Some guys with porn-induced ED experience a full recovery in a matter of weeks or months abstaining from PMO. But for other guys, the story doesn’t end there. Because of the negative reference experiences from their time with PIED, some guys will experience a lot of anxiety about sex and “performing”.
I was one of these guys and I know how devastating it can be to get trapped in that ‘cycle of worry’.
PIED or Anxiety-induced ED?
The distinction here is that porn-induced ED is where your brain has been conditioned to get aroused only with very specific porn use behavior (some examples: switching through multiple tabs while masturbating; watching only the ‘good parts’ of videos; and escalating to more extreme genres), while sexual anxiety is your body’s physical reaction to worry about not being able to get an erection. This fight-or-flight response and tensing up of the body makes it very difficult to achieve or keep an erection.
What I sometimes see happen with my readers is this: a guy has rebooted for a while and feels like he might be ready for sex again. But, he still has a lot of worry and uncertainty because of his previous ED experiences – even though they were caused by his porn-use. Even though he has re-sensitized his body to touch and to real women, he still has difficulty maintaining an erection because of all that built-up anxiety.
How to deal with performance anxiety?
I recently wrote a long and detailed article about dealing with performance anxiety including 15 actionable tips. You can read it here:
- http://rebootblueprint.com/sexual-performance-anxiety-ultimate-guide/
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