http://www.nzhealth.net.nz/sex/masturbate.html
Stop playing with yourself!
If childhood masturbation is no more than exploratory behavior, in adulthood it means self-gratification, which can be helpful or harmful, depending on purposes and circumstances.
Some adults could easily put their marriage or relationship at risk if they caught the other partner masturbating alone.
Although there are no rules stating that people in relationships shouldn’t masturbate, couples expect to share their sexual feelings and practice sex together. Masturbation among partners is more common than believed. Partners tend to masturbate when the other partner is unavailable, when they don’t want to bother him or her, when they don’t feel like going through the whole ritual of having sex, or because they prefer not to share their fantasies.
Once a woman arrived home early from work. As she walked into the bathroom, she saw through the steamed glass her husband masturbating in the shower. He didn’t see her. She closed the door, and left in despair, fearing that their relationship was getting to an end.
Both her and her husband had an exciting sex life, and very high libido. So, when he found himself home alone, thinking of and wanting her, he decided to help himself. Later in the evening she asked if he wanted sex, he nodded, telling her how much he had fantasized sex with her all day long.
The woman found the courage to tell him what she saw when she arrived home. He showed her how he wanted to be touched that night, and told which sort of fantasies he had while masturbating during the day, encouraging her to speak about her own.
When a relationship includes tolerance and respect, masturbation is often welcome and helps sustain the relationship. If the relationship is unstable, masturbation can be a good excuse to end it.
A very controversial matter among couples, it is no less controversial among celibates. Some prefer to abolish masturbation from their lives altogether. In this way, they keep their mind free of sex thoughts and put their sexual energy into more productive projects. Others could not stay in celibacy if they didn’t release their sexual energy through masturbation.
Many teenagers know well how to use their sexual energy without harm: they masturbate. This is their natural way to cope with the urge to reproduce, which many adults try to ignore.
Informed parents often allow their children to play with their genitals, as far as it is done privately, in their own room or bathroom. It is only during teenage that sexual organs become ready for sexual activity, so most children will soon give up their self-exploratory sexual behavior. When they grow up in an environment in which sex is openly and honestly discussed, they are less likely to become victims of sexual abuse, and more likely to develop a healthy attitude to sex in adult life.
Some parents can feel very uncomfortable talking about sexual issues with their children. The ones who have a child with an intellectual disability often learn to become comfortable with the issue a lot quicker.
In many cases these children have their bodies develop normally, while their ability to understand develops more slowly. As a result, a teenager who behaves like a five year old most of the time, is likely to have the urge to masturbate in the most inappropriate places, such as a school gathering or a birthday party. Parents are instructed to disctract and/or discourage the child from such practice in public, then offer them a face cloth, a towel, or some tissues and a private place to masturbate.
So, if masturbation is good, how often is it good? Masturbation itself is not good or bad. There is not a set number of times for masturbation. The body produces sperm regularly, and the more is released, the more is produced. Women also can masturbate until their body no longer responds to stimulation.
Although very helpful to discover one’s own eroticism and body responses to touch, masturbation can be used to harm.
Once a man told me that he masturbated until his penis started bleeding. He did it until his sores were so painful, that he had no option but seek help. Later he discovered that he had never allowed himself to have pleasure, and whenever he did, a punishment should follow. Once he understood the irrationality of his beliefs, he no longer had the urge to harm himself. Compulsive masturbation was also his own peculiar way to express his own compulsive nature. As a businessman, he learned to channel that energy into expanding his business.
A thirty year old woman who had never had sex, preferred masturbation, in spite of her recurring fantasies of sexual intercourse. A life of loneliness was the only choice she had, because of her fears of loss. When the fantasies started going beyond control, she decided to learn to take risks and minimize undesirable consequences. Sooner than expected she found a partner, and had a fulfilling sex life.
If masturbation is just a fact of life, why is there so much misinformation about it? Masturbation is essentially sexual. Sex is the power to create life. People can manipulate others through sex, even when they don’t have the intention to do so. For instance, during a long time in history, a religious school taught its pupils that masturbation was evil, and could cause irreversible damage. This myth was actually originated in the principal’s room. He found it much easier to try and reduce, or eliminate masturbation in the school, rather than develop the skills to talk about it, and provide healthy information and options to his students.
Having a complex brain, living in complex societies and getting into complex relationships, how could humankind not have complex thoughts about the basis of its existence? In spite of being surrounded by complexities, masturbation is as natural as any other physiological need.