Sex and Depression: Can Casual Sex Lead to Suicide?

A recent study points to a measurable jump in depression, including thoughts of suicide, that tracks with a rising number of casual sex partners. The pattern seems to compound: as the behavior continues, the mental health problems tend to deepen. Which raises the obvious questions. Does casual sex cause depression, and could it push someone toward suicide? Sexual desire in its mature form usually surfaces around puberty, and the stakes run higher for young adolescents whose brains have not finished developing. Today's teens and twenty-somethings also face a steady stream of tempting messaging about sex, yet each individual still owns the choices he or she makes and whatever follows from them. Unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection top most people's list of worries about casual sex, but a quieter and more dangerous risk sits behind those: depression.

Researchers at Ohio State University spoke with people who had recently had casual sex, which they defined as intercourse with someone known for less than a week. Those individuals reported higher general anxiety, more social anxiety, and more depression. Their self-esteem, happiness, and satisfaction with life also ran lower than among respondents who had not slept with a near-stranger in the previous seven days. The same group, according to the study, was more inclined to seriously consider suicide at a later point in life.

The research drew on teens from American middle and high schools, first interviewed in grades 7 through 12 and then surveyed again between ages 18 and 26. Questions covered their relationships, their depression, and any thoughts of suicide. Nearly a third of the participants said they had been in a casual sexual relationship, and more males than females reported at least one such encounter in the prior month. American culture tends to treat casual sex as acceptable for men and not for women, a double standard worth naming. Even so, the researchers said gender did not change the outcome. The link between poor mental health and casual sex held for both men and women.

The findings tied casual sex to lower well-being and higher psychological distress. From that angle, casual sex may feed a decline in mental health, and it seems fair to say these encounters carry real psychological danger for young adults. What the researchers could not settle was direction. Existing mental health problems might push someone toward riskier behavior in the first place. The study shows the two are connected and suggests casual sex may drive further mental decline, but which comes first still needs more work to establish.

By their count, each additional casual sexual relationship raised the odds of suicidal thinking by close to 20 percent. Oddly, while casual sex was linked to suicidal thoughts, it showed no effect on depressive symptoms themselves. The design has limits. Subjects were measured only twice, which makes precise conclusions hard. Depressive symptoms also swing around during adolescence, and genuine depression in teenagers is notoriously tricky to diagnose, since ordinary young people can ride mood changes sharper than any adult's. Those moods can flip over hours or days, so what looks like depression may be a reaction to pressures and situations that have not yet come into focus.

Growing up is hard enough without the added weight of questions about sex, sexuality, and identity. Adolescents are people, though, and the human parts of this, their sexual development, their desire, the shape of the identity they are forming, deserve to be addressed directly. Honest facts paired with sound moral guidance help teens make sense of themselves. That kind of support can head off mistakes that prove devastating and sometimes fatal. Given the right tools, young people show they can take responsibility for their own sexual and reproductive health. Parental involvement and culturally competent programs that deliver full, accurate information do real good in helping youth choose well. Keeping teenagers supplied with the information and services they need to protect themselves, if and when they become sexually active, remains a plain priority.

Adolescence is the stretch of life where we start learning what relationships actually are. This study should read as another loud alarm about the need to spot teens and young adults carrying poor mental health. Reaching them early, before they enter casual sexual relationships, matters. The link between casual sexual involvement and higher rates of depression and suicidal thought appears strong. - Jeff Stein

A closing note from Bergen. For the youngest members of society, we have been able to draw on generations of accumulated knowledge, including a range of studies on sexual behavior, to prepare ourselves for living in a psychologically steady way. Those studies have helped shape the guiding ideas behind healthy sexuality. From where I stand, the fallout of the last century's sexual revolution taught clear lessons about what works and what does not. "Free love" and casual sex with many partners does not actually deliver. The sense of right and wrong handed down by our grandparents' generation still shapes us, and they found monogamy worth living by because it held families and the wider social fabric together.

Looking at the social wreckage that can follow casual sex, it is tempting to blame frequent casual sex for the depression many people carry. My own read runs the other way. I suspect the casual sex is more often a symptom of depression that already exists, unrecognized or undiagnosed. People seek casual sex for physical release and for a flicker of human contact with a near-stranger, but who, in a sound psychological state, goes looking for a virtual stranger to share that with? The instability of depression may well express itself through casual sex, as the person tries to fill an inner emptiness they believe only sex can touch. I think the outward act reflects an inward depression in both men and women. And yes, suicide can follow when a depressive illness goes untreated at the root. I am convinced casual sex can both voice an underlying depression and worsen it. We are made for meaningful, loving bonds, so anything that pulls away from building those, casual sex possibly among them, can deepen a depression already there. - Bergen

Reference: Hodgekiss, A. (2013, November 21). Casual sex can cause depression and even lead to suicidal thoughts, experts warn. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from the Daily Mail health section.