Originally Posted by
aggroculture
as someone who also has been obsessed my whole life with worries about getting STDs, I'd like to play devil's advocate
though it doesn't stop me obsessing, I do realize that these fears can be overblown sometimes
I will never forget the doctor who told me, when I was getting one of my MANY HIV tests, in my 20s, that "if you want to get HIV you have to try really hard." If you look online there is a ton of people worrying about STDs (usually HIV) and some very weary responses carrying the same message: your worries about HIV are medically ungrounded and irrational please stop
I think it's generational to a degree: I grew up learning about AIDS and sex pretty much side by side, so that in my teenage mind sex=death. And yes I know there are lots of other STDs besides HIV.
Of course I believe in protection, as much protection as possible, always; but I also realize that obsessing about this issue can be very damaging and detrimental to one's emotional well being, and can go beyond the practical and the rational and into the self-destructive. At least that has been my case