My 24 year old son just confided in me his [body image issues] and I'm hoping to get some advice on how I can help him

Because of the opinion of a girl I hooked up with when I was age 16, I spent years of my life feeling as though the size of my penis was inadequate. To be quite frank, I felt devastated inside because I thought I was incapable of truly pleasing anyone sexually. Fast forward many years and I've gained some new insight. First of all, I eventually found out that my penis size is actually well above average. Most importantly though, I now realize that I was a crappy lover when I was younger due to inexperience and not plainly because of my penis. It's funny now, but the causation of one thing was clouded by the fact that this person had made a comment; leaving my insecurity defenseless.

Whether your son's penis is actually small or not is irrelevant here, because there is definitely someone out there who will accept him and love him for who he is. It personally took me a long time to feel comfortable with my body and with sex, but until I started to love myself I couldn't let anyone else love me either. Growing up is hard, especially when you assume that you're inadequate to your peers. The truth is, your son is likely too young/inexperienced to really know where he falls on any spectrum yet. All of this is compounded by the fact that porn disproportionately features very well endowed performers.

I'm not sure if any of what I said helps, but I wanted to reach out because I feel like this is such an understated issue. Better than most people I know the devastating aftermath that suicide has on a family, and so I feel particularly concerned for you and your son. It couldn't have been easy for him to come to you with this issue; as if he has no one else left to turn to. He needs reassurance that he is normal, and that his future isn't limited because of his physical attributes. The most sexy thing to the opposite sex is confidence in yourself.

/r/sex Thread Parent