age & sexual health Ayurveda Treatment Female Infertility Treatment health tips Lowered Libido Treatment Male Infertility Treatment sex problem in women & men Sexual Disorder Treatment

Does Stress Can Cause a Low Sexual Drive

February 14, 2024 Reviewed by Dr Hameed Ibrahim Khokar

Originally posted 2023-03-28 05:46:59.

Everyday stress, like worrying about money or meeting work deadlines, can make you less interested in having sex. And a low libido can make stress worse by causing problems in relationships or a lack of confidence. So, it’s important to work on how you deal with stress because it could also help your sexual life.

How Stress Impacts Sex Drive

When you’re stressed, your body goes through a series of changes to get you ready to run away or stay and fight. It’s called the “fight or flight” response. As part of the fight-or-flight response, your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate may go up while non-essential functions, such as sexual drive, go down sharply.

Physiological Effects

This response also causes hormones like cortisol and epinephrine to be released. When these hormones are in high amounts, they can cause a cause a decrease in sex drive . When stress is constant, the body uses sex hormones to make more cortisol, which makes people less interested in having sex.

Psychological Effects

Stress has an effect on the body, but it also has an effect on the mind. Stress can make your mind busy and jumbled, which can make you not want to have sex or be present when you do. It can also change your mood, making you anxious or sad, which can make you less sexually interested.

Lifestyle Choices

Stress that can’t be managed can lead to bad habits like smoking, drinking too much, and overeating, as well as bad choices like not taking care of yourself or getting enough exercise. These changes can affect how you feel about yourself and make it hard to have healthy sexual relationships.

If your stress response isn’t turned off, it can lead to a condition called chronic stress, which can have a lot of negative effects on your health, including a low libido.

You will be interested on: Ways to Increase Low Sex Drive

Coping with stress and low sexual drive

It is possible to have a nice sexual life and less stress if you put in the time and effort. Here are some ideas to think about:

Practise Stress Management

If you think that stress in your life is putting a damper on your libido, one of the first things you should think about is how to deal with your overall stress. If you use efficient relaxation techniques to turn off your stress reaction, you won’t have as many hormonal problems from chronic stress.

Try these tried-and-true ways to handle concern or anxiety in other parts of your life so that it doesn’t affect your sex drive. Consider the following ways to deal with stress:

Aromatherapy
Breathing exercises
Guided imagery
Journaling
Meditation
Progressive muscle relaxation

Talking to a therapist who specialises in stress management might also help you find ways to deal with your own problems.

Keep reading: Sexologist in London

Examine Your Relationship

When your libido is low , it’s also crucial to look at how your relationship is doing. Studies demonstrate that relationship stress and problems might cause decreased libido more than other kinds of stress. 7 Both men and women are the same in this way.

Since a person’s libido is affected by how happy their spouse is, a lack of desire from one partner can lead to a loss of interest from both.

Working through problems in a relationship is crucial for a lot of reasons, and your sexual drive is one of the most significant ones. The first thing you should do is make sure you’re communicating in a way that’s fair and good for your relationship. Instead of seeing one another as “the enemy,” try to perceive problems as challenges you have to face together. Try to come up with plans that meet the needs of both parties.

If you can’t accomplish this on your own, a therapist or marriage counsellor can help you learn better ways to communicate and deal with deeper problems.

You will be interested on: Sexologist in Oxford

Exercise Together

Working out is a terrific way to keep stress at bay and enhance your self-esteem, both of which can make you feel more sexually interested. If you don’t feel like you spend enough time alone with your partner, you might want to try working out together.

A brisk jog or walk in the evening may make you feel closer to each other while getting your endorphins running. If your partner is eager to try yoga, doing it together may help bring new energy into the bedroom. Look for a book or video on partner yoga, or look for classes in your area that you can try together.

Read on: Sexologist in Cotswolds

Practise Self-Care

If you don’t like yourself, it’s hard to feel good about having sex. Self-care entails eating well, exercising, getting enough sleep, learning how to deal with stress, treating yourself, and taking time to think about yourself.

Also, try to give up bad habits like smoking and drinking too much. (which puts your health at risk and dampens sexual desire). By taking time for self-care, you’re taking time to build confidence and feel sexy, energetic, and more than worthy of your partner’s love.

You will be interested on: Sexologist in Edinburgh

Make time for each other

Many of us are busier than we ever imagined. Being continually busy means you don’t have much free time, which can make you feel tired and less interested in sex.

A busy schedule can also entail a busy mind, and when you have a lot to think about, it can be hard to relax and “get in the mood.” When you have a busy schedule, it might be hard to find time for sex, or it can feel like just one more thing on your lengthy list of things to do.

If your stress and low libido are caused by how busy your life is, you might want to make a plan for closeness or sexual experimentation.

Scheduling sex might not sound like the most romantic thing to do, but you can get creative and make it fun.

Start flirting first thing in the morning (think of it as pre-play) and try to contact or text your partner in the middle of the day to let them know you’re looking forward to your plans. Music or aromatherapy can also help establish the mood for romance and relaxation.

