“Find a sex buddy”: RIVM gives single people advice on dealing with the coronavirus crisis

The RIVM has finally created guidelines for single people during the coronavirus crisis, and the touch-starved among us are celebrating.

Previously, dating and having casual sex were understandably discouraged by the RIVM: people had to stay 1.5m from each other, which does make physical contact somewhat difficult. Until yesterday, the information for singles about how to deal with the coronavirus crisis were, well, non existent.

RIVM acknowledges human need for physical contact

The RIVM has now added some guidelines for people who are not in a long-term or serious relationship. Like any good therapist, they acknowledge that we might have feelings about the last couple of months: “It makes sense that as a single you also want to have physical contact,” is how the guidelines open on the RIVM website.

Get a cuddle or sex buddy

After that, the guidelines are actually pretty helpful. The RIVM advises single people to have one person that they cuddle with or have sex with, rather than multiple people, to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. They also advise having an agreement with your “buddy” about how many other people you both see, again to reduce the risk of infection.

Acknowledgement of difficulties may make single people feel better

Timo Harmelink, who runs the podcast Datevermaak, spoke to RTL Nieuws about the importance of these new guidelines. If you’re feeling lonely as a single person, but no one else acknowledges that you might feel that way, you’re more likely to feel like there’s something wrong with you, that your feelings are “wrong” in some way. Now that the RIVM has acknowledged the difficulty of this period for single people, and provided some guidelines, life will likely be a bit easier for single people.

Are you single? How have you been handling this period? Let us know in the comments below. 

Feature Image: sasint/Pixabay