Does anyone else like to reaffirm that masturbation is normal/healthy before doing it?

[Arasyil]

Ok, so sometimes when I go to masturbate, beforehand I'll skim Scareleteen's page on masturbation, or other websites talking about why it's normal, why it helps your self esteem, body image, etc.

I know of this stuff, and I'm obviously not just forgetting it lol, but I like to make sure I'm in the right headspace, if that makes any sense?

Honestly I didn't even grow up in a place where masturbation was talked upon negatively, but I can't recall much conversation upon it in general. One thing that I can remember is when I was in Grade 10, the teacher was at the end of their lesson, and they said something along the lines of "oh, masturbation, you're in Grade 10 you already know what that is". But like I can't really remember any other times masturbation was talked about in health class - I could just be forgetting tho, but I'm pretty sure.

It's weird because I actually started masturbating slightly early, around when I was 12, and like I always knew it had to do with sex and whatever, but I never really thought too much about how that actually related to my own life - I was just doing this because it felt good and I had sexual feelings. Even later on when I got older, I masturbated in a more sexual context, but I wasn't thinking too much about the whole "masturbation helps you know what feels good, and how you want your partner to touch you, and increases your knowledge of your body", etc etc. It was just wow I'm horny and here's something sexy.

So now that I start to think about how masturbation plays a big role in your sexual life, and all the different positive impacts it can have on you, I guess that's why I'm reading all these articles, because it's new to me.

There definitely wasn't a talk about pleasure in school, and I'm not even sure if they specifically used the word orgasm, just "climax" which to me has slightly different connotations, idk.


Anyway I just realized I went on a huge tangent about my whole journey with masturbation lol and I'm not even sure what my question is but I wanted to get it written out lol. But basically is it normal to like think of the benefits and positive aspects and everything of masturbation to get into the right headspace, even if my default thoughts about masturbation are definitely not negative at all - maybe more neutral?

Tysm for any possible insights you might be able to give on this, if it's readable and there's even something to be responded to

[Mo]

This isn't the sort of thing we can really say is "normal" or not, because "normal" is kind of meaningless when it comes to issues of sexuality, and people having this same impulse aren't necessarily going to talk about it, so we can't know how common it is. I will say, though, that it doesn't seem strange that you're looking for some of these resources about masturbation now! Affirming and learning more about a part of your sexuality makes a lot of sense to me.