Keep reading: Ayurvedic Remedies to Boost Sex Drive

Focus on Sensation, Not Sex

Touch is a really strong way to reduce tension that doesn’t have to involve sex. Hold hands, find time to snuggle more (when you embrace someone, the hormone oxytocin is released, which makes you feel better), or try a couple massage to learn more about each other.

Touching is a terrific method to demonstrate affection for your spouse without putting them under any extra pressure to do something sexual.

Focusing on touch instead of sex can help you relax, discover pleasure, and feel closer to someone, which can make you want to be closer and have sex in the end.

How to Talk to Your Partner

When you tell your partner about your low libido, be careful not to blame yourself or your partner. The easiest way to deal with low libido is to perceive it as an issue you will solve together.

To do this, you will need to talk about the various causes of your stress and the physical and emotional signs of low libido in an open and honest way.

Read on: Sexologist in Liverpool

Think about these ways to have a good conversation:

Tell your partner you want to talk about your sexual life, and set up a time and a neutral place (not your bedroom) where both of you feel comfortable.
Don’t talk about it after you’ve had sex or while either of you is in a hurry or busy.
Before your talk, you might want to try some breathing techniques or meditation to settle your mind. It’s easy to feel angry when you’re anxious.
Be frank and honest. Talk about your hopes, anxieties, wants, and worries.
Give your partner a chance to say what they think and use active listening skills like repeating what they said. Try your best to validate your partner’s sentiments by telling them you get them.
Ask open-ended questions along the way to make sure your discourse is balanced. “What do you think about all of this?”
Know when you’ve said enough. If your talk gets too heated, it’s probably time to end it. This could be an indication that you need a third party, like a counsellor or sex therapist, to help you figure things out.

You will be interested on: Sexologist in Brighton

When to Consider Sexologists

Communication is important for a healthy sexual life, so if you and your spouse can’t talk about things like stress and sexual drive, counselling can be a good option. If your stress is caused by negative thought patterns, you may also want to try counselling on your own.

Keep reading: Sexologist in Bristol

Individual Therapy

Cognitive therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy for stress is founded on the idea that it’s not just the things that happen in our lives that make us stressed, but also how we think about those things. You’ll work with a therapist one-on-one to find out what’s causing your stress and set and reach your objectives for improved stress management so it doesn’t get in the way of your sexual life.

Couples Therapy

You and your partner will work with a therapist together during marriage counselling or couples therapy. The main goals of joint therapy are to make it easier to talk to each other, find and solve problems, develop your relationship, and learn more about each other.

Sex Therapy

Sex therapy is a sort of talk therapy that focuses on sexual concerns. Through sex therapy, which can be done alone or with a partner, you can learn to talk about your worries and understand your and your partner’s sexual needs better.

Considerations

If you want to try therapy, find a therapist you feel comfortable with and who specialises in the kind of therapy you want. A cognitive therapist may suggest that you keep a journal to write down how you feel before, during, or after sex, or to keep track of when you’re most anxious and what helps you relax (and what doesn’t).

A sex therapist may give you and your partner exercises to practise together, such as role-playing or talking to each other.

Read on: Sexologist in Manchester

Other Causes

If you still have low libido after making some changes to your lifestyle and working with a therapist to better handle stress, you might want to talk to a healthcare specialist about what might be wrong with your body.

Some health problems that can impair sexual drive are:

Chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic pain
Depression
Diabetes
Erectile dysfunction
Fibromyalgia
Hormone imbalances
Perimenopause and menopause
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sleep disorders
Thyroid disease
Vaginal dryness
Vaginismus

You will be interested on: Ayurvedic Treatment for Erectile Dysfunction

Sexual desire disorders

You may have hypoactive sexual desire if your low libido and lack of interest in sex are causing you a lot of stress and harming your relationship or self-esteem and are not caused by a medical condition or another mental illness. (HSDD).

Mental health experts use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to make diagnoses. The DSM-5 divides HSDD into two groups: female sexual interest/arousal disorder and male hypoactive sexual desire disorder.

For any illness to be diagnosed, the symptoms must endure for at least six months and cause a lot of trouble.

The following are signs of female sexual interest or arousal disorder:

Lack of interest in starting sex
There are few to no thoughts or ideas about sexual things.
Loss of sexual desire on its own
not being able to respond to sexual signals
not being able to stay interested throughout sex

Male hypoactive sexual drive disorder has these signs:

Deficient or missing desire for sexual activities
There are few to no thoughts or ideas about sexual things.

Keep reading: Sexologist in Cardiff

A Word From Khokar Clinic

It’s crucial to remember that it’s normal for your sexual drive to change over time. But if stress is making your sexual life worse, don’t be afraid to talk to your spouse about it and get help. You can try out ways to lessen your tension and increase your sexual drive with each other. By doing this, you might even make your relationship stronger and improve your health as a whole.

To get a free consultation Call or Whatsapp +91 9995202100

Fill up online consultation form https://www.khokardispensary.com/quick-online-consultation/