|
Feelings of anger, frustration, and anxiety are commonly associated in men suffering with impotence after receiving prostate cancer treatment. These feelings are valid and need to be shared. You may have been taught that it is "weak" to cry or talk about your feelings, but many times that is exactly what you need to do. If you hold the sadness and anxiety inside, you and your partner will have a more difficult time adapting to an altered lifestyle. For support, inspiration, and guidance talk to other patients and sex therapists or counselors.
Sex therapy or psychosexual therapy can be very useful in helping you re-establish a sexual relationship with your partner when there's been a period without sex. A counselor takes note of the sexual problems you and your partner are having individually and together. Sex therapy identifies problems such as performance anxiety, which means that you worry so much about whether you will be able to have sex that you are not able to. Therapy may help you reach orgasm or avoid pain during sex by learning to relax. Also counseling can be used in combination with another treatment to help you adjust.
If a man feels pressured to achieve an erection, he will usually become anxious and nervous when in a sexually demanding situation. Anxiety conflicts with the ability to achieve an erection, which causes failure, and perpetuates anxiety. A sex therapist can help men overcome these and other psychological issues. Sex therapy can improve partners’ communication and honesty, sensual experience and pleasure, and interpersonal tolerance and acceptance, while reducing anxiety. It is important to educate yourself on possible psychological or emotional causes of impotence. Read a book on sex therapy and ask your physician for a referral to a sex therapist nearest you.
|
