Those suffering from post-sexual dysphoria experience enormous sadness after sex, a condition that can last from a few minutes to several hours. You could say it’s kind of like having a “depression” after sex.
Ana recounts that she has sex with her husband about three times a week, on at least two of these occasions she feels sad at the end of the sex act, she says that it is strange, there is no explanation for this state of deep sadness, it just happens.
- Not that Ana doesn’t like having sex with her husband.
- She’s attracted to him and enjoys the moment.
- But then she’s invaded by terrible pain.
- Something like a “empty.
- “This feeling lasts an hour or two and then disappears.
What happens to Ana has a name. Foreign experts call it post-sexual blues or post-sexual sadness. It is post-intercourse dysphoria not to be confused with depression. You don’t have to be depressed to experience this discomfort.
Some experts in human sexuality point out that the reason for this sadness is that sexual intercourse only satisfies the biological part, not the emotional part, however, the answer to this question is not yet clear, it may simply be that some people react to the accumulation of biochemical excesses that occur after orgasm.
Dr. Richard A. Friedman, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of a Psychopharmacological Clinic, recently studied this topic and says that in recent years he has had several patients with this syndrome.
The first patient he received for this reason was a 25-year-old. This person, after having sex, spent a whole day with deep feelings. His health was excellent (both mental and physical) and he had no major problems in other areas of his life.
According to the doctor, “I could have found a very simple explanation. I could have argued that this person had hidden conflicts over sex. Or that there were mixed feelings about his partner. However, I found no explanation. Although your anxiety is very real, did I tell you that I don’t have a big problem that needs treatment?
Several studies have shown that during orgasm, there is a marked decrease in activity in the amygdala. Amygdala is a region of the brain that is involved in treating stimuli such as fear.
Helen Fisher of Rutgers University recently used MRI images to examine the neural circuit that is activated in lovers, and her results concluded that there is brain activation in the dopaminergic neuron circuit by presenting the photo of her partner to a person.
Thus, in addition to causing pleasure, sex would reduce fear and anxiety. The question we ask ourselves is: is this point of activity the cause of dysphoria?
For other researchers, post-sexual dysphoria has to do with the assessment we make after sex, in some cases it would be a feeling of emptiness. Although some people want sexual encounters, they suffer later because they don’t make sense of it.
This lack of meaning may be due to the fact that sex was an obligation or to satisfy only part of an emotional fault. According to psychologist Raúl Carvajal, “there is biological compensation, but emotional satisfaction is more limited. I think it has to do with the context in which we live, do everything fast, comply ?.
Dr. Friedman decided not to force an answer to the question in the previous section. Maybe it’s just the reaction to this outbreak. The doctor’s solution was to prescribe a minimal dose of Prozac, a well-known antidepressant.
His patients reported that they liked sex a little less because this antidepressant lowers their libido, but they no longer felt sad after sex. In the end, sexual problems don’t always hide dark psychological problems.
Let us think that the most important sexual organ of the human being is the brain, sex may be the most physical act, but sadness has a physiological basis, in any case, with one intervention or another, derived from one or the other cause, what is clear is that the phenomenon exists and that we still have many questions about it.