Last week, our social media feeds were flooded by the image of Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, telling US senators that the country was “going in the wrong direction”. The image had a vivid, layered power. Not only did it feel like a national death knell, but Fauci’s appearance – in an imperial-red face mask emblazoned with the insignia of baseball’s Washington Nationals – seemed to signal another culture war. Fauci was making a comment about how to maintain one’s masculinity while wearing a face mask.

Fauci apparently isn’t the only one anxious about face masks impeding his masculinity. The shock jock Joe Rogan, known for his massive following of male listeners, recently suggested that only “bitches” wear masks. Donald Trump Jr was photographed at a packed party in the Hamptons, like a baddie from a John Hughes film, conspicuously sans mask.

You know them when you see them – the phonies in your life. Maybe they are sycophants. They laugh too loudly at unfunny jokes. They say things you know they don’t believe, because they think that then, other people will like them. Or the “right” other people will like them, the ones they are trying to impress. They are trying too hard.

You probably don’t like being with people who seem inauthentic. It’s uncomfortable. Well guess what? They don’t like spending time with themselves either. That’s one of the costs of phoniness – it is no fun being alone with yourself.

In contrast, people who are authentic have a great big advantage: they like their own company. Spending time alone doesn’t scare them. They don’t worry about being lonely. Their alone time is something they value. It is important to them and they benefit from it.

Sexual self-esteem influences almost every sexual decision you make, from who you engage with and when to whether you constrain yourself and how.

However, very little is known about sexual self-esteem and who has more or less of it. This is particularly important because sexual self-esteem and sexual satisfaction are closely related. Several studies suggest that lower sexual self-esteem negatively impacts sexual satisfaction. Another study, by Hale and Strassberg, reported the results of an experiment to test the effects of low sexual self-esteem and showed that male participants’ sexual arousal was significantly and negatively affected by poor sexual self-esteem.

What Is Sexual Self-Esteem?

Sexual self-esteem is feeling capable of being involved in sexual practices with successful procedures and results. Sexual self-esteem tends to differ with age and one’s partner’s sexual skills or interest, and it may vary for men and women and across cultures.

Studies also suggest that sexual self-esteem is negatively affected by a variety of life experiences, including childhood sexual abuse, sexual victimization, physical disabilities, and health issues. Another study found that sexual self-esteem is positively associated with general self-esteem.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused lockdowns across the world, cutting off opportunities for socializing with others. While hard data is not readily available, this lockdown likely led to a massive decrease in promiscuity and casual sex. Now that lockdowns are easing, social venues are beginning to reopen and singles are once again starting to mingle. This will undoubtedly increase opportunities for casual sexual encounters.

However, the long period of home confinement will have given many people pause for thought about their lifestyles—including their sex lives. For some, this may have led to a rethinking of sexual priorities, while for others this extended period of involuntary celibacy can not end quickly enough.

"I just wanted to fuckk as many women as I can, but I could feel like its empty... during one week, I was with 4 or 5 different girls but the next day I felt this emptiness, and I would say each of them take a part of your soul, and make you more empty… because of that I stopped doing that… and I knew this was a mentally healthy thing to do."

I was totally addicted. It was soul-eating. I discovered I was addicted about 3 or 4 years in, and I realized that my life was taking a drastic turn. I was in school but I wasn’t interested in school anymore. I was heavily into running but I wasn’t interested in a single bit of running. I was just interested in clubs and girls… and I was tired of just focusing on girls and not focusing on my life… I decided to build myself first, that is what I am doing now…"

In a free society, it is a fundamental right to enjoy a sexual lifestyle of one’s own choosing (within the limits of the law). As lockdowns continue to abate, more and more people will be looking to rekindle their sex lives: including casual sex, one-night stands, and "friends with benefits." For some people, this will be harmless fun and an enjoyable recreational activity.

But some research—

We live in an increasingly stressful world, which is why it has never been more important to foster emotional and mental resiliency in our children.

Not only are mentally strong kids better prepared to tackle future problems on their own, but studies have found that they’re also more likely to be engaged in school and in their future jobs.

It won’t be easy for parents, but avoiding these common mistakes can help.

1. Minimizing your kid’s feelings

Kids need to know that it’s healthy to express and talk about their emotions. When parents tell their kids things such as “don’t be so sad about it” or “it’s not a big deal,” they’re sending the message that feelings don’t matter and that it’s better to suppress them.

If your kid is displaying expressions of fear during a loud storm, for example, considering saying, “I know you’re scared right now.” Then ask them what they think would make them feel better. This teaches them how to manage and cope with emotions on their own.

The goal is to help them practice brainstorming solutions until they find something that works.

New York Times bestselling author Glennon Doyle is unequivocal in her opinion on modern parenting.

In her new book Untamed, she describes how parents receive a ‘terrible memo’ from society as soon as our kids are born.

This memo says that our kids are our saviours and parenting them is akin to a religion. We must give them every opportunity possible and most importantly, we must never allow anything difficult to happen to them.

According to Glennon, not only does this disastrous memo make us parents feel exhausted, neurotic and guilty; but it is also the reason why our kids suck.

Ouch.

The reason our kids suck, she says, is because we no longer allow our children to learn how to lose, or to struggle, or to be rejected.

It’s been nearly two months since schools in the United States closed their doors and sent students home to carry on their lessons through a screen.

Due to the coronavirus, American pupils from kindergarten to senior year were forced to swap blackboards for Zoom — much to the dismay of the parents now forced to step in as surrogate teachers.

A viral tweet from archeologist and University of Alabama at Birmingham professor Sarah Parcak summed up many frustrated parents’ emotions after she said homeschooling after completing other household chores was a “fucking joke” that made her “want to barf.”

