general things already said in this chapter are relevant to your case,
but I wish to add some direct words to you because I have acute
sympathy with you in your trial.

You ought, of course, to have been warned when you were very young, and
then you might have escaped the danger. Possibly you slipped into the
habit without at first realizing that it was wrong; and probably now
you hate the habit, and even sometimes hate yourselves because of it.
It is quite likely, too, that false and exaggerated things have been
said to you about it and made you miserably afraid.

Now it _is_ a bad habit. It is bad because you feel it to be unworthy
and rather unclean, and it creates unhappy associations in your mind in
connection with sex, which is a very unfortunate thing for you. And it
is a perversion. It is an unnatural way of satisfying sexual craving,
and, as you know, it leaves psychic disturbance behind it. The one
perfect way of satisfying sexual desire is complete union
with a woman you truly and honorably love. That leaves behind it a
feeling of complete satisfaction and rest. All other ways leave psychic
disturbance. Further, this habit often leads to active homosexuality.
I hear of men who talk as if homosexuality was quite a normal and right
thing with men of a certain type. It is, in fact, _always_ a regression
(see quotation from Dr. Crichton Miller in chapter for girls, p. 107).
Do get that fixed in your mind. It is an abnormal, unnatural thing
which has definite and evil nervous results.

But let me get back to the problem of self-abuse.

The Student Christian Movement lately collected from a number of
doctors, psychologists, and other experienced people, a body of