The Prospect Of Depressing Sex

Most people equate sex with pleasure, happiness, or at least base, physical enjoyment. What the average person does not mentally associate sex with is depression. However, there are some people that actually mentally associate sex with any number of negative factors. Everything from discomfort to boredom to pain can be cited, and in some cases, it can actually leave a person feeling lethargic and depressed for a long period afterwards. It isn't just the elderly – who tend to be stereotyped as being too old for sex – who have this problem, as there are numerous people in their younger years that are known to experience discomfort or depression at the prospect of sex or afterwards.

People with this problem sometimes have conditions that make sex an activity that simply cannot be enjoyed, but there are also those who have clean bills of health, in both the physical and mental fields. This problem is just as likely to manifest among the well-adjusted and hard-working people as it is in those who are mentally unstable and psychologically imbalanced. It isn't a lack of friends, family or personal support structure, either. It can be quite tempting to assume that this problem with sex simply stems from issues towards the partner or to sex in general, but extended analysis might reveal that this is not the case. There are just some people that are incapable of finding pleasure in sexual intercourse.

There are cases of people – usually women – who experience intense episodes of depression that last for several hours after intercourse. These cases have nothing else wrong with them physically, and their psychiatric profiles are as normal as one could get aside from the problem. While it is true that people can sometimes feel quite sad after intercourse, this is not considered an adequate explanation for the intense depression and dysphoria that the above cases feel, as it is significantly more disruptive and goes beyond the simple unhappiness most experience. The answer to this question, however, is still considered to be up to speculation.