When it gets time to get down to business between the sheets, it can be downright nerve wracking. There’s so much pressure to please your partner and last a while, you can sometimes find your little guy bowing out. This can make your anxiety even worse, which in turn can lead to even more missed erections down the road.
Sexual performance anxiety is a very real thing. But if you consistently find yourself unable to achieve an erection when you’re set to engage yourself in a sexual activity, you may in fact be dealing with erectile dysfunction. Considering that both issues can be caused by your thoughts and emotions, it can be hard to differentiate performance anxiety and erectile dysfunction. So how can you determine which issue you’re dealing with?
The solution is simple: Get to the root of it. Performance anxiety is defined as the inability to perform in a sexual situation due to anxiety, whereas erectile dysfunction is the inability to achieve an erection. If you find your erection failing during sexual encounters, run some tests when you aren’t about to have sex.
The most important question to answer is whether or not you can achieve an erection by yourself. Be it through masturbation or good, old-fashioned sexy thoughts, you need to will your penis to stand at attention. If you can achieve an erection on your own volition, that’s a pretty good indicator that you’re suffering from performance anxiety. Alternatively, if you find yourself unable to get it up on your own, you’re more than likely dealing with erectile dysfunction.
However, that’s not to say that the inability to achieve an erection on your own time is a sure sign of erectile dysfunction. This issue could still be traced back to your anxiety with sex, which is causing you to become anxious even alone.
The best way to determine whether it’s sexual anxiety or erectile dysfunction you’re dealing with is to talk to a doctor. Lay out your problem, discuss possible solutions, and together you can devise a way to overcome the issue, whichever it may be.