How Stress and Anxiety Affect Your Sex Life

We live in stressful times — the lingering effects of 2020 and the pandemic, work, kids, bills… Everyone’s a little (or a lot) stressed these days. Does that affect your sex drive? Absolutely.

Stress and libido are closely linked. This relationship can often be a catch-22 where stress prevents sex, but sex also relieves stress. How can you break out of this cycle?

The Biology of a Stress Response

Biologically, tour body’s stress response is a burst of hormones — adrenaline and cortisol — occurring during threatening situations. Or at least what your body perceives as a threat. This was extremely helpful for survival in early human history, when we were running away from predators, or any other types of physical danger.

But today, that same response to a constantly stressful environment can wreak havoc on your body — and your sex life. In our modern world we find ourselves being bombarded with new stressors. We might not be chased by bear — but we stress about being late for work or school, interpersonal conflict with family or coworkers, loud noises such as car horns or emergency vehicles, managing emails, finances, and deadlines, exposure to distressing social media posts and news reports…