People usually keep stress to themselves and the thing is, if you talk to anyone about it, they might increase your anxiety regarding your sex drive. Women from Liverpool topped the survey about their sexual experiences and there are many myths about sex and stress over the years. The myths are: that sex drives appears and never returns, a stressed partner doesn’t love you anymore because they are stressed and that you should get a divorce if stress affects your romance with your partner.
These myths are outrageous and you may give up if you are in the midst of this struggle. It is important to find information on how stress affects your sex drive and to look for the right information to solve these issues as a couple. One thing for sure is that the affected partner that is stressed is not the only one that suffers. The relationship will surely suffer if couples are not able to manage stress. Below are the ways on how sex drive is affected by stress.
Nervous System
There are two nervous systems in human beings. The parasympathetic nervous system is the brakes while the sympathetic nervous system is the gas pedal. We use the gas pedal when we experience challenges and difficulties in life. Our palms get sweaty, we experience internal discomfort, and we experience an increase in our heart rate because the response for stress, or the gas pedal, is released inside our bodies. These happen because our body is providing us a shot of energy to face our problem or avoid it.
Hormonal Change
When the gas pedal is on overdrive for a long time, our bodies will start to produce more cortisol, also known as the stress hormone. The materials used in producing cortisol is the same materials used to produce the sex hormones of men which is testosterone, Thus, majority of people experiencing stress for a long time has a low amount of testosterone the most significant hormone related to the sex drive in both women and men.
Stress Hormones
You are either in a flight or fight situation because of the pumped stress hormones in your body. This results in a possibility of being aggressive to your partner by yelling and starting to snap at them. The people around you will start to become a nuisance to you because they demand time from you. This doesn’t give you much opportunity to be close to your partner which results in the intimacy to slowly fade.
Conclusion
Stress can affect not only our sex lives but also our sex drive. It is important that we know how to control the factors that contribute in the production of stress and eventually maintain our sex drive for our health and for our relationships.
