Mind and Relationships
Anxiety, stress and low mood can cause ED or make it worse, and ED can affect mood and relationships in turn. These pages cover both sides, and the help that exists.
Is it ED or performance anxiety? How to tell what is really going on
Performance anxiety and physical ED can feel identical. How onset, situation and morning erections help tell them apart, and why a clinician should check.
Anxiety and mood
Working through performance anxiety: what counseling and studies support
How to overcome sexual performance anxiety: what CBT, sex therapy and mindfulness involve, what trials found, where ED pills fit, and what propranolol is for.
Depression, antidepressants and ED: the link in both directions
How depression and erectile dysfunction are linked both ways, what SSRI, SNRI and bupropion labels say about sexual side effects, and why not to stop alone.
Stress, PTSD and ED: what the research shows
How stress and PTSD are linked to erectile dysfunction, what veteran studies found, how PTSD medicines fit in, and which kinds of help the VA and NIH describe.
Relationships
Help
Also in this section
Filed under another topic, and relevant here too.
Does masturbation or frequent sex cause ED? What the evidence shows
Does masturbation cause erectile dysfunction, or can too much sex? What large studies found, how a recovery period differs from ED, and when to get checked.
Can porn cause erectile dysfunction? What the research shows
Can porn cause erectile dysfunction? What the studies found, why the evidence is mixed, what else explains it, and when to get erection trouble checked.
Questions this section answers
All questions- What is sex therapy for erectile dysfunction?
- What happens in counseling for ED?
- What did CBT and couples-therapy trials find?
- Can therapy be combined with ED medicine?
- Does online sex therapy work for ED?
- Does a partner have to take part?
- How do you find a qualified therapist?
- Can depression cause ED?