Depression and amazing sex life is almost an oxymoron. Well, unless you suffer from sex addiction that you get depressed when not being given the opportunity to have sex. If you have been diagnosed with clinical depression and you flinch at the thought of engaging in sex, you are not alone. Sexual problems that you may not have had before such as erectile dysfunction or the inability to have an orgasm coexist with depression keeping other reasons constant. To take you by a pleasant surprise, doctors do have a resolution for this problem i.e. intimacy problems that coincide with depression.
[Read: How Sex Addiction affects a Marriage]
What connects intimacy problems and depression?
Consider the brain to be a highly sensitive sex organ. The brain is responsible for everything that happens in the body. Therefore, the fact that sexual desire starts in the brain and then moves down the system is obvious. Sexual desire triggers more blood flow to the sexual organs by way of special brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. These chemicals trigger the communication between brain cells to get increased blood to flow to the sexual organs. The problem arises when a person undergoes a mood disorder or depression when these brain chemicals get imbalanced.
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Antidepressants and intimacy problems
The first thing that a doctor prescribes to a depressed patient is a number of anti-depressants. As helpful as anti-depressants may seem, some of them do have negative effects on the victim such as lack of sexual desire or intimacy. Moreover, anti-depressants work to make a depressed person happy by creating an imbalance of the brain chemicals. Therefore, the desire to have sex decreases as the dose of anti-depressants increases.
[Read: Effect of Depression on your Sex Life]
Intimacy or sexual problems associated with anti-depressants
Some of the intimacy or sexual problems that are related to anti-depressants include:
- Erectile dysfunction in men.
- Inability to enjoy or initiate sex.
- Decreased sexual desire.
- Inability to achieve an orgasm.
Treatment
There are a number of ways in which the sexual side-effects of antidepressants can be treated. One of them is to invest in anti-depressants that do not affect sexual function. Besides, you may be given medicines to improve sexual function along with anti-depressants provided that you talk about your needs with your doctor. Communicate well with your spouse or partner about your sexual problem. Once a person has realised that the sexual effects of taking anti-depressants are treatable, they tend to choose to continue consuming them.
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