What Is Sexual Anxiety
Sexual anxietyalso often called sexual performance anxietyis a feeling of nervousness before or during sex. When you feel anxious during sex, your body releases stress hormones, which makes it much harder to relax and enjoy sex with your partner!
You may be experiencing sexual anxiety if you:
- Often feel nervous before and during sex
- Are worried you wont reach orgasm
- Are concerned about maintaining an erection
- Cant relax and stay present during sex
- Feel shame or guilt around your sexual performance
If youve ever felt sexual anxiety, you know how it pulls you out of the moment, kills your sex drive, and leaves you feeling defeated. So why does sexual anxiety happen?
Performance Anxiety Type : Sexual Performance
The origins of sexual performance anxiety are a bit more obvious. This is a society that puts considerable pressure on how people perform in the bedroom, the size of their genitals, the need to please the partner, and so on. Combine this with inexperience, a bad sexual experience, or perceived trouble at finding sexual partners, and it is no surprise that some people develop performance anxiety in sexual situations.
How the performance anxiety manifests may differ. The most common ways include:
No matter the effects of anxiety, there is no denying that anxiety itself can create more anxiety. The more you are worried about your performance, the more your performance suffers, and the more you worry about performance in the future.
Vitamin B6 And Magnesium To Improve Focus
When combined together, vitamin B6 and magnesium can help you focus more on the task at hand, which is your performance, instead of getting distracted by counterproductive thoughts.
Evidence shows that vitamin B6 and magnesium can help children with ADHD improve their behavior . Although the research was conducted with kids with ADHD, the improvement in focus would also benefit those with stage fright.
Additionally, vitamin B6 helps naturally synthesize GABA within your body, and low levels of B6 has been linked with increased stress levels .
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You Can Live Free From Performance Anxiety
While performance anxiety can certainly feel debilitating, rest assured knowing that it is easily treatable.
No matter what type of performance anxiety you suffer from, there are ways ranging from at-home care to online counseling in place to assist you.
If you simply want to rid yourself of those pesky performance anxiety symptoms like a racing heart, sweaty palms, and dry mouth, medication may be the best route to take. However, if you want to rid it once and for all and step into the spotlight in confidence, knowing youve done the work to assess the root cause, then therapy is the most effective solution.
Online therapy uses the same techniques as in-person therapy, so if you have a busy schedule or feel safer at home, companies such as DoMental have experts ready to assist you.
Identifying Sexual Performance Anxiety
Sexual performance anxiety is sometimes misdiagnosed as erectile dysfunction. While the condition could cause erectile dysfunction, these are two different conditions.
Sexual performance anxiety is not a recognized medical condition, which often makes diagnosis and treatment difficult. The shame usually attached to sexual dysfunction conditions also prevents people from seeking help from a doctor or healthcare provider.
For a diagnosis of sexual performance anxiety to be made, any other reasons for your diminished sexual performance, such as other medical conditions, will have to be ruled out. A psychotherapist typically makes a diagnosis of SPA.
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Treatment Options For Sexual Performance Anxiety
Because performance anxiety can occur for a variety of reasons, treatment usually focuses on identifying and solving the factor or factors that caused the anxiety in the first place.
Sometimes, performance anxiety may solve itself as you become more familiar and comfortable with your sexual partner. In other cases, performance anxiety may disappear as you identify and manage sources of stress in your life.
If sexual performance anxiety does not resolve on its own, there are other treatment options available.
Symptoms Of Sexual Performance Anxiety
Symptoms of sexual performance anxiety typically include:
- Having little or no interest in engaging in sexual activities
- Premature ejaculation when you have sex
- Being unable to have or sustain an erection
- Finding it difficult to orgasm during sex
Symptoms of sexual performance anxiety, however, look a little different in women. Women with this condition might experience:
- Vaginal dryness
- Difficulty getting aroused
- Experiencing some pain during sex
People with sexual performance anxiety experience it in different ways, making it essential to look out for all symptoms typically associated with the condition.
