Can sexual anxiety affect your sex life? Yes, and many people experience performance anxiety. It can cause us to avoid having sex, affecting our sexual health and our sexual intimacy and affection with our partners. Next, I will introduce what performance anxiety is, the symptoms of performance anxiety, the causes of performance anxiety, and how to improve performance anxiety.
What does performance anxiety mean?
So what exactly does performance anxiety represent? Worry about poor performance during sex, sexual dysfunction, worry about each other's emotional relationship, and even anxiety when it comes to sex. Avoid sexual activities such as hugging, kissing, touching, etc. If this happens for a long time, it will destroy the sexual intimacy and relationship between two people to a great extent, so it is necessary to discover and seek help in time.
Symptoms of performance anxiety
Although the symptoms of performance anxiety will be different for each person, these may also reflect the facts to a certain extent. If you have the following symptoms, you should pay attention to them. Sexual anxiety often includes:
- Premature ejaculation during sexual intercourse
- Rarely or avoid having sex
- Erectile dysfunction
- Difficulty in sexual arousal
- Pain during sexual intercourse
Causes of performance anxiety
1. Unconfidence in body shape
You are not confident about your body or some parts of your body, and you are worried that your partner will be dissatisfied with your body or some parts of your body, which makes you feel anxious.
2. First sexual experience
It is inevitable that you will feel anxious and nervous when you have sex for the first time. Fear and anxiety about the unknown.
3. Having bad experiences and trauma in the past
Bad experiences in the past or psychological trauma may lead to loss of confidence in sex, resulting in anxiety and fear.
4. Depression or anxiety disorder
Psychological problems such as depression and anxiety may lead to sexual anxiety.
5. Exaggerated effects of porn
Being influenced by pornography can lead to erroneous perceptions and high expectations and fantasies about sex.
How to improve performance anxiety?
Performance anxiety may disappear with time or the relationship with your partner. The first way to improve performance anxiety is to give up unrealistic requirements for yourself. The following are several ways to alleviate performance anxiety.
1. Relieve stress
Relieve the stress of daily life or stay away from situations that cause you stress. You can also relieve stress through activities such as meditation, mindfulness, and exercise. Or through traveling, vacation, etc., you can choose a way that you like and makes you feel relaxed to relieve stress.
2. Give up unrealistic ideas
Many people are influenced by pornography or pornographic books and have unrealistic expectations about sex, which makes people feel depressed. Therefore, we should abandon these wrong concepts and recognize ourselves and the current situation.
Or broaden the definition of sex, not only penetration is sex, you can also try other ways to achieve orgasm. For example, oral sex, sex toys, anal sex, etc. The purpose of sex is pleasure, and the sexual experience of both parties should come first.
3. Communicate deeply with your partner
Communication is the cornerstone of everything. Talking openly with your partner about this matter can relieve this anxiety to a great extent. The important thing is that during this communication process, you can broaden your definition of sex and understand what each other wants most and what they want. What matters most. It's not just intercourse that's pleasurable; foreplay, sexual aftercare, and everyday intimacy can all count as sexual activities.
4. Use sex toys
In today’s rapidly growing sex toy industry, you can find a variety of different sex toys. There are bound to be many toys that suit your taste, and of course, you can also try some less conventional sex toys, such as butt plugs, dildos, penis rings, and more. You can use a penis ring to delay the duration, or use sex toys to help with sexual arousal or orgasm. Sex toys are a great option that are safe, hygienic and effective.
5. Seek help from a sex therapist
If the above methods still cannot relieve your sexual anxiety. At this time it is necessary to seek help from a sex therapist or doctor. Relieve sexual anxiety by discovering its root cause and treating it with medication.
Final thoughts
Performance anxiety can affect our sex life and our relationship with our partners. It is important that if you find that you have performance anxiety, you should correct your own ideas and do not have too many unrealistic ideas about sex because of porn. Get your mind right. . Communicating with your partner in a timely manner can alleviate performance anxiety to a great extent. If performance anxiety is having a significant impact on your sex life and relationship, seek help from a doctor or sex therapist immediately.