Ever wonder why everything seems fine physically, but things still fall apart in the bedroom? You’re not alone, and the reason might not be what you think.
In this episode, we take a closer look at performance anxiety, a silent, but powerful force that affects more men than you’d imagine. We’ll explore how the mind plays a major role in your ability to perform and why fixing the body isn’t always enough. You’ll also get a sneak peek into one of the most effective solutions out there: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
If you’ve been searching for real answers and lasting change, don’t miss this one. Tune in now because you’re just one episode away from understanding what’s really holding you back.
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For all links and resources mentioned on the show and where to subscribe to the podcast, please visit https://sexualhealthformenpodcast.storychief.io/performance-anxiety-treatment-cbt-erectile-dysfunction
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Want to regain control of your sex life? It’s time to reverse the effects of ED on your life. Join the Modern Man Club and embark on your journey to complete recovery and community.
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Reveal the FREE treatment most men ignore that solves thousands of erectile dysfunction cases every year, plus the 5 biggest mistakes you must avoid if you want to say goodbye to your ED. Uncover it all in my free eBook, available to download now.
This podcast is for you, the Modern Man. I'm Dr Anne Truong,
Speaker:your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and best
Speaker:selling author of the book, Erectile Dysfunction Fix. I'll
Speaker:do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how
Speaker:it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get
Speaker:started, and be sure to visit my website at
Speaker:sexualhealthformenpodcast.com for more information and
Speaker:resources from the show. See you on the inside.
Speaker:Hello there, Modern Man. I'm Dr Anne Truong. I'm a sexual health
Speaker:specialist, treated over 7000 men. Have you ever wondered what
Speaker:you need to do if you have performance anxiety that you
Speaker:feel like you're lost? Well, in today's episode, we're gonna
Speaker:talk about what you need to do to get effective treatment for
Speaker:performance anxiety.
Speaker:So what is performance anxiety? Performance anxiety is a feeling
Speaker:of panic, feeling of worry, feeling of anxiety when you're
Speaker:about to get it on, because maybe you had past experience in
Speaker:that didn't go well and you didn't perform, or maybe someone
Speaker:has made a comment, negative comment, that kind of lingers on
Speaker:here (the brain). It's almost like a little PTSD, that you
Speaker:keep thinking about and reliving over and over again. And the
Speaker:reason why I'm talking about this is because I see this a lot
Speaker:in my patients in the office, as well as in our coaching groups,
Speaker:the Modern Man Club. Is that performance anxiety almost
Speaker:follow physical erectile dysfunction, and then even if we
Speaker:treat the physical part of ED, the performance anxiety still
Speaker:somewhat linger, because it's in here (the brain). And the reason
Speaker:why I stress that is because the largest sexual organ for you to
Speaker:get the erection is really come from the brain. And even if we
Speaker:work together and I treat erection, and then the erection
Speaker:has better flow, but if the brain is not treated, then no
Speaker:erection can happen.
Speaker:So I try want to focus on today's session on performance
Speaker:anxiety, and what's the research is showing and what I feel that
Speaker:you need to know so that way you can find resources to help you.
Speaker:And I feel that every man that has ED had some component of
Speaker:performance anxiety. Now there is a treatment is primarily
Speaker:recommended for men with ED with performance anxiety, and that is
Speaker:called CBT, C like cat, B like a boy, T, like tall. CBT stands
Speaker:for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and it stands out as
Speaker:the most effective intervention because it directly addresses
Speaker:the psychological mechanism that maintain performance anxiety and
Speaker:affect erectile function. And researcher demonstrate that CBT
Speaker:specifically targets the cognitive and behavioral factors
Speaker:that create and perpetuate the anxiety performance cycle. Now
Speaker:performance anxiety creates a vicious cycle where fear of
Speaker:sexual failure lead to increased stress and anxiety, and then
Speaker:anxiety causes physiological changes, including reduced blood
Speaker:flow to the penis. And then poor sexual performance reinforces
Speaker:the original fear, creating a self perpetuating cycle. And you
Speaker:need to know that, because the further you think about your
Speaker:erection, the more stress you're gonna get. And when stress is
Speaker:high, erection goes down. Because when stress is high,
Speaker:that's when you activate the sympathetic nervous system. And
Speaker:at the sympathetic nervous system will lose the blood from
Speaker:your penis out to your arms and your legs. So stress decrease
Speaker:blood flow to your penis. CBT break this cycle that I just
Speaker:mentioned, of the cycle of fear, failure, anxiety and poor
Speaker:performance, and it reframe. CBT help men by reframe the negative
Speaker:thought patterns and then help you develop healthier coping
Speaker:mechanism to deal with performance anxiety. Studies
Speaker:have shown in the landmark study, men receiving CBT
Speaker:alongside with low dose PDE-5 inhibitors such as tadalafil
Speaker:shows continued improvement in their ED months after CBT
Speaker:treatment has finished. While those receiving just medication
Speaker:alone without the CBT shows no further improvement or even
Speaker:decline. Decline even if you stay just the medication alone.
Speaker:Now, CBT has shown to reduce not only ED symptoms, but also
Speaker:anxiety and depression that co-exist as well, and I want to
Speaker:mention and stress at this point is that combining CBT with
Speaker:breathing that I talk about, check out the episode where I
Speaker:talk about breathing out of erection, where there are
Speaker:several mechanism of breathing that will help lower your heart
Speaker:rate. When your heart rate is lower, stress is lower, erection
Speaker:comes back. Heart rate high, no erection. So the breathing
Speaker:technique that I talk about, the box breathing technique where
Speaker:you breathe in for four, you hold it for four, and you
Speaker:breathe out to your mouth for four, and then you hold for
Speaker:four. But make sure you breathe into your nose, because if you
Speaker:go into your nose and go to the nasal sinuses up here, which
Speaker:then help you create more nitric oxide. Breatheing to the nose,
Speaker:help you create more nitric oxide. Nitric oxide bring in
Speaker:more blood flow. And also box breathing will also decrease
Speaker:your heart rate as well. So decrease heart rate, nitric
Speaker:oxide, erection, all right? But high heart rate, stress,
Speaker:decrease erection.
