Imagine for a moment that I took away your ability to enjoy sex. It’s just gone. Now in order to get it back, you would have to declare that you belong to two categories of people who are regularly stigmatized in pop culture. While you are dealing with this, you may also be experiencing feelings of worthlessness, guilt, hopelessness, lethargy, anxiety, and the inability to concentrate. If you can get past all that and reach out for help, there’s a big chance no one will do anything. They may not even believe you.
Welcome to the world of a woman dealing with the sexual side effects of depression and its treatment.
For more head over to bitchmedia.org and check out my piece “Let’s Talk About Sex And Depression”
Life achievement unlocked: Today my writing is featured on the Bitch Media site! I remember picking up my first copy of Bitch magazine before a flight in 2003 (yes, I was a bit late to the game on that) and falling in love. Bitch magazine was one of those things that made me hear the voice in my head that said “you want to write, you want to say things like these people do”. So today I’m thrilled to not only be writing, but to be writing for Bitch and about a topic so very near to my heart. So go check out my piece, you’ll even get to learn a bit about the results of last year’s sex and depression survey!
On a practical note, some of you know that I find pitching stories a bit scary, it’s my biggest hurdle as a writer. Something that inspired me and led directly to this piece happening was listening to an interview with Bitch’s online editor Sarah Mirk on a podcast called Beyond Your Blog. I recommend checking out the site in general and the interview specifically if you share my pitching panic.