Do you need sex?

maeve99

Some Maslow Hierarchy of Needs place it on par with food, water, and shelter. But is it really a need or just a strong want?

For the survival of the species, sexual reproduction is definitely a need but for an individual, it's not at all necessary.

Maybe psychologically.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058211387/do-you-need-sex

It’s not ‘necessary’ on a personal level, but it’s a ‘great to have’.... its fun, it’s nice... if it’s on a par with food we need it 3 times a day, I’m not going to disagree,. :p

Can get the "end result" on your own 😁 Can't really 'simulate' , or at least there's no alternative/s to the big three mentioned...

I'd have sex on the Social step of Maslow's pyramid.

JupiterKid

Sex is not an absolute need per se, unlike food, clothing, shelter and water - but regular, hot, satisfying sex is hugely beneficial for one’s mental health and general life satisfaction. 😎👍👍🔥🔥💕

Sex can be great, the only problem is getting enough of it (and I’m in a same-sex LTR). 😁

Id like to think I am above it and I could live without it. But then the girls come into the room - - one of them in a football shirt and little ankle socks - the other in all over silk PJs - and I think I have knocked bigger men down just to get a LOOK at what they have going on.

If I ended up single tomorrow I think I would do ok without sex. But right now - its a total on going need where i get demented if I go too long without.

seenitall

Yes, it’s a need. For men more than for women, as testosterone is the driver of that physiological need. But women like it too, otherwise the continuation of the species would have to be based entirely on rape, but nature, in our species’ case, decided differently.

At the same time, being a woman, I can’t honestly say that I need sex - as in, sexual activity that necessarily involves someone else. I’ve always come by orgasms extremely easily (excuse the pun). Perhaps what is more accurate for me to say is that orgasms are a need! Sex is great, though. But I really have to feel a strong pull of attraction towards a man in order to have sex. So not such a great need, I guess!

igCorcaigh

No, unless you include self care. My partner and I can go for months without sex.

Without cuddles though, I would be in a dark place.

FintanMcluskey

It's instinct, and its importance is right up there with food and water for the survival of the species.

I often wonder how men survive in marriages with dead bedroom's.

Seth Brundle

Do you need sex?

Are you offering?

CGI_Livia_Soprano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967673#Comment_117967673

Which one of them is the one you met when she was 17?

B.A._Baracus

Nah. I don't need it.

... Why, you offering?

YellowFeather

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967673#Comment_117967673

We get it already.

Idle Passerby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967890#Comment_117967890

I'm curious which is the one who had a baby a few weeks back. She'd still be rocking those mattress like post partum pads by my reckoning.

JupiterKid

..

JupiterKid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967673#Comment_117967673

Which one of your two nubile nympho spouses is happy to be the mother of an 11 year old child whose father encourages them to shoot guns? 😏🙄

touts

I always figured sex was on the list with Food Shelter Water etc because if you dont have sex you won't have children to give you food Water and shelter when you are incapacitated in old age.

Objectively, the strongest drive in any organism is to propagate and continue its genetic makeup.

Subjectively, I would rather have a nice cup of tea. Far easier to obtain, less mess, very low probability of regret, and often more satisfying.

85603

well you have to empty the tanks dont you?

what might happen if you didnt.

wheelbarrow sack?

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117968272#Comment_117968272

Well that’s a shìtty comment.

wotzgoingon

I can't help myself when those three girls come into the room with nothing on but a oversized hoody on each of them and the three of them sit down on the couch opposite me with their legs crossed and me sitting there watching their smooth slim muscle defined legs. Next thing on que the three of them uncross their legs at the same time and open theirs legs up and then cross the other leg. All you see is me jumping up pull out my massive membrane and give it to the three of them.

Life is good I suppose. Three girls and blessed with a massive tool. What more could a guy want.

Notmything

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058211387/do-you-need-sex

thought you were asexual fegs? so shouldnt be an issue for you.

Tax may not have the traditional relationship and some of you may not believe a thing he posts. Isn't it a bit mean though to gang up on him?

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967181#Comment_117967181

Sounds like an uncomfortable place to do it...

Burt Renaults

There's nothing wrong with really, really wanting it. But if you confuse wants with needs... well, there's something wrong with you.

Tell me how

You don't 'need' it, but you are missing out on one of life's simple pleasures if you don't have it. Same could be said about exercising, listening to music, reading etc. You can survive without it, but would you want to?

