Two Taboos: Sexuality and Mental Health
Mental health issues affect sexual function. "Depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, or even psychosis include symptoms affecting sexual life, such as impaired desire, arousal, or sexual satisfaction that inevitably need to be properly identified and addressed. There are no sexless human beings, and neither are our patients sexless, even if they do not carry out an active sex life" (Montejo 2019). Professionals and patients alike cannot make the sexual issues that accompany mental health issues go away by ignoring them. Both sexual and mental health issues must be addressed since they go hand in hand. "However, one of the biggest limitations for the generalization of adequate sexual health is the lack of well-trained professionals who could contribute to increasing its benefits. The training of mental health providers focusing in sexology has not developed accordingly to accompany the population’s needs. Sexuality continues to be a taboo, and professionals dealing with its research and treatment remain scarce, even with a large heterogeneous background. The widespread access to continuous, multiple, and often unhealthy sexual content without any ethical filter or prior preparation in our young people has been a new challenge in addressing their understanding. The different interpretations of such a variable concept leads to an extremely difficult delimitation of either normal or pathological sexuality" (Montejo 2019). Adults and adolescents alike need a professional that is educated in both sexuality and mental health.
Montejo A. L. (2019). Sexuality and Mental Health: The Need for Mutual Development and Research. Journal of clinical medicine, 8(11), 1794. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8111794