Excessive Masturbation - How Much Masturbation Is Too Much?
Masturbation is a great way to destress, relax and to generally take care of your overall well being. In fact, in the TENGA Global Self Pleasure Report 2020, around 58% of men & 61% of women masturbating for relaxation, with an additional 84% believing masturbation is a form of self-care and is good for your health!
Despite the overall raise in positivity towards masturbation, there are still a lot of myths surrounding the subject even today. People still believe that masturbating may cause hairy palms, penis shrinkage and even blindness among other superstitions!
Of course, none of those tales are backed up scientifically, but people are still concerned, can I masturbate too much? Let’s see whether we can make the matter of masturbation a little clearer.
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Is There Such a Thing As Too Much Masturbation?
What counts as too much masturbation really all depends on certain factors. Masturbation has overwhelmingly positive effects both physically and mentally for your body (we’ve already pointed out how masturbation can help you relax and feel good!). That said, as with anything in life, too much of anything can be bad for you.
In this case, the point when ‘too much masturbation’ might be a problem is when it affects your daily life. Are you missing work? Skipping school or passing up a night out with friends or family on a regular basis to masturbate just one more time? Then you might have a problem with excessive masturbation. The same can be said if it begins serving as an escape from relationship issues or becomes a substitute for real-life relationships.
If any of this is true to you then we’d advise speaking to someone you trust and seeking advice on how to start cutting back. If not then you should be within a healthy range of masturbating, whether you do it daily or monthly as long as you’re masturbating correctly.
Make Sure To Masturbate Safely.
Just like anything else, masturbation may carry some risks when done incorrectly. Prolonged and frequent unorthodox masturbation methods can lead to problems. This can include if you tend to rush to finish, use inadvisable methods and positions to masturbate or emulate pornography too much. For some, masturbating too frequently can also cause minor skin irritation which can escalate if not treated correctly.
You can read more about the risks of incorrect masturbation methods, but once you’re done ‘boning up’ on how to make sure you’re masturbating safely, keep in mind these positives about a bit of self-care time.
Masturbation Can Give Your Confidence And Sex Life a Boost
Self-pleasure on a regular basis can help you raise your own body confidence and help you to get to know how you tick. This in turn can lead to better confidence during sex with a partner! So take some time to learn about yourself and that can help your sex life too!
One of the myths surrounding masturbation is that once you’re in a committed relationship, there’s no need for masturbation anymore. Of course, relationship dynamics and thoughts on masturbation differ, but being open and understanding about what gets you going during masturbation can help towards a more fulfilling relationship too!
Remember that masturbation is perfectly normal, and many in relationships (18% in a committed relationship and 44% married/legally partnered) masturbate regularly, for a whole range of reasons. Although talking about it with a partner is still difficult for some, mutual understanding and communication about sex and masturbation is important.
Masturbation Has Plenty Of Other Health Benefits Too!
Masturbation has a whole other range of amazing health benefits that you might not expect. From giving a boost to your immune system, reducing the risk of prostate cancer, helping you destress and sleep better… the list goes on! Check out our other blog on all the amazing ‘feel good’ hormones you experience just from a quick masturbation session!
It seems orgasms during both masturbation and sex can actually offer completely different benefits! That isn’t saying that one is better than the other. Both have great benefits both on the mind and body, but it’s good to keep in mind that masturbation can be just as healthy for you as sex is.
What Are The Masturbation Norms?
A simple read through of our TENGA Global Self Pleasure Report for 2020 shows just how people's views on masturbation are shifting towards a much more positive one. More than half of those who masturbate do so at least once a week too, so you aren’t alone whether you masturbate once a week or once a day for many nonsexual reasons like “To help me sleep” and “Because I’m bored.”!
We can also see regular masturbators are more likely to strongly agree with “I am confident in my ability to satisfy myself sexually”. Compared to those that don’t masturbate regularly, they also express a higher comfort level discussing masturbation with a significant other!
So, Should I Worry About Masturbating Too Much?
One thing that should be taken away from this is plenty of people masturbate, and as long as you know the risks you're good to go! People masturbate at different frequencies, for many different reasons and to help themselves in many different ways. As long as your masturbation isn’t having a negative effect on your life, health or personal relationships and you steer clear of incorrect masturbation methods… you do you!