That's being very literal of course. Interestingly, one version of Maslows hirearchy of needs I've seen places it on the basic physiological need as 'Sex', but also expands on it as 'Sexual intimacy' within the 3rd tier which I think is relevant if considering the role of procreation as a need for the human race versus individual satisfaction which is where the intimacy part is more relevant.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117968179#Comment_117968179

Semen retention? More BroScience from the land of the free no doubt. A fair number of studies have shown that clearing the pipes more regularly protects against prostate cancer in later life so...

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117970031#Comment_117970031

Placebo effect is strong and that's cool, whatever floats one's boat and if it works for you, but physiologically it makes zero sense. Indeed our body is primed to flush the old out. Wet dreams an obvious example of that.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117969522#Comment_117969522

Excuse me, the great philosopher Elliott conflated the two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9zOlaztgBo

kerryjack

51 here and no sighn of it waning, wish it did no fun looking at a nice ass now and no chance of pealing the nickers off it.

85603

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117970031#Comment_117970031

i suppose it all depends on where you retain it.

blue note

I reckon I lean towards needing it. The longer I go without the more I think about it. To the point that I struggle to concentrate on other things.

I guess it depends first how you define "need". I think some people have a definition of "need" in their head that constitutes basic survival. Other than food and water therefore what other "need" is there? Everything else after that is just things you would be better off with but do not even "need". For example a home.

If we define "need" in terms of not just survival but also maintaining some minimum standard of well being - things become a little more open but also a little more subjective. Many of us might feel we "need" a home and sex and love. But a contemplative who has cut themselves off from civilisation and is sitting in a cave in endless meditation and isolation might disagree.

As I said in my first post in that sense I would like to think I am above certain pleasure of the flesh and mind - but quickly when going any length of time without some of them and I find my well being impacted. So it certainly feels like I "need" them. But without them I would likely train myself out of that need too eventually.

But whatever else - it is certainly clear that the impulse and compulsion towards sex can be as close to "need" as it gets and is at times completely deranging to the individual. Which everything from the success of the porn industry - to the existence of rape - to the strange machinations of INCEL culture would seem to attest. If sex is not a "need" - it seems pretty damn close.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117969461#Comment_117969461

Thanks for that :) - but they would either need to come in far greater numbers - or come with some actual decent material - before I would feel ganged up on. The most they achieve is to pointlessly derail a thread.

Leaving a thread on a subject like Gun Violence or Age Difference Relationships - to side swipe at me somewhere else where context makes a substantive reply from me more difficult without making it look like I am the one derailing the thread - is not "ganging up" on me.

It is pure cowardice on their part and a failure of substance. If there was something about either me - my opinions - or my actions - or my parenting - on those threads they were capable of confronting me about - they probably would have done so. Getting triggered and then lashing out out of context with entirely irrelevant one liners - just shows they cant/couldnt do so. Someone might be bothered by - for example - my thinking training a child how to use a gun is a bad thing. But if they can not articulate a coherent comment in context to that effect - the failing there is far from mine.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117970264#Comment_117970264

"Pattern" and "placebo" are not mutually exclusive though. It is entirely possible for placebo to show a pattern of effect or behaviour in any given individual. Even - some studies have suggested - in people who you have actually told are taking a placebo. It seems placebo can be effective even when the person being treated knows it is only placebo.

Against the placebo comment however I would also note - there are other possibilities to explain why some small number of people see physical and mental health benefits from abstaining from sex or masturbation though.

One example: As you note yourself sexual activity does modify hormonal levels in the body. You mention two of them above as good examples. If you were to have some underlying undiagnosed issue in your metabolism or hormonal system - it is entirely possible that events that cause a short term stark modification of your hormones exacerbate that issue and leave you compromised - less energy, focus or whatever. Just like while most people can have a few beers without any massive effects - some people who do so suffer massive loses in physical energy or emotional well being.

So just like alcohol - if you have definitively recognise sexual activity as a trigger for harmful side effects in your system then by all means avoid it. It could be even that your reaction to your own hormones is acting very much like an allergy. So the hormones that affect you after orgasm have similar effects to - say - someone with a grains allergy feeding on a loaf of bread.

As another user notes however there is a whole "alt science" realm of "semen retention" that is not at all supported by your anecdotal experience. Scientifically they would have a lot more to do than extrapolate a hypothesis from an anecdote as you have done above. So when any of them move from "Well this works for me" to actively advocating such abstinence to others - they have crossed into the realm of snake oil salesman really. It would make no more sense than someone with a common food allergy advocating that entirely normal people avoid the same foods they have to.