Thinking of getting an early start with Viagra? You might want to think again, because more reports are surfacing that taking Viagra when you don't really need it can lead to...actually needing it. Like, every time you want to do it.For a while now, doctors and therapists have been saying they're seeing more and more younger men who have become dependent on ED drugs to perform sexually. They may get their start taking the pills recreationally, or taking them to bolster their confidence if they feel under pressure to perform. Either way, after a while they find themselves unable to do the deed without chemical assistance.
A study of the phenomenon was published earlier this year in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, and now more anecdotal reports are backing it up. Some articles in the British press feature interviews with men who came to Viagra early in life and now find they can't get by without it.
Most of these young men would never have been diagnosed with ED in the first place, so how did they get their hands on the drugs? Some get them the same way you'd get any sort of recreational drug - illegally - and some, especially men in Europe and the UK, simply jaunt over to another country where doctors have more liberal prescribing policies. We hear Spain is the place to go if you're looking for this sort of thing.
What's causing more men to turn to Viagra and similar drugs, at younger ages? Physicians and pundits have singled out a few possible culprits for making men feel so sexually inadequate that they feel they need back up before facing the bedroom. Many point the finger at porn, for setting unrealistic expectations about what male sexual performance looks like and how women are supposed to look or behave as sexual partners; and for making it harder for guys to get off - or even get hard - in a real-life sexual situation.
Women's increasing sexual liberation is cited as well: men may feel threatened or intimidated by women's sexual assertiveness, feeling pressure to have sex sooner in a dating scenario, and feeling that women are - no pun intended - sizing them up based on their sexual performance.
Some health professionals are skeptical about all the fuss over "Viagra addiction", claiming there's really no such thing and the problem isn't as widespread as the press would have you believe. It's perhaps just a matter of semantics - if you want to define addiction in its narrowest sense, these guys are not addicted. However, they have physical and/or psychological dependency on the drugs to help them get it up. And of course the press sensationalizes things, but it does happen.
Point being, if you don't need Viagra to treat erectile dysfunction, you shouldn't take it. Like any chemical crutch, it gets easier and easier to lean on over time, until you can manage without it. And it's a slippery slope from using a pill here and there to improve your performance, to needing the drug to perform at all.
