I cannot agree more! I use my computer on my tummy and one or more of my three cats like to sit on my butt/back/legs while I do, providing me with lots of warm touch. They also sleep with me at night. It is Christmas time and I have not used the heater in my apartment because the heat coming from the cats at night is sufficient for me (I am also sturdy and physicially resilient and rarely get cold, so that helps). I feel that part of the reason I do so well mentally is the ample touch the cats provide (if I use the computer for many hours at a stretch, I get touch from cats for that long because I am warmer than the floor and cats would always, always prefer to stay on a warm surface).

Although I currently am not interested in sex for reasons that are still unknown (possibly from Topamax which I just discontinued and we will see what it will yield), I still enjoy the touch part of sex, as well as kissing, so I think that the basic benefit of sex - touch - as Inedible has said - can be enjoyed even if you do not have the drive and/or orgasms. Of course, in order to enjoy the touch part of sex you have to either not have gone through severe SA/rape, or have recovered from them fully. I only went through low grade sexual molestation when I was a teen and although I ended up wounded and confused, it was not to a dramatic degree so I can still enjoy sex.