Sexual Arousal Issues
The ability to become sexually aroused can be effortless and happen at an inopportune time or can be a complicated matter. It’s been said that our main sexual organ is our brains. As a normal healthy part of life, most people are capable of becoming sexually aroused with the right (for them) stimulation. That stimulation might be the touch of your partner, a movie, book, pornography, or even the sight of a partner you desire.
Sometimes we might have a difficult time getting aroused – even if we feel like we’re in the mood for sexual activity. This is not unusual. After all, we have all sorts of things that might interfere with that arousal response such as: stress, children nearby, worries about work, feeling self-conscious about our physical appearance, bills, you name it! What happens though, when the inability to get sexually aroused is a regular occurrence?
Symptoms & signs of sexual arousal issues
Emotional Symptoms
- Avoidance of sexual activity
- No desire for sexual activities
- No sexual fantasies
- Depression or anxiety caused by the inability to become sexually aroused
- Relationship problems
Physical symptoms
- Inability to get an erection (erectile dysfunction)
- Inability to feel physical sensations of arousal in genital areas (tingling, swelling, vaginal wetness)
- Inability to achieve orgasm
- Painful intercourse (women)
When is it time to get help?
If you, and/or your partner desire an active sex life, but you feel physically or emotionally unable to achieve this goal, then it’s time to enlist help!
Sexual arousal issues treatment methods
There may be medical or drug-related causes for your absent or low libido, so it’s important to get that checked out. There are medications available that may be able to alleviate your symptoms. However, even if there are medical causes, it’s sometimes best to also speak to a therapist as there are likely emotional issues to deal with as well – especially if this has been happening for a while and it has affected you and your relationships.
There are several treatment methods available to help you to overcome this issue. Your therapist will look at your individual circumstances and possible causes of your sexual arousal issues to determine the best treatment approach for you. They may include some of these therapies that have been successful for other people:
- Sex therapy is the treatment of sexual dysfunction and also includes working with concerns about sexual feelings and intimacy, less common alternative sexual practices, kink, gender issues, sexual offending issues, or work on optimizing or exploring new experiences. Sex therapy can also include distressing sexual behaviour, sexual abuse, and trauma.
- Mindfulness therapy is an approach to treatment that focuses on how people’s thoughts, emotions, and beliefs influence their behaviour and how they perceive themselves, others, and the world. The ability to be in the moment, to acknowledge and regulate your emotions helps you to break free from negative thought patterns.
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach to treatment that focuses on how people’s thoughts, emotions, and beliefs influence their behaviour and how they perceive themselves.
- Behaviour therapy tends to view human beings and behaviour with the assumption that humans are a product of their sociocultural conditioning and environment, looking at the current problems and the factors influencing them and emphasizes behaviour changes more than the underlying unconscious processes.
What will I get out of treatment with Insight Psychological?
Finding out the cause of your sexual arousal issues will be the first step towards overcoming these issues. Whether it’s trauma, depression, anxiety, or another emotional cause, our therapists can help you to deal with that as well as provide you with helpful tips and exercises to try so you can regain a healthy active sex life.
We have qualified and experienced sex therapists that can help you with your sexual arousal issues. Contact us today.