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The Bedroom Is Not A Stage
Here is something to consider if you deal with performance anxiety: Sex is not a performance at all. There is no audience critiquing your form or your endurance or strength.
If youâre worried about your partnerâs perception of you, try to remember, they are also being vulnerable and having a sexual experience too.
Try to think about the things they might be nervous about, and then notice how little you care about these nuanced worries.
It Is Not A Quick Fix
How to get out of performance anxiety. Performance anxiety is rooted in fear of disapproval, rejection and abandonment. Theres some advice out there that suggests that if you just practice more, prepare more, then youll be more confident in your performance abilities, and it would reduce your anxiety. It is like second nature to them.
Performance anxiety occurs in 1 out of 12 students in primary education. Performance anxiety is as common in boys as it is in girls. It is a process, just as overcoming performance anxiety, in general, is a process.
At some point in everyones life, they have experienced performance anxiety in the bedroom. Try the navy seal breathing technique For example, if you experience vaginal dryness, it might make you feel worried about your ability to get wet and then this worry can actually make it harder to get wet.
The symptoms of sexual performance anxiety can also be the cause of the anxiety itself. But no matter what, consider the following: While this might seem unnecessary, having too much caffeine or sugar can make you jittery and even more anxious.
Read on to find out how you can help your piano students to perform to the best of their ability when it really counts. I started at a pretty early age. Individuals with stage fright experience a negative emotional state characterized.
Goodtherapy Performance Anxiety
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How Intended Solutions Backfire
Stage fright is like being heckled mercilessly during your performance, and getting into an argument with the heckler, except that it’s your own mind doing the heckling. You get so involved in your internal struggle that you don’t get involved with the actual performance.
Most people with performance anxiety get tricked into focusing on themselves, struggling against anxiety in a vain effort to get rid of it. To illustrate this point, here’s an excerpt from a consumer review I saw on amazon.com which reviewed a book about the fear of public speaking.
The reviewer wrote that the tips in the book aren’t helpful because
…the tips actually are for speakers who are ALREADY fearless but just need to improve their speech skills: For example: Get immediate response from audience. You know, the last thing I want to do in a presentation is further prolong it by asking what they think of it. My plain goal is just to complete a mediocre if dull presentation WITHOUT anxiety, not get responses from my audience and so forth.
Overcoming Performance Anxiety: Tricks Of The Trade
There are also mental tricks you can play to help you perform with less anxiety. These include:
- Focus on the friendliest faces in the audience.
- Laugh when you can, it can help you relax.
- Make yourself look good. When you look good, you feel good.
These tips should help reduce performance anxiety. But if they don’t, talk to a counselor or therapist trained in treating anxiety issues. You may benefit from more intensive therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, to help overcome performance anxiety. In addition, beta-blockers such as propranolol that lower the heart rate and block the effects of adrenaline are sometimes used by people with performance anxiety.
Confronting your fears and learning ways to reduce and manage them can be empowering. Not only will it make you feel good about yourself, you may discover that you are a more confident performer, too.
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Focus During The Test
During the test, do everything you can to maintain focus. If you find yourself becoming anxious, stop and regroup. Sharpen your pencil, ask a question, or focus on taking deep breaths.
Remember to take your time but check your watch to pace yourself. Before starting the test, do a quick review and read directions twice. Start with the easiest questions first.
Can Performance Anxiety Make You Lose Your Erection
Yes. Many men find they cant get or keep erections because of anxieties around sex, known as psychological erectile dysfunction. This is actually the leading cause of erectile dysfunction in younger men and doesnt mean theres necessarily something physically wrong with you.
Even if your erectile dysfunction is psychology and not physical, you might still be able to get treatment. Erectile dysfunction medication is effective and safe when approved by a doctor and it can help even with anxiety-related erectile dysfunction.
If your erectile dysfunction is new or sudden, you should speak to a doctor to rule out physical causes for it, regardless of whether it is mainly psychological or not.
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How To Overcome Test Anxiety
Test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety in which fear of failure contributes to symptoms that interfere with your ability to perform well in an exam situation. Before a test, anyone can feel a bit anxious.
