How Psychological Erectile Dysfunction Works Physically
How your thinking/emotions affect your body and your erections.
How erections work normally
Your penis is a hydraulic system. When the muscles around the arteries of your penis relax, more blood flows in. Simultaneously, muscles at the base of your penis contract, preventing blood from leaving the penis. Blood flows in faster than it flows out. You get an erection.
Your nervous system has two modes:
- Fight or flight: sympathetic
- Rest and digest: parasympathetic
If you're in rest and digest mode, things work normally. You have good erections.
How erections get lost with psychological ED
If you're in fight or flight mode, the brain wants to protect you be diverting blood to the large muscle groups needed for immediate survival. So it sends a signal to groin.
The small groin muscles that you want to loosen tighten and the muscles you want to tighten loosen. Not enough blood in the penis = no erection.
REFERENCE
• Coping with Erectile Dysfunction, Michael E. Metz PH.D. and Barry W. McCarthy, PH.D, pp. 32-34
→ To see how mental performance anxiety translates into a physical block, explore the core concepts in my guide to Understanding Psychological ED: First Steps.
You may also like...
Would you like some help with this?
Tools like this can help, but they take time. If you’d like to resolve this sooner, there’s nothing like working with specialist. I've been helping guys get past psychological ed for over 20 years. If you'd like to talk, just click the button below.
All calls are 100% private.