is certainly no biggie. But I haven’t seen anything about the journal itself to raise any red flags. But yes, I have learned long ago that you have to read the study itself, and not take someone else’s word for it.
I don’t find it at all hard to believe that kids would become depressed after sex. I think lots of kids grow up thinking that their first time will be with “the one”. And when that doesn’t happen, and when the second guy is a jerk, and when the third girl turns out to be annoying, etc., it can become depressing. You can end up feeling “dirty” and disappointed.
But to suggest that this makes depression “sexually transmitted” is simply trying to politicize a social problem and diminish the seriousness of actual sexual transmitted diseases. It’s just Doc. Throc’s method of mocking those who are concerned about STI’s and is smarmy, rude, and very un-Christian.
I agree with Throckmorton that kids should not be sexualized early and that most kids don’t have the emotional and intellectual maturity to deal with how sex can stomp on your emotions. Parents aren’t lying when they tell their teens that it will be better if they wait a while until they are better able to make good decisions.
But mocking STI’s is certainly not the way to deal with this issue.
There could also be an issue of interpretation of results here. Just because depression may follow risky behavior (a correlation) does not mean the risky behavior caused the depression (causation). In fact, I could easily envision a scenario where a lonely and lost kid (but not necessarily depressed) uses drugs or sex or alcohol to fill whatever void is in his/her life. Only after trying the self-medication does the realization kick in that the overall problems are not solved, and that could be the cause of the depression – not the risky behavior itself, but rather the failure of the risky behavior to help.
I pretty much agree with “nothing new here”. The study may be interesting (if we could read it) but it’s bound to be just one piece of a very complicated puzzle. I tend to belive that these little tidbits are just Throckmorton’s way of maintaining some sort of relevancy.
David