A haircut, a shopping spree or getting laid - what would you choose to feel good again? Ruchira Bose finds more women opt for a bit of sexual healing

Ah! It's time for another radical haircut. A broken heart always leads me straight to the salon. Not so for some women though. As I sit on my stylist's chair picking out a new look, a new colour (and perhaps a new me) from the pages of a glossy French mag, I overhear a conversation between two women getting manicured.

"I've known Jinns for years now - remember 'When Harry Met Sally'? Well, that's us - almost. Anyway, we're good friends, and whenever either of us is feeling awful, we just... you know... snog. I'm telling you, Archu, it's 100 per cent guilt-free and doesn't bust the bank!"

Like Carrie Bradshaw from 'Sex And The City', I start to wonder, 'Is sex the latest Prozac?'

Good For Me
"Sex can be a wonderful reason to keep going when everything else seems bleak," says psychologist Maithili Raghavan. "It can be a way of connecting with someone we love, of giving our bodies attention, of relaxing, even of mild exercise. It's good for fatigue and excellent for pain relief. And there really is no harm if we define sex not as intercourse, but as physical contact for the purpose of sharing intimacy and pleasure - sex doesn't always have to mean penetrative sex," she adds.

Dr Aiswarya, a Chennai-based paediatrician who holds sex education sessions for adolescents in schools and colleges and works with transsexuals, commercial sex workers, women with disabilities and HIV-positive people, says, "I can tell you with complete authority that women who suffer from disabilities and are sexually active, overcome their inhibitions easily and enjoy a good sex life whether they are in a marriage or outside a marriage. Sexual healing is helpful in that it allows them to affirm their belief in themselves and it works magic for them. A safe and healthy sex life allows you to enjoy any activity to the fullest, but this is not the only factor. It can also be therapeutic to some extent psychologically."

I remember the conversation I trespassed in the salon, "The most wonderful thing about having sex when you're feeling like shit is that you're reminded that you're beautiful, sexy, can drive someone crazy in seconds, and you don't have to do their laundry later."