Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation

upsidedown Dec. 2012

It's a great article that speaks out against the church policy and describes some of the danger in the view that masturbation is sinful.

Have a look.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mormontherapist/2012/08/my-official-stance-...

summer
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
"I can no longer stay silent and consider myself to be an ethical mental health practitioner."

What a great blog article. It would be nice if other Mormon health professionals supported her in this sensible stance.


flyboy21
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
I agree. Hopefully the tide is turning. And once those GAs in the BKP mould turn into worm hotels, it will inevitably start changing, if slowly.


Raptor Jesus
Mormon Therapist has obvious cog dis about crappy church they belong to.
Why would "the true church" have so many prophets speak ill of masturbation, but need a mere therapist to show them the error of their ways?

It's almost as if all those prophets didn't know what they were talking about.

BUT THEY ARE PROPHETS OF GOD!


BeenThereDunnThatExMo
We Need More Professionals Like Her Around 4 The Real Strength Of Youth...But I Wish Her Well In Getting Her License Renewed In Utah!!!

upsidedown
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
There are about 17 comments on the blog now and a few of the comments are from other licenced therapists that are in agreement with her blog.

Refreshing to see licenced professionals speak out.

Robert B ...what are your thoughts on this? If you read it.


AnonRightNow
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
I'm almost tempted to send this to my singles ward bishop from five years ago and tell him "Wish you would have understood this when we were meeting regularly back when. It would have vastly improved my emotional well-being at what was an otherwise great time of my life. Thanks for nothing!"


exrldsgirl
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
This is great! I thought she got a little too apologetic at the very end, though.


AnonRightNow
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Is there any legal recourse against TSCC or its leaders for all the harm that's been done in this area? I'd like to get back the $300 I spent at LDS Family Services to help correct this problem, let alone any additional monetary reward for all the emotional damage I've had. Any lawyers in the house have an opinion on how successful a class action suit would be on something like this?
dazed11
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Good for her. She is going to get some heat for speaking out like this. Or maybe not depending on her bishop and stake president. She is saying what should be obvious but to cult members they will think she is spreading Satan's lies. It is just laughable that a teenage boy is being sent to an addiction recovery program because he masturbates 1-3 times a week!

stbleaving
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
One to three times a week is an addiction?!?!? Horrifying. That would put a huge percentage of the developed world in a recovery program.


Chicken'n'Backpacks
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Didn't a TBM M.D. post a similar theme about two months ago?

P.S. If a church can control your sexuality, they can control your entire life.


dazed11
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
And the developing world as well. Masturbation is free so I am sure the poor participate as well. Unless they are literally starving and cannot support a healthy sex drive anymore.
rlawrence
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Thank you. This is about time. TSCC has harmed and humiliated so many. I have a child who was completely humiliated over this issue by a stupid egotistical bishop. The more I learn the more I understand that TSCC is a cult and tries to control everything and everyone for the benefit of tithing. Told my ex that the second coming isn't happenning super soon cause the church just spent billions on the mall rather than preparing for the end.

back to the masturbation issue, does the handbook finally really tell bishops not to ask about it. Also I read Kimballs Miracle... and Mckoncies Mormon Doctrine... I guess both are out of print right. So why the hell don't they say why and do some healing rather than covering only their own asses. Like a previous post said the church is more important than all of us. be well everyone and keep learning and growing


Jong1064
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Do you think she'll get exed?


Brethren,adieu
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
From the current "For the Strength of Youth" booklet:

"Before marriage, do not participate in passionate kissing, lie on top of another person, or touch the private, sacred parts of another person’s body, with or without clothing. Do not do anything else that arouses sexual feelings. Do not arouse those emotions in your own body."

So, maybe the M word itself isn't used in the booklet anymore, but the language is still very clear that the church discourages spanking the monkey.


elcid
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
I found the comment about pornography and masterbation to be a bit immature. At younger ages males can masterbate and achieve orgasm without much in the way of any visual stimulation. As we get older testosterone levels drop and many men cannot achieve orgasm without visual stimulation. So it is not much of a leap to say that viewing erotic material is also OK, which I believe it is, within some limits, while masterbating. Especially when you are trapped within a sexless marriage.


upsidedown
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Elcid: There are a lot of benefits to staying regular according to some recent studies that have been done about physical and mental health that is promoted through not being ashamed and represed about masturbation.

Just saying I agree with ya.


John_Lyle
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Sounds pretty sex negative for a church so in love with its ability to get people to bear children they cannot afford...

Where do they think those kids are going to come from?


snb
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
"...I can no longer stay silent and consider myself to be an ethical mental health practitioner. In fact, I want to offer an official apology for not having spoken up in a more direct way sooner."

Good for her! It would be interesting if this was a first step for her on her way outside of the religion.

Edit: Good comments.

