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New Study Suggests Link between Asexual Self-Identification and PTSD/Sexual Trauma!


Pramana

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A new study found that compared to members of other orientation groups self-identified asexuals from a large American college mental health survey were 4.4 times more likely to report having a diagnosis of PTSD, and 2.5 times more likely to report having a sexually traumatic encounter within the last twelve months. The authors suggest that some people might be identifying as asexual because they've become sexually avoidant due to traumatic sexual experiences. However, the authors include a couple of qualifiers, namely that people who were already asexual might subsequently experience PTSD and sexual trauma, and that asexuals might be more attuned to self-assessing the occurrence of unwanted sexual encounters. Furthermore, they note that despite the high relative prevalence rate, most self-identified asexuals reported neither PTSD nor a sexually traumatic encounter within the last twelve months.

Parent, Mike C., and Kevin P. Ferriter. “The Co‐Occurrence of Asexuality and Self‐Reported Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Diagnosis and Sexual Trauma Within the Past 12 Months Among U.S. College Students.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 47, no. 4 (2018): 1277-1282.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-018-1171-1

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There's a lot of new studies that say a lot of things about our community (usually done with the intention of trying to disprove our existence). This is no surprise.

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Duke Memphis

Well, if they were constantly surrounded by something that they can't stand, they'd feel pretty traumatized, too.

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Never had any trauma or anything, just was never interested enough to really care.

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paperbackreader

OOT : I just wanted to say that I love it that you put an '!' for all topics you start of this nature. :D

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Guest Deus Ex Infinity
On 20.4.2018 at 5:10 AM, Pramana said:

A new study found that compared to members of other orientation groups self-identified asexuals from a large American college mental health survey were 4.4 times more likely to report having a diagnosis of PTSD, and 2.5 times more likely to report having a sexually traumatic encounter within the last twelve months. The authors suggest that some people might be identifying as asexual because they've become sexually avoidant due to traumatic sexual experiences. However, the authors include a couple of qualifiers, namely that people who were already asexual might subsequently experience PTSD and sexual trauma, and that asexuals might be more attuned to self-assessing the occurrence of unwanted sexual encounters. Furthermore, they note that despite the high relative prevalence rate, most self-identified asexuals reported neither PTSD nor a sexually traumatic encounter within the last twelve months.

Parent, Mike C., and Kevin P. Ferriter. “The Co‐Occurrence of Asexuality and Self‐Reported Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Diagnosis and Sexual Trauma Within the Past 12 Months Among U.S. College Students.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 47, no. 4 (2018): 1277-1282.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-018-1171-1

Some of my doctors mentioned these aspects and while there's no absolute proof that my current identity has been caused by any mental and physical trauma, I still feel that there might be a connection somewhere underneath or between the layers of my consciousness and past experience.

 

However, it's a highly interesting paper. Thanks for sharing.

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On 4/19/2018 at 11:45 PM, FranciumSenpai said:

There's a lot of new studies that say a lot of things about our community (usually done with the intention of trying to disprove our existence). This is no surprise.

I've read over one hundred academic articles published about asexuality, and I have yet to read even one that was done with the intention of refuting asexuality as an orientation. Can you please provide an example to substantiate this claim?

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On 4/19/2018 at 11:59 PM, Duke Memphis said:

Well, if they were constantly surrounded by something that they can't stand, they'd feel pretty traumatized, too.

You mean to suggest that asexuals feel traumatized just by being around sexuality/sexual people?

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Duke Memphis
19 minutes ago, Pramana said:

You mean to suggest that asexuals feel traumatized just by being around sexuality/sexual people?

Some are, but there are also many non-aces who deeply disregard aces and put them in those kinds of situations. It's like putting Indiana Jones in a snake pit.

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2 minutes ago, Duke Memphis said:

Some are, but there are also many non-aces who deeply disregard aces and put them in those kinds of situations. It's like putting Indiana Jones in a snake pit.

A possibility raised in the paper is that being asexual might influence whether one perceives a particular sexual encounter as traumatic, and that self-identified asexuals who've undergone a process of reflecting on their sexual experiences might be more cognizant of such episodes.

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Duke Memphis

That possibility has some definite ground to it.

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I always found it weird to read people say "I'm autistic/have PTSD/whatevs but that has got nothing to do with my asexuality. If I weren't autistic/having PTSD/whatevs I'd still be asexual." Thing is, you can't be sure about that. Not trying to say that it's impossible, but... it's a bold claim to make.

 

I can't see how this is disproving the existence of asexuality :huh:

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6 hours ago, Pramana said:

I've read over one hundred academic articles published about asexuality, and I have yet to read even one that was done with the intention of refuting asexuality as an orientation. Can you please provide an example to substantiate this claim?

I don't have it on me right now, but I've read about 3 books worth. Forgot the names.

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4 minutes ago, FranciumSenpai said:

I don't have it on me right now, but I've read about 3 books worth. Forgot the names.

Here's a list of academic articles that I've read: https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/169410-asexuality-research-compendium/. Now I composed this list through a combination of university library database searches, database searches of prominent sex research journals, going through the publication lists of the major asexuality researchers, and also while reading I would make a note of any references to articles that I didn't recognize and proceed to read those articles in turn. Therefore, I'm confident that my list is pretty comprehensive, so it's highly improbable that you have three books worth of additional articles that I've somehow managed to miss, and that were all written with the intention of disproving asexuality. Perhaps you're thinking of popular news articles?

 

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48 minutes ago, Telecaster68 said:

The late great Douglas Adams used to attribute this kind of research to The Institute Of Slowly And Painfully Working Out The Bleeding Obvious.

 

43 minutes ago, CBC said:

Be right back, getting my CV. I hope they're hiring.

why-humans-have-sex-2007.pdf

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4 hours ago, Pramana said:

Here's a list of academic articles that I've read: https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/169410-asexuality-research-compendium/. Now I composed this list through a combination of university library database searches, database searches of prominent sex research journals, going through the publication lists of the major asexuality researchers, and also while reading I would make a note of any references to articles that I didn't recognize and proceed to read those articles in turn. Therefore, I'm confident that my list is pretty comprehensive, so it's highly improbable that you have three books worth of additional articles that I've somehow managed to miss, and that were all written with the intention of disproving asexuality. Perhaps you're thinking of popular news articles?

 

No, I'm referring to 3 books which I have read which have references studies which aimed to disprove our existence. I didn't say your study was bad, I was just saying that I'm not surprised.

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