“Viagra Saves Lives (No, Seriously) - Here’s some tragicomedy: a new study found that increasing the availability of Viagra lowers suicide in older men. Put another way: penis pills save lives. Literally.
On the surface, this is funny because… well, because anything involving Viagra is usually funny.
But the more you think about it, the more it kind of makes you sad. Because that result suggests that there is a number of men in this world who find nothing meaningful outside of their own sex lives.
The idea that women base too much of their self-worth on their appearance is mainstream and well-known at this point. But what gets less air time is the reality that there’s a similar dynamic with men basing too much of their self-worth on their sex lives. I’ve long argued that many men overestimate sex as a source of value and significance.
Don’t get me wrong, sex is healthy and important. But if it’s the only route to intimacy and meaning that you’ve allowed yourself, well, then you’re going to have a bad time. “
based on persona-…ahem friends of friends’ experiences, having increased heartrate and bloodflower helps with depression for sure. Be it coffee, exercise, drgs, viagra, or just being in the sun.
It’s very sad. A culture of toxic masculinity convinces men that their manhood and sexuality are intrinsic to their value as a person, as personhood and manhood become one and the same. To be less manly than the ideal is to veer into femininity, the ultimate insult.
Interestingly, viagra can also kill people with heart issues, so I wonder how many net deaths would result if more men took viagra in their advancing age.
I’d throw the following idea into the ring for discussion:
The article is implying causation when only correlation has been demonstrated.
Sure, “improving” a man’s sex life seems to have a “positive” effect (i.e., a desired effect). But what was done to control for this? How do we know that it’s not just a placebo effect (“Hey, I’m getting attention! I feel better already!!”) or that something else couldn’t have just as much of an impact?
Or that it helped with overall blood flow. Viagra was first tested as a heart drug, and was only marketed as a sex enhancement drug after it failed it’s clinical trials – but the men who were taking it were reluctant to return the extra pills.
That NEVER happens.
So the researchers asked them why, and some of them answered…