Is stress killing your sex life? There are physical and psychological impacts that can cause stress to impact your sex life. Luckily, there are plenty of great holistic ways to improve it as well.
If you’re chronically stressed chances are you've noticed an impact on your sex life. Which can then perpetuate those high stress levels and anxiety. When your body is stressed it goes through a fight or flight response. This leads to physical and psychological changes to ensure the body is ready to combat whatever ‘threat’ it is detecting. This goes back to when humans lived in the wild and needed to protect themselves from danger. Your body will experience things such as an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and the decrease of bodily functions that do not directly improve its chances of survival (such as your sex drive).
Stress Kills Your Sex Drive
When your body is undergoing a fight or flight response it begins to increase the level of cortisol throughout the body. If this response continues, many problems arise and your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA axis) is activated to help us cope with this chronic stress. It will increase your heart rate and blood pressure while decrease the use of non-essential bodily systems.
Chronic stress leads to high levels of cortisol and this has been linked with anxiety and also shown to inhibit testosterone production. In both sexes, testosterone has a large impact on an individuals sex drive.
To learn more about the effects stress has on the body check out this article. Alternatively, if you want a quick way to reduce your stress levels check out our product Stress Less. It not only reduces your stress and anxiety levels, but also supports your reproductive system with potent adaptogens such as Ashwagandha.
Overthinking Kills The Mood
Psychologically stress and anxiety can cause numerous issues in relation to sex. Your anxiety could be getting the best of you, causing you to worry and have your mind thinking about other things instead of getting you in the mood.
This anxiety could also cause you to have a racing mind and overthink, which will drastically decrease your ability to orgasm and enjoy sex. Stress and relaxation definitely do not come hand in hand. Relaxation is one of the most important things for arousal. If you are having difficulty relaxing, you may have difficulties getting aroused or reaching orgasm.
Being Present
Your sex drive is not only affected by your hormones and psychological state but also by your social interactions. When you are stressed, you will almost always find it difficult to stay present because it really can be hard to deal with anyone but yourself. Heightened stress levels can lead to you having a shorter temper, so you may find yourself snapping at people around you. When you’re in this state, being present with anyone can be difficult, and staying present intimately with someone becomes that much harder.
How Can You Save Your Sex Life?
When trying to reduce your stress, finding the root of the problem and fixing it is always the best way. Here are a few ways you can learn to reduce your stress.
Talk To Your Partner
Communication is one of the most important things in any relationship. If something is worrying you have that conversation. They may be able to help support you and fix the issue.
Extend Foreplay
Foreplay should help you relax and be present. This is where physical affection like cuddles, kisses and other intimate affection can help. It will force the body to relax. Foreplay should be helping you get in the mood, so try extending it and simply being more physically intimate with your partner to lower your stress.
Therapy
If you aren’t sure what the issue is and want to seek outside support, then you can try therapy. Therapy can help you get to the root of the issue and shine a light on anything you can do to help you manage your stress better.
Learn More Here
To find out more ways you reduce your stress levels check out this article.