"during the end of my time as a member i became suicidal because of the issue of masturbation. when i finally realized it was ok and that the church’s teachings about sexuality were what was making me mentally ill, i quit the church and it was like waking up from a nightmare on a warm, sunny day =) i have a completely different, more happy life now that i’ve taken ownership over my own sexuality. i encourage everyone else to do the same =)"

"I grew up Mormon, and was kept from a mission, kept out of the temple, and nearly killed myself due mostly to the shame that I felt from this. Every time I try to explain how bad I felt, LDS church members tell me I just didn’t understand the doctrine of the atonement correctly or something.

Thank you so much. Please don’t let others forget the damage that has been done. Please help the ones who’ve been injured to heal."

Wow.


ironmann
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Maybe this is really a church-sanctioned message directed towards gays: "We won't let you be gay all the way...except with yourself..." I'm just sayin' maybe.


exmouse
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Can you be addicted to masturbation? Really? I can't imagine it. For me (a gurl), 1-2x a day would be lovely. Maybe if you start missing work because you have to stay home and rub it out 10x, and you get fired... but that's only theoretical. I've never heard of such a thing as masturbation addiction, outside of mormondumb.
dazed11
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
I am sure it is possible to be addicted to masturbation but I think it would be pretty rare. There is a show on TLC about addictions and man people can get addicted to some strange stuff. There was one lady who was addicted to eating corn starch! But the church makes completely normal behavior into an addiction so that you have something that you are always working on and need forgiveness for which you need the church to get. They do the same thing with porn. At least for me after 15 minutes or so of it I am bored. I don't know how I could get addicted to it. But if someone watches porn like once a month the church will have them in an addiction recovery program and the Bishop will always have them on and off informal probation. Those rare people who really do have serious addictions probably have some sort of underlying issue that the church only makes worse by piling a bunch of guilt on top of it.
imalive
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Someone needs to send this to Allan Pratt the mission president who spoke against this on November 4, 2003 in Tolouse, Fance.

mleblanc138
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
In part of the article, it says that she doesn't believe in the old masturation quotes anymore than she believes in the old racist bigoted quotes? So by that logic, does that mean masturbation may soon go the way of the whole "blacks are a cursed race" thing or "slavery is a divine institution" thing?


Francois Morin
Civil lawsuit against LDS Church based on their psychosexual abuse
Hi everyone,

On June 12th 2012, I have deposited a civil lawsuit against the LDS Church AND my parents due the psychological trauma caused by the anti-masturbation propaganda.

Here is my story. I was raised by my parents in the mormon faith. At the age of 12 (1992), I went throught the worthiness interview in order for me to be submitted to the baptism of the Dead.

When it came to the Law of CHastity, the 1st counselor has asked me if I masturbated. Intimitated, and believing it was very wrong as I have been taught, I lied about it.

The consequence were brutal. When I did participated to the Baptism of the 46 dead people (my own ancestors) few weeks after the actual worthiness interview, I felt I had betrayed all my ancestors and that because of my unworthyness, their souls would remain in hell for eternity.

The guilt just grew up with the years while I was considering myself evil and a imposture.

After having trying to quit this bad habit without success. I attempted suicide at age 16.

I developed a severe mental condition with extreme sexual dysfunction.

After leaving the CHurch because of the overwhelming feelings of guilt (psychosexual shame), I was lucky enough to receive professional help which has brought me to the deposition of the actual civil lawsuit.

My story is very similar to Kip Eliason's story :

http://www.affirmation.org/suicide_info/sin_and_death_in_mormon_country....

Many thanks to Dr Mark Kim Malan for his precious study on the subject which I obviously put as evidence to my legal complaint file :

http://fr.scribd.com/doc/25111987/Historical-Development-of-New-Masturba...

To all the youth in the LDS CHurch that has and continu to suffer due to the false teachings of the Church about masturbation.

François Morin
Montreal, Canada


misterzelph
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
The church will outlaw ANYTHING that might delay marriage and babies. Pre marital sex and choking one's chicken are 2 of these things.

They don't want me back
They are promotes of their own bigoted, racial, ignorant self loathing, egotistical opinions
There is no divine wisdom or insight where they are concerned.


joesmithsleftteste
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Someone was asking about the dumbest commandment the other day and this was my response. It seems fitting to post it here.

"My wife and I have both come to the conclusion that the ban on masturbation is the worst because it creates so many feelings of inadequacy and guilt over something that is not only natural, but offers a safe outlet for sexual desires until you're ready for sex. I've read articles about LDS kids who attempted suicide (or succeeded) because they couldn't completely quit on their masturbation habits. The way people are made to feel like they are second rate citizens for masturbating is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting."
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,723497,724605#msg-724605


gentlestrength
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
Cheers, a somewhat heroic position in that this health care professional knows that there is a risk that the witch doctors of the tribe will punish for challenging their mysticism.

I respect courage even if it is walking out of an imaginary prison. Well done!


gentlestrength
Re: Mormon Therapist speaks out about masturbation and outdated LDS view.
I support your decision either way. If you can include public chastisement or "education" all the better. Vermin and insects thrive in the dark.

"Recovery from Mormonism - www.exmormon.org"