STRESS & SEX

In a recent survey it was found that stress has a damaging effect on many people’s sex drive.

62% of respondents reported that they are not having enough sex and that stress is one of the main reasons. Not surprisingly in the current economic climate, stress about financial issues topped the list for 64% of the participants, concurrent with concern about the dire state of the economy. For 40% of the people surveyed stress about work was also a major factor. While only 30% said it was stress about their actual relationship that was causing the problems with sex.

Now for some science; the hypothalamus is the part of the brain that links the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. Put simply it is a bridge that links emotional messages (e.g. stress) to physical responses (e.g. sex drive). As it regulates both stress responses and sex hormones it is easy to understand the link. "Sex is just as much about what happens in the mind as below the belt.” Says Denise Collins of The Hummingbird Effect, “For most people, the bigger their stress levels the less sex they will be having. There are many relatively simple things that people can do to effectively manage their stress and thereby improve both the frequency of the sex they want and the satisfaction gained from it.” Denise continues, “Sex itself can be a great antidote to stress. There is, however, an interesting paradox. For some people, (especially men) they may actually seek more sex if feeling very stressed, in an attempt to rapidly change their mental and emotional state. While this can appear to offer a short term solution, if the actual stress response and the issues causing it are left unaddressed, this quick fix to feel good might actually damage the long term health of their relationships. While sex can be a great stress buster, if you are attempting to use sex in a similar way to say drugs or alcohol it can become destructive".

While stress is a normal physiological response, if prolonged it can be dangerous to our physical as well as our psychological well being. It is not only our sex lives that suffer as a result of negative stress, recent research indicates that between 60 to 90% of all illness is directly related to stress. And not just the obvious conditions such as depression but also physical conditions like angina, high blood pressure, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, asthma, muscular aches and pains, even lowered resistance to infections and cancer.