Speaker:So the key CBT component addresses performance anxiety at
Speaker:this point. So keep that in mind, that if you mix it with
Speaker:breathing that I talk about, and then maybe just low dose, five
Speaker:milligrams of tadalafil or Cialis daily will actually treat
Speaker:your ED, and it may even last once you finish the therapy.
Speaker:Now, how long should you do CBT therapy? Between 8 to 12 weekly
Speaker:sessions for optimal results. About two to three months.
Speaker:Pretty fast if you're with a partner doing a couple days.
Speaker:You're also going to be given homework and exercises. And CBT
Speaker:addresses the root cause of performance anxiety, and it has
Speaker:longer lasting effect beyond just medication, and, of course,
Speaker:no side effects, and it's holistic. You can even do this
Speaker:on Zoom. You don't even need to come in and see a therapist in
Speaker:the office. So where can you find therapists that are
Speaker:certified? I really like therapists that are certified by
Speaker:the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors,
Speaker:and Therapists. Now the AA is certified sex therapist, and the
Speaker:very rigorous process, they spend 150 hours on sexual
Speaker:education, 60 hours sex therapy specific training, and 300 hours
Speaker:of supervised clinical experience and 50 hours of
Speaker:direct supervision by another AASECT certified supervisor, and
Speaker:also advanced clinical degree with psychotherapy training as
Speaker:well. Now check out this link right here, or you can go
Speaker:directly to their website at www.AASECT.org, or the link that
Speaker:I have on here, check it out. Just you can find a certified
Speaker:therapist that are qualified to treat your performance anxiety
Speaker:with CBT. All right?
Speaker:So I hope that help, and I can't stress to you how important it
Speaker:is to also treat the psychological component of ED
Speaker:and the physical part, because they are intertwined, and they
Speaker:probably 99% of time coexist. And I see this a lot, where my
Speaker:patients get better physically, but they're still unable to
Speaker:perform because they're still need to go get rid of the
Speaker:performance anxiety, which they have lifted for years, and going
Speaker:through doing CBT, is about to do that. And I know as men, you
Speaker:know my husband's same way. They're like, going to see a
Speaker:therapist. It's nothing wrong with going to see a therapist.
Speaker:It doesn't mean that you're weak. It doesn't mean that
Speaker:you're any different. It just means you need help all of these
Speaker:therapists are no different than going to see physical therapy to
Speaker:do therapy on your back. And so there is no difference, now
Speaker:you're going to have chance to do it on Zoom and on virtual, or
Speaker:do you not have to come in for an office evaluation. And some
Speaker:insurance will cover for this as well. You have to kind of find
Speaker:out, and you can go on their website, type in your location,
Speaker:and you can find out therapists that are certified, that are
Speaker:feel you or work with a therapist that you feel that you
Speaker:like to work with, because now it's all virtual. So I just want
Speaker:to be a resource for you and give you a resource for
Speaker:performance anxiety, because it's very, very common, and I
Speaker:don't want you to miss out. Okay?
Speaker:So I hope you find this useful. Let me know if you have any
Speaker:questions, and it will mean the world to me if you get notified
Speaker:and subscribe and share this with somebody that you care
Speaker:about. A lot of our viewers are non-subscribers, so I hope you
Speaker:guys will subscribe to our channel. It will mean the world
Speaker:to me and don't forget, do not suffer with ED in silence. You
Speaker:do not have to suffer alone. We have a resource for you that's
Speaker:called the Modern Man Club. It's a space where I will coach you
Speaker:and together with community of men that has ED, where we work
Speaker:together and getting you out of ED breakthrough to sexual
Speaker:confidence and sexual clarity and performance anxiety as well.
Speaker:And so check it out at noedman.com at the link right
Speaker:here. So I'll see you in the next episode.
Speaker:Okay, Modern Man, you are not alone and you don't have to
Speaker:suffer anymore. ED can feel isolating, frustrating, and even
Speaker:defeating. The endless guessing, the quiet shame, the weight of
Speaker:not feeling like yourself is exhausting. But here's the
Speaker:truth, you are not broken. You are not alone. You don't have to
Speaker:figure this out alone anymore. The Get Wood Now Boost Program
Speaker:is your step by step, path to sexual confidence and
Speaker:restoration. No more suffering in silence, no more trial and
Speaker:error, just real solution, real result and the confidence you
Speaker:deserve. It's time to take back your power on your term. Let's
Speaker:get this journey started together. Check out the course
Speaker:at getwoodnow.com. I'll see you there.
Speaker:Thanks for listening to the Sexual Health for Men Podcast.
Speaker:If you love this episode, then please take a screenshot on your
Speaker:phone and post it on Facebook, Instagram, or wherever you post,
Speaker:and be sure to tag me and let me know why you like this episode
Speaker:and what you like to hear in the future. That will help me know
Speaker:what's great for you and I would love to give you the most
Speaker:incredible free gift designed to help you improve performance
Speaker:quickly. Go to my website at sexualhealthformenpodcast.com to
Speaker:get the book, The Five Common Costly Mistakes Men Make When
Speaker:Facing ED. I would appreciate if you subscribe, leave a review on
Speaker:Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. And just know that you
Speaker:can have sexual vitality for life. I appreciate you until
Speaker:next time.