Written by Mojo, reviewed by Medical Doctor Dr Matthew Chan, and Psychosexual Therapist Amanda Barge
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We’re here today to explore the link between erectile dysfunction and anxiety.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is when you can’t get or maintain an erection. It can happen during masturbation or when you’re having sex with another person.
Anxiety is a feeling of worry, fear, or unease. Everyone feels that way from time to time. But some people with anxiety feel intense, excessive, or near-constant worry, which can impact their day-to-day lives.
Both ED and anxiety are pretty taboo topics for men, but they’re both extremely common.
So, medical doctor Matthew Chan and psychosexual therapist Amanda Barge are here to help us dive into erectile dysfunction, anxiety, and how the two are linked.
We’ll be covering:
Absolutely. Your erections rely on a harmonious balance of feel-good brain chemicals, relaxation, and top-notch communications between your brain and your body.
Anxiety-induced ED is a kind of psychological ED, which means your mind is throwing off this harmonious balance and stopping you from getting hard.
“Not every guy who has anxiety will have ED. But if the anxiety gets to a certain level, our bodies and brains can buckle under the pressure – and erection issues could be a real sign that you’re suffering.”
Amanda Barge, psychosexual and relationship therapist
There’s an evolutionary brain response to blame. We’ll let Dr Matt explain the science:
“Anxiety can cause a spike in adrenaline. This is the ‘stress hormone’ and it makes your sympathetic nervous system switch to a state of ‘fight or flight’.
This bodily response was useful for cavemen who needed to get ready to either fight a predator or run from it. But for us, especially when it comes to sex, it can be a spanner in the works.
Relaxation becomes impossible when you’re in this state, and the messages from your brain instructing your penis to get erect are shut down. Instead, your brain is sending messages to your body to help you defend yourself. This could involve a faster heart rate, lots of sweat, and even shakiness.”
Dr Matthew Chan, medical doctor
We should also point out that anxiety and ED can exist in a vicious cycle.
You might be struggling with your erections because you’re dealing with anxiety, or you might be dealing with anxiety because you’ve got ED. One can trigger the other and they can make each other worse.
This might all sound very doom and gloom – but anxiety and ED are both treatable. And we’ve got loads of ideas to help you calm your mind and strengthen your erections.
There are five main types of anxiety disorders:
Each one has its own challenges, and because they all involve intense feelings of worry and a ‘fight or flight’ response, they can all cause erection issues.
Another type of anxiety is ‘performance anxiety'. This where you’re worried about carrying out (or successfully completing) a specific task.
It might be that your performance anxiety only flares up in sexual situations. If this sounds like you, head over to our dedicated sexual performance anxiety guide.
This is a complex one. Some people find that common anti-anxiety meds lower libido and make it harder to get an erection, but for others, medication can be key to helping with ED. We know it’s confusing, but hang in there.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like duloxetine, fluoxetine, and paroxetine are the go-to when it comes to anti-anxiety medication. They make serotonin (the happy chemical) stick around longer.
“Some people might find that SSRIs help them with their anxiety and they don’t have sexual dysfunction side effects, so their psychological ED improves. On the other end of the spectrum, some people might find that SSRIs don’t improve their anxiety, they get worse libido, and their ED gets worse. So there’s huge variation in how people can react’.”
Dr Matthew Chan, medical doctor
If you think your medication is interfering with your erections, go and have a chat with your doctor. Remember, your mental health comes first, so don’t stop taking your medication suddenly or without the advice of a healthcare expert.
‘Erectile dysfunction due to anxiety’ isn’t an official medical diagnosis, so we usually avoid words like ‘cure’.
However, there are plenty of techniques that are effective for reducing anxiety and strengthening erections (toot toot).
To get the ball rolling, we’ve listed a few key ways to treat anxiety-induced ED below.
Getting stress-free erections will start with reducing your overall level of anxiety. For some people, reducing anxiety could be all about talk therapy or meditation, and for others the answer will be cognitive behavioral therapy. Healing will look a bit different for everyone, but to get started, you might want to:
You can build the ability to get anxiety-free erections by using a few specific practices, exercises, and learning resources.
Find out more about these techniques via a free trial with Mojo.
“If I had to say anything it would be take a big breath and just open up, the anxiety slips away once you share your feelings and worries”
Anonymous Mojo user
These sound obvious, but better lifestyle choices really can lead to greater erections. We can’t think of any better reason to embark on a bit of a health kick, can you?
If you’ve got anxiety and erectile dysfunction, ED pills like Viagra (Sildenafil) can seem like a quick fix. And it’s true that these little blue pills can help you achieve a one-off erection on demand.
But ED pills are primarily designed to overcome physical issues, like poor blood flow, not mental roadblocks. You have to be naturally aroused for Viagra to work. So, if you’re anxious and not feeling in a super sexy mindset, Viagra isn’t the best solution.
It’s a better idea to treat the root cause of the issue: the anxiety itself. That way, you’ll be able to fully relax, knowing you can count on reliable, strong, natural boners.
The upside is that we know how to treat anxiety-induced ED without pills – and our free trial is here to get you started.
We believe you can have a lifetime of great sex. Throughout your life, anxiety might pop up at different times. But you can turn to our expert-designed techniques any time, and these will help ensure that you can get hard and stay relaxed in the long run.
Sign up today to get a 7 day free trial and test out our videos, meditations and podcasts.
Mojo aims to provide useful wellbeing resources to its users; however, you should not solely rely on opinions or advice available on the Website or given by the Community. Always seek advice from a qualified medical doctor or other healthcare professional before acting.
