It’s not news: the world as we know it isn’t always the sexiest place to live. If it’s not the stress of work, money, family, or relationship stressIt’s climate change, genocide or the threat of nuclear war. You heard it here first. Even on the best of days, it can be condemn Hard to find enough relaxed transcendence to want to strip down and board this train to a funky city, as the name suggests?
The reality is that more than half of women – and many men too –living with chronic stress. Not hot but true: Stress and a healthy libido are not good friends, and a funky city is not big enough for both of them. Even if you don’t feel particularly stressed about anything specific, the “low-level” stress that hides under the radar can also be chronic, and it has a very real impact (read: it can absolutely affect your libido). And in turn, decreased libido can make stress worse by triggering relationship problems or compromising general enjoyment of life. It’s a vicious cycle.
All of this is to say that strengthening your approach to stress management is really essential: in addition to improving your physical, emotional, and even spiritual health, it will certainly improve your sex life as well. This is important because having sex is the key to your health and happiness. Better yet, having sex leads to wanting more sex. It’s an invigorating cycle.
How Stress Affects Your Sex Life
Under normal, stress-free conditions, your sex life is governed by your sex hormones: estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone work together to make it work, rising and falling at specific times during your monthly cycle. But under intense stress and duress, your infamous fight-or-flight mechanism kicks in and your adrenal glands release the stress hormone cortisol, which suppresses your sex hormones so your system can go into survival mode. This means that vital functions, like keeping your heart beating, take priority over so-called secondary functions like sex and other pleasures. To this end, your adrenal glands also release the hormone epinephrine (aka adrenaline) into your bloodstream, which speeds up your heart rate and pushes blood to your muscles, heart, and other vital organs.
Too much cortisol can “lock you up” in the following ways:
– It decreases testosterone, which is the hormone that makes you feel desire and excitement.
– It decreases DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), the steroid hormone that metabolizes into estrogen and testosterone.
– He This leads to other symptoms that hamper a happy libido, such as weight gain, intense cravings, extreme fatigue, and insomnia.
When stress is short-lived, your body recovers and your desire returns after a while, unscathed. But if stress never really goes away (which it does!), everything related to sex, pleasure, and joy is put on perpetual hold. It turns out that our bodies don’t differentiate between emotional stress and physical stress, so the “lockdown,” if you will, happens across the board, in both the body and the mind.
Stress can induce the following mental or psychological barriers to sexual intercourse:
– An overwhelmed and restless mind eventually distracts you from sexual desire (no matter how hard you try). I want to want it), or to be present during sexual intercourse.
– Regular stress can lead to anxiety And depressionboth of which, surprise, can cause your libido to plummet when it’s low.
– Uncontrolled stress can lead to bad habits like smoking, while drinkingovereating and ignoring self-care, which, in turn, affects self-confidence and interferes with a healthy sex life.
Ways to Overcome Stress and Get Sex Back
Even if your stress is relentless, there is are ways to cope and recover soft and warm caress of desireWith a little time, effort and deep breathing, anything is possible.
Here are some strategies to consider:
Manage your stress.
If you cannot immediately completely eliminate the source of your stress (i.e. get out of a bad relationshipquit a shitty job, end a toxic friendshipetc.), prepare the ground to do so as soon as possible. In the meantime, solid management tactics are essential. If your stress response is tempered by effective relaxation techniques, you won’t have as many hormonal problemsand your sex life won’t be affected. Here are some techniques to consider: breathing exercisesyoga, meditation, journaling and exercise. And then, sometimes, the exercise leads to sexexercise!
Eat well.
In case you haven’t heard, the way you eat can both Reduce stress and fuel your desire. That’s right. You can try increasing your intake of hormone-rich foods like avocado, which helps increase your production of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Cruciferous vegetables are essential for detoxification and hormonal balance. And going organic can protect your body from a host of harmful pesticides that can negatively impact your sexual health. Never underestimate the power of food.
Take a support supplement.
If your stress is consistently high, your cortisol production can easily spiral out of control. Plant chemicals like L-theanine and phosphatidylserine can calm the adrenal glands and shift your body away from high cortisol production, shifting you toward higher DHEA production instead, to support a natural, harmonious sex hormone balance. You know, so your body can relax. Do your research so you can do that. find a supplement that meets your specific needs.
Add a sex toy to the mix.
If at least some of your stress comes from less-than-stellar(!) sex, you might consider introduce a sex toy to your sexual repertoire. Toys are a great idea, with or without a partner, you heard it here first. And it’s also the case masturbationWhatever you do, remember to adopt some positive vibes to enhance your experience and release some of the accumulated stress and tension.
Just go to sleep.
Sometimes the best way to take care of yourself is to meet your most basic needs. Sleep is one of those needs, and most people don’t get enough of it. What’s more, the sleep we do get is often compromised, disrupted, interrupted. Research shows that sleep for long periods helps to balance your body and mind, and is therefore linked to higher sexual desire and arousal.
Consider therapy.
There are as many types of therapy available today as there are moods. From somatic therapy to talk therapy to sex therapy to couples therapy, the list goes on. Not to mention, both online and in-person sessions are readily available. If you’re at a point where you feel like outside support might be the missing ingredient in your stress (and sex life) recovery efforts, don’t hesitate to shop around and find a therapist who meets your needs!
Yes, life is stressful and the world can be hostile and demanding. But sometimes the most productive thing you can do is take your next breath. You can do this.