Masturbation is a term applied to a bad habit that consists of manipulating and rubbing the genitals. It is a bad habit because it can harm the child’s health and future development. The more frequently it is practiced, the more harmful it is. It is more harmful than when practiced by boys, because the effects tend to be more permanent. Girls who indulge in the habit of excessive masturbation not only become weak, anemic, and acquire a dirty, pimply complexion, but they lose the desire for normal sexual intercourse when they grow up and are unable to derive any pleasure from the act. sexual. when they get married Many girls who masturbate excessively have a strong aversion to normal sexual intercourse, and their married life is unhappy.
The habit is much less widespread among girls than among boys. The girl who values her health, her beauty and her proper mental growth and development should not indulge in it.
The behavior of parents – The behavior of some parents when they find that their child is caressing their genitals or indulging in masturbation, they feel as if a great calamity has happened to them. Imbued with the medieval idea of u200bu200bthe sinfulness of the habit, as well as its harmfulness, they begin to scold the boy, scare him, make him believe that he is doing something terrible, that he has disgraced them and himself. and they try to persuade him that unless he stops immediately, the most dire consequences await him. The result of this way of proceeding is disastrous, much more than masturbation itself.
Parents and doctors should know that the harmfulness of the habit has been greatly and grossly exaggerated. It is time for them to know that the vast majority of boys and girls get over the habit without being much or anything, worse for it. If the matter is viewed in a sensible and sensible way, tell the child caught in practice that they have done something shamefully vicious and criminal, but talk to them nicely and tell them that what they are doing may ensure serious injury, which may interfere with their future health and mental and physical development, then they will be much more successful in their efforts to break the child’s habit.
Denouncing even the mildest indulgence in masturbation as a vice has a detrimental effect on the person indulging in it and makes it more difficult for him to break the habit. Victims of habit consider themselves degraded, hopelessly lost. They lose self-respect, and because of that, it is harder for them to break the habit.
Habit prevention: One of the main ways to prevent habits is to carefully observe the child from his early childhood. Although, many times, the vicious or stupid nannies, governesses, ignorantly or perhaps deliberately, induce the habit in the children in their charge and this of course must be prevented. Children from nine, ten and eleven years old should not always be left alone, but always under supervision. And also too close friendship between boys and girls, especially of different ages, should be viewed with suspicion.
Under no circumstances should two people sleep together in the same bed, whether they are two children or an elderly person and a child. The child, be it a boy or a girl, should sleep alone, on a fairly hard mattress, and the cover should be light. You can put a decorative bedspread on the feet. The child should always sleep with arms outstretched on the blanket and never under it. If this practice is started in a child from infancy, it will be very easy to get used to the way of sleeping, and many cases of masturbation will be avoided.
If any attempt is made to monitor the child, it must be so carefully surrounded by surveillance that it cannot trespass undetected. If he is only partially watched, he will soon learn to evade watching, and therefore the effect is only to make him cunning in his habit.
Hot baths are also very harmful for young children because of their influence in the case of masturbation. Even in adults, a hot bath has a stimulating effect on your sexual desire. Any factor that may give rise to the habit of masturbation must be eliminated. Some people will refrain from manipulating themselves with their hands, but will practice what is known as mind masturbation. That is, they will concentrate their minds on the opposite sex and imagine various lewd scenes, until they feel satisfied. This method is extremely damaging and tiring and is very likely to lead to neurasthenia and a nervous breakdown. This habit is even more harmful than the regular habit.
In adults or youth, a different plan should be followed. Moral considerations and the inevitable consequences for the health of body and mind are the main influences by which reform must be effected. The considerations can be exhorted with all possible eloquence and seriousness, but they must not be exaggerated. If there are special influences that can be brought to bear on a particular individual, they should be promptly employed and applied in such a way as to ensure their full support. But although, the most to do, must be for the individual himself. All that others can do for him is to surround him with favorable circumstances and awaken him to a proper sense of his true condition and danger. If this can be fully achieved there is much reason to hope, but if the individual has so lost all sense of purity, all aspirations towards good and noble objects, that he cannot be made to feel the need to reform himself, then if the case is has become desperate.
Work is also an excellent remedy, work which will really make the sufferer very tired, so that when he lies down he will have no disposition to defile himself.
How a person can help themselves.
I. Begin the work of reform by purging the mind. If a lewd thought enters your mind, dispel it immediately. Cultivate hatred of concupiscence. Never entertain such ideas even for a moment, because they will surely lead to overacting. If by chance the physical sin is not committed, the thought itself is sin, and leaves a scar both physical and moral almost as deep and hideous as that inflicted by the most serious crime.
II. Avoid loneliness, for that is when temptation sets in and you are more likely to fail. Likewise, avoid all other causes that may give rise to the event.
third As an aid to purity of mind, whenever impure thoughts enter, immediately direct the mind towards the purest object with which you are familiar. Run away from the special exciting cause, if there is one, and engage in some active work or other exercise that will divert the mind into another channel.
IV. Strictly comply with all the rules established for the cultivation of chastity and the maintenance of continence.
V. And above all, seek grace and help from the source of all spiritual strength in every moment of temptation, leaning on the promise, “seek and you will find”.