Ep. 140: How Anxiety Impacts Sex (with Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy)
Your Anxiety Toolkit - Practical Skills for Anxiety, Panic & Depression
Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT | Anxiety & OCD Specialist
4.9 • 882 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2020
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I cannot tell you how often I get asked about how anxiety impacts sex. Social media followers often ask questions that involve how anxiety decreases sex drive, how sexual arousal can occur at unwanted times and the impact medication has on sexual arousal and orgasm.
In today's episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit, we have Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy to speak about all things anxiety and sex. Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy is a certified sex therapist, psychologist, and upcoming author and she answered all of my questions on how anxiety impacts sex.
When discussing the topic, Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy answered the following questions:
- How can we refocus on the present when anxious?
- Does anxiety impact orgasm?
- Can anxiety cause sex to be painful?
- How to handle arousal related to unwanted, intrusive thoughts?
- How to manage strong feelings about sex, such as desire but also repulsion?
- How to manage sex hygiene?
- Will medication impact sexual arousal?
Instagram: @drlaurenfogelmersy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlaurenfogelmersy/
Please join the IOCDF for a special addition of Just, Ethan this Saturday, March 14 at 2 PM EST. This live stream on Facebook and YouTube will be an OCD/Coronavirus Town Hall with special guests Kimberley Quinlan and Shala Nicely. Come and bring your questions! https://www.facebook.com/IOCDF/
Please check out this really helpful article on managing anxiety over the coronavirus.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Your Anxiety Toolkit, episode number 140. |
| 0:10.0 | Welcome to Your Anxiety Toolkit. I'm your host, Kimberly Quinlan. This podcast is fueled by three |
| 0:17.0 | main goals. The first goal is to provide you with some extra tools to help you manage your |
| 0:22.2 | anxiety. Second goal, to inspire you. Anxiety doesn't get to decide how you live your life. And number |
| 0:29.7 | three, and I leave the best for last, is to provide you with one big, fat virtual hug, because |
| 0:36.8 | experiencing anxiety ain't easy. |
| 0:39.2 | If that sounds good to you, let's go. |
| 0:46.7 | Well, welcome back. |
| 0:49.1 | It is a rainy day here in Los Angeles, and it is the first week after we have closed down |
| 0:57.3 | ERP school registrations. And you guys, I am so proud of all of you who signed up and of those |
| 1:07.5 | who entered in to get one of the scholarships, we were so excited to give away |
| 1:11.9 | four scholarships this year. |
| 1:14.7 | It was just beautiful and the feedback already has been so great, just people saying |
| 1:20.8 | how much it's helping them and how much it's changed their perspective towards their anxiety. |
| 1:27.5 | Amazing. |
| 1:28.4 | I'm just so, so thrilled and honored. |
| 1:31.4 | So this week's episode is one that I have wanted to do for a very long time. |
| 1:40.9 | And I've been sitting back in the social media space, just watching some of the |
| 1:46.4 | advocates and leaders in this field, just making sure that I have the right person to speak |
| 1:52.9 | with you about this very tricky subject, right? Today, we have Dr. Lauren Fogel Mercy, who is a psychologist, a certified sex therapist, |
| 2:05.8 | and she's an upcoming author. And she is here today to talk with us about the intersection |
| 2:12.8 | of anxiety and sex, sexual intercourse, sexual intimacy, arousal, all the things. |
... |
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