Depression is an issue related to mental health that can be a cause of psychogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. It’s a serious mental illness that can influence your behavior.
A person with depression feels negative emotions, which affects his thinking. The sexual function of the person gets impacted big time. They may fail to become sexually aroused and as a result struggle with erection function.
Depression is a mental health concern, characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, grief, and hopelessness. These heavy feelings make such individuals experience a lack of pleasure in sexual activities.
Your day-to-day activities are affected due to the changes in the way you think, feel, and behave. Depression has a persuasive nature that has a debilitating impact on the quality of life.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) or impotence is a sexual disorder in males that is characterized by difficulties in getting stronger erections. With this condition, men fail to get or maintain firmer erections.
The struggle with erection function occurs because of a lack of adequate blood flow to the penile. This issue stems from the blockage of blood supply through the penile blood vessels.
Some physiological or psychological health factors, or sometimes both can contribute to ED. Physiological health conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, etc., can potentiate the chances of ED.
Whereas psychological factors such as stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, etc. Interfere with sexual arousal and impact erection function.
Link between Depression and erectile dysfunction
Those with depression disorder experiencing erectile dysfunction, fail to attain sexual satisfaction. Here is how depression can impact your sexual function:
Men with depression are more prone to developing difficulties with erection function. This happens because of an impact on the psyche, which affects the ability to become sexually aroused.
The reason why depression affects sex life is, that it triggers imbalances in the brain chemicals. The chemicals released in the brain are crucial in a healthy erection response. However, their imbalances cause interference in arousal.
The brain indicates the signals of arousal to the nerves in the penile. But, due to the chemical imbalances, the signal transmission gets affected.
This gives rise to erection difficulties. The person fails to get erections even after adequate sexual stimulation.
Your sex drive or libido gets adversely impacted. This happens because of the chemical imbalances triggered by depression. This chronic condition keeps you stuck in a loop of detrimental thinking patterns.
When your sex drive or libido is high, your inclination to sexual activity is high. The decrease in sex drive causes a person to lose interest in sexual intimacy.
This may even cause them to lose erections in the middle of the sexual activity. These changes in sexual behavior negatively impact the ability to become intimate.
This causes fluctuations in the desire for sex. Such negative emotions and feelings may occupy the mind and disrupt sexual signal transmission, leading to sexual dysfunction.
Depressed individuals are prone to undergo sudden mood changes. Sometimes they may be in a great mood and willing to be intimate. Suddenly their mood change may happen, making them lose interest in sex.
This can be attributed to chemical imbalances occurring in the brain, which are induced by feelings of depression and negative emotions.
This mood change may suddenly while having sexual intercourse. This can affect the sexual performance, leading to frustration and sexual distress.
Fatigue is characterized by feelings of low energy and extreme tiredness. Those having depression commonly suffer from feelings of low energy. They may lack the desire to become intimate.
They might not even get sexually aroused even after sexual stimulation. This is why they may avoid being intimate. Sexual stimulation and activity may seem to be a tiresome activity for them.
The person living with depression may feel completely exhausted and physically drained because of a lack of energy.
Sometimes the reason why men experience erectile dysfunction is medications. Some medications used for alleviating the symptoms of depression can trigger sexual disorders.
Antidepressant medicines like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can trigger sexual side effects, including ED. Such medications can cause changes in the neurotransmitter levels and flow of blood.
Neurotransmitters are the chemicals, which are essential for getting and maintaining erections. Changes in their levels lead to changes in the sexual behavior of the person.
One can manage erection problems with ED medicines like Vilitra 60mg.
