Tahmina Ahmad - Initial Personal Reflection

The World Health Organization’s definition of sexual health is “the integration of somatic, emotional, intellectual and social aspects of sexuality in ways that are positively enriching and that enhance personality, communication and love.” This definition is loaded with many components that encompass and contribute to healthy sexuality; it involves not only the physical characteristics and capacities for sexual behaviors but the social and psychological attributes of sexual behavior including feelings, family/personal values, religious/cultural/social norms, safe attitudes/perceptions, open/nurturing communication, gender/sex identity and male/female roles in public/private. It is not surprising that major barriers that a teen may face to having a healthy sexuality involve a lack of a comprehensive outlook and a presence of various attitudes all during the more challenging and confounding years of their life.

1. A Lack of a Comprehensive Approach/Outlook
In understanding the various issues (mentioned above) that are known to affect sexual health in both positive and negative ways, it is easier to see how the absence or negative perspective of one or more of these factors can lead to instantaneous barriers to having a healthy sexuality in the mind of an adolescent or teen who is already dealing with a very challenging stage of life. In essence one of the biggest barriers that teens face to having a healthy sexuality is a comprehensive approach to building a level of familiarity/comforting/understanding to the various multi-faceted issues. Branches of education involved in promoting healthy sexuality among adolescents/teens may deal with these various facets but if there is a gap in resources and/or knowledge or a teen still does not feel comfortable regarding an unaddressed issue, an overall barrier to healthy sexuality still remains. It's also difficult to know what issues are important to each individual when there is a communication barrier. Obviously, the comprehensive outlook barrier exists due to many individual barriers but the fact still remains.

2. Difference or Contradiction in Attitudes
The problem of healthy sexuality is further emphasized when many different people/attitudes are taking presence in a teens life. In order to help a teen eliminate their barriers, these ‘people/attitudes’ themselves must, to some extent, have a healthy outlook on sexuality. It is no wonder that teens are confused, for example, if they may face four very different attitudes from their sex ed teacher/workshop, boyfriend/girlfriend, parent and friend. Interestingly enough, educators who may feel that they are promoting a healthy sexuality can still not understand how every individual may perceive that information. For example, emphasizing the diseases associated with unsafe sex may attach negative associations with sex in a teens mind. It is hard to avoid confusing, manipulating or maybe even offending a teen with a contradiction in attitudes or a lack of understanding in how each unique teen is processing the information relatively.

3. Challenging Years that Confound the Process
Adolescence or teenage years in and of itself serves as a challenge. There are simultaneous changes taking place in the body, thinking process (brain development), social life and etc. Furthermore, every individual may experience these changes differently. Therefore, at this stage in life, the development of healthy sexuality is confounded, influenced and affected by many other ongoing experiences unique to different teens.