If you experience serious test anxiety, you may have physical symptoms such as a headache, nausea, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and light-headedness. You could even have a panic attack, during which you may feel like it’s hard to breathe or you may think you’re having a heart attack.
Feelings of anger, fear, and helplessness are other symptoms of test anxiety, as are thinking negatively and comparing yourself to others. If you experience test anxiety, there are a number of coping strategies that you can employ. Below are 10 tips to help you cope.
Why Does Performance Anxiety Make It Difficult To Get An Erection
When we get stressed or anxious our bodies react by releasing hormones, cortisol and adrenaline. This physical response is designed to help us in times of danger, but it isnt very helpful on other occasions, like worrying about having sex.
These hormones constrict the bodys blood vessels. You get an erection from blood flowing to the penis, so if this blood flow is constricted it can make it difficult to get and keep an erection.
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Performance Anxiety Type 1
Athletes, presenters, and anyone that does anything under the public’s eye may find themselves with performance anxiety. The causes of this are fairly simple:
- Mild social anxiety.
- Inexperience in public.
- Strong distaste for failure.
Anything in life can cause these emotions. Some people are born with a mild performance anxiety or grew up naturally shy, so the idea of talking in public is upsetting to them. Others are prone to distress over the idea of being judged, possibly because of experiences in the past, upbringing, or bullying.
As with all anxiety, it is difficult to know the exact cause, but performance anxiety is also self-sustaining because it creates a mindset that focuses only on mistakes and seeing “judgment” in others. One small mistake, even if no one notices, or one person in the audience that looks unhappy and all of your fears are reinforced, causing more performance anxiety to happen in the future.
Strategies To Reduce Public Performance Anxiety
Fighting performance anxiety in public situations – like a sporting event or speech – is something that primarily takes practice. The more and longer you practice the more these performances become instinctual. Athletes that struggle under pressure are more likely to perform the more they experience the pressure-filled situations. Those that are afraid of public speaking tend to improve when they have performed numerous speaking events.
However, a big part of how you address these issues comes from self-talk. Often the problem with this type of performance anxiety is that the brain tends to focus on the negative and tell itself worst case scenarios. You need to address the way you feel about your performance so that you are not sidelined by mistakes or stressed over the potential to make them. Consider the following:
These may not sound like the most effective strategies, but that’s because performance anxiety is dependent on simply learning to think positively so that bad performances don’t affect you and practicing to ensure that you are ready for any event.
Since so much performance anxiety comes from negative self-talk and psyching yourself out under pressure, the best thing you can do for yourself is:
- Learn how to perform your best at all times reduce your daily anxiety unrelated to your performance, and
- Make sure that you get used to what situations with a lot of pressure feel like.
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Symptoms Of Stage Fright
Stage fright is not a mental disorder. Rather, it is a normal reaction to a stressful situation. Most people experience some degree of anxiety prior to a performance, but some people may experience more extreme anxiety that interferes with their ability to perform at all.
Common symptoms of stage fright include:
- Excessive sweating, heart palpitations, chills, and elevated blood pressure
- A feeling that there is a knot in the stomach
- Increased errors during the performance
- Shaking and nausea
- Backing out of the performance
Limit Caffeine And Other Stimulants
For many people, cutting out caffeine from their diet can be very difficult, but caffeine can greatly hamper your ability to fall asleep. Additionally, as a stimulant, caffeine can make your anxiety much more pronounced, and you may have a difficult time calming down if you drink excessive amounts of coffee.
It could also be getting in the way of you achieving a good nights sleep. Try avoiding caffeine at least four to five hours prior to when you want to go to bed.
If you know of any other forms of stimulants that you may be taking, try avoiding those at least a few hours before bedtime, as well.
Additionally, some recent studies, such as one conducted by Harvard Health, have come to find that blue light can keep the brain active, stimulated, and awake, as it suppresses the secretion of the hormone melatonin. This is the hormone responsible for helping you fall asleep, so try avoiding blue light, or wearing amber glasses to suppress the effects of the light, at least two hours prior to bedtime.
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