Sexual anxiety

Sexual anxiety or genophobia describes in the broadest sense the fear of intimacy . It varies from person to person and can go as far as completely rejecting physical closeness.

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud assumed that sexual problems, including sexual anxiety, arose from experiences in the psychosexual phases of childhood . Witness the parental sexual union, the so-called primal scene , but also inappropriate reactions to child sexuality in the sense of drive suppression are particularly pathogenic. Overcoming the Oedipus complex is also an essential factor for healthy, fear-free sexual development. A puritanical, anti-body sexual morality with (subliminal) prohibitions and statements such as: You don't do that or that is a sin or you are a loser , but also one Oversexualized childhood made people more inclined to develop sexual fears, disorders and relationship problems in later life. According to Freud's successor Erik Erikson , the decisive factor is whether people were able to build up basic trust in the critical early childhood phase or whether they cannot trust due to emotional deficiency experiences and are not capable of true intimacy.

Harry Stack Sullivan emphasizes that certain behaviors of important caregivers shape later sexuality. A negative and negative attitude towards intimacy - by parents for example - leads to conflicts and fears in sexual life.

How large the number of cases can be explained by socialization or traumatic experiences ( sexual abuse , rape, etc.) is still open, especially since many or most of the victims are later unable to consciously remember this serious trauma, and therefore they too do not name the cause of their problems. A lack of or liberalized sex education has proven unsuitable for preventing such fears from arising. It can therefore be assumed that this form of fear has a natural protective function, which is intended, for example, to protect against the violation of emotional integrity .

psychotherapy

Fear in the area of sexuality must first be distinguished from normal anxiety, which is a common human trait. However, it can reach the extent of a mental disorder. When a therapeutic help is sought, this clarification takes place first. If there is actually a disorder, various forms of therapy are available for treatment ( conversation psychotherapy , behavioral therapy or methods based on depth psychology ).

Sexual medicine

In sexual medicine , sexual anxiety plays a role in sexual dysfunction .

Sexual response

The sexual reaction of humans mainly consists of three differentiable but interlocking phases, each of which can be disturbed or blocked. These include:

Phase of excitability,
Phase of excitement,
Phase of orgasm.

Sexual anxiety in the excitability phase

Sexual desire motivates people to engage in sexual acts. However, if this phase is occupied by fear or pain, then there is a disordered sexual desire. This can lead not only to fear, but also to enmity towards the partner. This form of sexual anxiety often occurs after mental crises, anger and disappointment with the partner or after non-sexually induced stress such as unemployment or an accident.

Anxiety in the excitement phase

Fear of any kind that arises during intercourse can lead to temporary impotence .

Anxiety in the orgasm phase

Here it is above all the symptoms of orgasm inhibition and / or delayed, but also premature ejaculation that appear as symptoms triggered by fear. Someone who is almost obsessively waiting for an orgasm, in fact lurking for it , will be too afraid to even notice it.

treatment

Information from the doctor or psychologist regarding causes and spread are just as helpful in overcoming sexual anxiety as a relationship of trust with your partner. Sexual anxiety usually becomes less important for humans when the sexual experiences are such that the gain in joie de vivre through sexuality outweighs the renunciation of it.

Try home remedies to manipulate your own sexual anxiety turn out to be double-edged. Cross-cultural young men often seek out prostitutes or comparable women in order to have their first sexual experiences. Women, too, are not infrequently prepared to forget their inhibitions when they have a corresponding reputation. This was preceded not infrequently by the decision to engage in emotional self-rape, in which the person is forced to act that he does not actually feel behind.

literature

Masters and Johnson : Impotence and Anorgasmia. For the therapy of functional sexual disorders (human sexual inadequacy, dt.) . Frankfurt / M. (Goverts) 1973. ISBN 3-7740-0434-X (1993 edition, p. 516 and others)