Can Cialis help with sexual performance anxiety?

Cialis will only be helpful for your sexual performance if it is related to erectile dysfunction, which is a physical problem. If you have sexual performance anxiety, then this needs to be handled in other ways which do not involve medications.

Let’s look at how sexual performance anxiety might develop. So when you and your partner are engaging in sex, this situation may trigger thoughts such as: “My partner will make fun of me,” or “I will embarass myself,” or “My partner will not like me.” These thoughts, in turn, induce feelings of anxiety and fear. You also become self-conscious, and you may get physical sensations of anxiety from the release of adrenaline in reponse to exposure to your feared situation (sex).

These physical anxiety symptoms you might develop include racing heart beat, pounding chest, sweating, heavy breathing, trembling, and muscle tension. This is also called the fight or flight response, so when this is activated, it redirects all of your body’s energy and resources into fight or running from the danger. So there is a redirect of resources into making you stronger, faster, more focused, and more alert of the feared situation. However, this is done at the expense of the reproductive system and digestive system, and both of these systems shut down with the fight or flight response, making arousal and desire difficult when you are trying to be intimate with your partner.

The anxiety becomes so uncomfortable that you try to avoid having sex to avoid the anxiety. But the avoidance only maintains the belief that your partner is making fun of you, so this maintains the negative, vicious cycle of sexual performance anxiety.

The only way to treat sexual performance anxiety is to change the way you think, and try not to avoid intimacy with your partner. CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) is helpful to address the irrational thoughts and maladaptive behaviors which contribute to sexual performance anxiety. However, if the anxiety is severe, or if CBT is not helpful, then prescription medications for anxiety may be needed to reduce your anxiety symptoms.

photo credit: Martin Wippel Mittelmeer-Kreuzfahrt 2012 via photopin (license)