“We just wrote a hard email. I told our son’s (lovely, kind, caring) teacher that, no, we will not be participating in her 'virtual classroom,' and that he was done with the 1st grade,” she wrote on April 8. “We cannot cope with this insanity. Survival and protecting his well being come first.”

Dear How to Do It,

I live in a small apartment in New York City, and I’m currently “sheltering in place”/self-isolating with my family (husband, two small kids). I was sent home from my job that I love, with no idea if or when they will ever reopen. My parents fall in the coronavirus “at risk” category of 60+ with underlying conditions. I, myself, have a rare lung condition, and I don’t know if that puts me in a higher risk group, too. So, having said all that, I’m struggling with thoughts of existential anxiety 24/7 and have zero libido. My husband, while largely in the same boat, does not have this problem and his sex drive is as high as ever. He thinks I should try to take my mind off things, and the best way to do that is with an orgasm. I think the odds of me orgasming right now are … zero. I can’t turn my brain off. Even during foreplay, I find myself worrying about my parents dying, worrying about the upcoming bills we have with only one income, worrying about going grocery shopping and contracting COVID-19, even if we take precautions. I feel guilty for denying my high-sex-drive husband sex, but I just don’t know how to relax enough to enjoy myself while we’re staying inside for the next weeks during this pandemic.

—COVID Coitus

When I was in high school, there was no bigger rite of passage than being able to drive. But today, there's a trend of teens not getting their license when they come of age. With ride sharing apps as a convenient way to get around, coupled with rising costs of owning a car and an eye on the environment, many teens don't feel the push to get their licenses.

In fact, only about a quarter of 16-year-olds had a driver's license in 2014, a sharp decline from nearly half in 1983, according to a study by Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

As a parent of teen on the cusp of getting his license in these uncertain times, I often wonder if driving is a life skill that should be encouraged even if teens don't see the need for a license. Here's what the experts have to say.

In New Jersey, a man coughed on a Wegmans employee and then claimed he had the novel coronavirus; he was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat. In Pennsylvania, a woman walked into a local grocery store and coughed on $35,000 worth of fresh foods like produce, bakery goods, and meats. In North Carolina, a man who was arrested for claiming to have COVID-19 while filming a Facebook Live inside of a Walmart. And in California, a woman was in police custody after she entered a grocery store and licked a variety of items in the store, including meat, sparking panic among shoppers.

These are seemingly not isolated incidents. More and more reports have surfaced of people claiming to have COVID-19 or intentionally spreading germs in public areas, where others would obviously be alarmed—especially amid the pandemic. But why?

The answer could be a complicated one, Frank Farley, PhD, a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and a former president of the American Psychological Association (APA), tells Health. “This behavior hasn’t been much studied,” he says. “It is more embedded in this pandemic concept. It’s a threat you can’t see, can’t stomp it under your foot. You don’t know exactly what it is, but it seems to be almost overwhelming.”

The results of a major study exploring the masturbation habits of men and women around the world have just been revealed. Sexual pleasure brand TENGA, in conjunction with pollsters PSB, conducted the masturbation study and polled 13,000 men and women, aged 18 to 74, in 18 countries. This included the United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Russia and Germany.

It identified a handful of differences between LGB people and straight people. These include gay/bi people saying they started masturbating, on average at age 13, compared with 15 for heterosexuals.

Some major takeaways from that study included:

Globally, on average, 78% of people masturbate. This figure tends to be higher for men than women.

The top 5 male celebrities American fantasize about while masturbating are: ..., ..., Chris Hemsworth, ... and ...

The woman from Illinois wrote to the Santa Rosa’s Press Gazette’s ‘Dear Abby’ column to explain her dilemma.

She said she had previously been in an abusive relationship, but broke it off 14 years ago and stayed single to raise her “small son to adulthood”.

She finally found someone she had “strong feelings” for, and who felt the same about her, around seven months ago.

The woman wrote: “My feelings for my boyfriend are strong, and it’s mutual. He is giving, kind, caring, hardworking and protective. We are very much in love.

As the second full week of school closures comes to an end, many Bay Area parents are anxiously waiting to hear that it’s safe for their kids to return to class. But for a group of parents in the South Bay, their kids still won’t be allowed back on campus when classrooms reopen after administrators decided to withdraw their children from school in a move that left parents stunned.

The school’s decision comes after a series of critical Facebook comments from parents questioning the school’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I was devastated,” a parent told NBC Bay Area when she learned her child is no longer enrolled. “I feel the school is just retaliating against us.”

For years, Justyna Zubko-Valva fought to expose the alleged physical, emotional, and mental abuse she says her sons suffered at the hands of their father and his fiancée. But the mom says her pleas for help fell on deaf ears — and the system’s failure led to the death of her 8-year-old son, Thomas.

“It’s such a tragedy that could have been prevented so many times by so many people,” Zubko-Valva tells PEOPLE.

On Jan. 17, Thomas died from severe hypothermia after allegedly being forced to spend the previous night in the frigid garage of the Center Moriches, New York, home owned by his father, New York Police Department Transit Officer Michael Valva, 40, and his fiancée, Angela Pollina, 42.

The night prior, Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, who are both on the autism spectrum, were allegedly provided no blankets or pillows, and had to sleep on the ice-cold concrete floor. The next morning, Thomas collapsed and lost consciousness.

As far as mental illness goes, psychotic disorders are some of the more severe mental disorders—two main symptoms of which often include delusions and hallucinations, according to the US National Library of Medicine's resource MedlinePlus.

Delusions in particular are defined as false beliefs, and are often grouped into the subsections of bizarre delusions (delusions that are not plausible, like believing your organs are in the wrong places within your body), and nonbizarre delusions (delusions that are possible, but not probable, like believing a stranger is in love with you).