Modern life is full of stress that can take a toll on someone’s emotional and psychological well-being. A lot of people will particularly face problems with maintaining healthy intimate relationships for a various number of reasons. Sexual anorexia is not really well advertised although it could be quite painful and devastating to the person concerned and those who react to them on an intimate basis, click here to learn more.
What is sexual anorexia?
Sexual anorexia is the loss of appetite for sexual and intimate relationships. The person would distance themselves from others and avoid engaging in any intimate relationships that can lead to sexual or emotional encounters.
Just like food anorexia, the patient avoids intimacy to protect themselves from the anxiety and the possible trauma that might be caused when they open up to someone. Patients avoid speaking about their personal feelings, deny themselves the pleasure of opening up to someone, dating, touching them and getting into intimate and personal relationships altogether.
For the sexual anorexics, the pain of refusal can be too much to handle. Problems, rejection, and abandonment are natural parts of human relationships. A healthy normal person might experience some or all of them at some point in their lives. However, a sexual anorexic will not be able to handle this amount of emotional pressure.
Sexual anorexics’ behavior patterns:
Patients prefer to stay isolated from others and abstain from all sorts of sexual and intimate relationships in order to protect themselves. The amount of pressure that they usually get through can be tremendous. Sexual anorexia often leads to depression because people feel incapable of engaging in normal healthy relationships.
Sexual anorexia is also common in long-term relationships. Long-term partners might avoid intimacy by avoiding being with their partner in the first place. They might give them the silent treatment, prefer to sleep with the kids or pretend to be sleepy or tired. Some of them might find it easier to engage in casual relationships with strangers or one-night stands but will avoid all sorts of long-term intimate relationships to avoid feeling vulnerable.
What causes sexual anorexia?
There are a lot of physical and emotional causes that can lead to sexual anorexia. Most women will suffer from sexual anorexia due to hormonal imbalance especially after childbirth and during breastfeeding. Some medications can lead to sexual anorexia in both men and women.
Sometimes people suffer from sexual anorexia because of a certain trauma that they have experienced during childhood. Sexual abuse during childhood is one of the reasons why someone might reject and resist all sexual feelings when they grow up. Patients will feel disgusted by the idea of sex and intimacy altogether due to an unpleasant experience that they can’t shake off their memories. Rape is another common cause to sexual anorexia. The person will be revolted by the idea of sex altogether after having it imposed on them at a certain situation.
A lot of people who grow up in religiously strict environment will develop mixed feelings towards sex and intimacy. Being brought up with the notion that sex is wrong and unclean will often cause confusion about intimacy.
How is sexual anorexia treated?
A blood test should be conducted to test the levels of hormones. Men who suffer from low sexual desire can definitely benefit from testosterone supplements. During or after menopause, hormonal therapy can help women who suffer from lack of sexual desire.
Most of the time the medical treatment is not enough and has to be combined with psychological therapy. Sessions with a sex therapist or a marriage counselor can help with the problem as people talk about their feelings and fears.
