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"  Here at Cosmo, we&amp;#039;re big supporters of self-love. It&amp;#039;s natural, it&amp;#039;s healthy, and it makes you feel good. So we were kinda disturbed by a recent study that showed how masturbating could actually spell disaster for your relationship. In a poll conducted by Morningside Recovery, an addition recovery facility in Southern California, 45.4 percent of people ages 21-35 said they believe that masturbating can cause problems in their relationships and a whopping 20 percent of respondents said they masturbated three or more time a day. (Interestingly, 63 percent of respondents were women.)  We called up sex therapist Lisa Thomas to find out if masturbation can really cause an issue in a relationship. (Clearly, if your guy would rather whack off than do you, there&amp;#039;s got to be a serious problem.) Thomas says that masturbation in and of itself isn&amp;#039;t going to damage the relationship\u2014\u2014even if your man is doing it multiple times a day\u2014 because he may just have a high sex drive. Rather it&amp;#039;s what he&amp;#039;s masturbating to that will create issues.  &amp;quot;A lot of times, when men masturbate, they tend to look at visual stimulation, at videos online,&amp;quot; she says, using a nice euphemism for porn. &amp;quot;This resets men&amp;#039;s arousal patterns to the point that that they need more and more visual stimulation, so they&amp;#039;re not as responsive during sex.&amp;quot; From there it becomes a competition between what&amp;#039;s going to turn him on more\u2014your real-life sex or pornography? (And, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the porn is going to win.) She suggests that guys look at 2-D images, rather than video porn, to keep their arousal patterns from being over-stimulated. And, actually, most guys she&amp;#039;s counseled are cool with this. In fact, they don&amp;#039;t even realize the effect that porn can have on their sexual psyches. &amp;quot;Once they&amp;#039;re aware of the damage this can do to their sex lives, they tend to want to masturbate more responsibly,&amp;quot; she says. So, if you or your guy like to get down solo, it&amp;#039;s all good. Just be sure you&amp;#039;re not letting your individual sex life get more exciting than the one you have together.  Want more from Natasha? Follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a11938/masturbation-addiction/>