As a psychotherapist who specializes in emotions—and as a woman, with my own personal history of serial monogamy—I have come to realize that some men channel their needs for love, intimacy, soothing, care and comfort into sexual desire.
Men often channel their needs for love, intimacy, soothing, care and comfort into sexual desire.
|
Here are some examples:
Marty craves sex when he is anxious. He shared how sex reliably calms him and helps him feel better. The days he has sex he feels more confident.
Dylan wants sex when he feels sad because he likes the comfort the physical holding provides. Dylan, like most people, wants to be held when he is sad. In fact, the need to be held when we feel sad is biologically programmed into our brains.
Jonathon wants sex when he’s lonely. He believes it is weak to let someone know that he feels lonely and wants company. Alternatively, he thinks it is acceptable to find and ask for sex, which satisfies his need for human connection.
***
When we block our core emotions and our need for intimacy, we develop symptoms like anxiety, shame, and depression.
|
Sexual excitement is a core emotion. And, as we know from research on emotions, when an emotion is triggered it causes specific physical sensations and impulses to happen inside us. Sexual excitement, a core emotion, is often physically felt as sensations in the groin area with an impulse to seek orgasmic release. Sadness, anxiety, loneliness, anger and fear are other emotions that can combine with sexual excitement. The “mashup” of the tender emotions with sexual excitement is the brilliant way the mind can make sure core human needs are met but in consciously covert yet culturally acceptable ways.
The downside is that sexual desire can mask other core emotions that lay hidden underneath. I don’t mean to imply that sex should not be used for comfort. But, since we know that mental health is improved by being in touch with the full range of our core emotions, it is in our best interest to know which core emotions are present and driving our desire for sex. Is it pure sexual excitement? Is it a need for comfort? Is it a need for connection?
***
Knowing the culture of masculinity we live in, it should not come as a surprise that some men feel they have to sublimate tender and “needy” feelings into sexual desire. In the documentary, The Mask We Live In, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to their authentic selves and their feelings while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity. If men and boys could own the full range of their emotions, not just anger and sexual excitement, we would see trends in depression and anxiety decrease and mental health increase. Here’s why:
Channeling needs for comfort and soothing into sex is actually a clever compromise.
|
When we block our core emotions and needs for intimacy, we develop symptoms including, anxiety, shame, and depression. Symptoms go away when we become reacquainted with our core emotions. This first step to wellness comes from understanding that it is normal for both men and women to experience sadness, fear, love, anger, and longing for connection both sexual and through talking about our thoughts and feelings with each other. Needs for affection and love are as “masculine” as needs for strength, power, and ambition. Emotions are not for the weak…they are for the human.
Although our culture is slowly changing, the two main emotions that are most acceptable for men to display are still sexual excitement and anger. The more tender emotions including fear, sadness, love, need, and longing are still considered by many as “unmanly” to express. So it is not surprising that the tender emotions, which have to be expressed in some way, get bound to sexuality. In fact, channeling needs for comfort and soothing into sex is actually a clever compromise. After all, during sex men can unabashedly get held, stroked, kissed, hugged, and loved up all under the acceptable guise of a very masculine act…that of sexual prowess. But we can do better by helping to change the culture of masculinity so it is in sync with our biology.
***
–
Top 5 Things Men and Women Can Do For Men
1) Educate and normalize the scientific fact that we all have the same universal core emotions: sadness, fear, anger, disgust, joy, excitement, and sexual excitement.
2) Inform the men in your life that the need to connect with others and share our true feelings and thoughts is normal for all humans and not specific to sex and gender.
3) Invite the men in your life to share their authentic feelings and thoughts (especially the ones they feel ashamed about) while also stressing the point that you will not judge them as weak or feminine for sharing vulnerabilities. When we share things that are hard and are fully accepted with those feelings, we are transformed for the better. The result is that we feel more connected others and ourselves. This takes lots of courage!
4) Know that humans are complex creatures. We all have weak and strong parts of us. It’s important to hold all aspects of us simultaneously. That’s the way people feel whole and complete.
5) Recommend to everyone you know the movie The Mask I Live In, which is now on Netflix.
—-
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
16 Things He Should Be Telling You | Compliments Men Would Love to Hear More Often | Thirty-One Reasons Men Don’t Cheat | Here’s What Happens When You Find The One |
—-
—
Photo: Shutterstock
It’s “the mask you live in”.Good article.👍
Hi Hilary
This is such an important question but few men will answer here on GMP.
I wonder why .
And the problems between men and women will go on and on and on
I liked this a lot. janette, I agree, but for women, showing sexual excitement can be incredibly risky. I mean that socially, not physically. Balancing sexual desire with a slut shaming culture is a hard dance men don’t have to deal with. Because men don’t have to deal with this stigma in their lives, it’s an easy way for them to get their sexual needs expressed and met. If a women wanted to use sex in this way, she does so at great social risk. But because men can use it, they abuse it because it’s their ONLY tool. I… Read more »
I think this is actually true for both sexes nowadays. It’s easier to seek out sex than it is to seek out real connection and intimacy. Asking for intimacy and closeness and generally being vulnerable is now seen as clingyness and weakness, so both men and women are looking for sex in attempt to have those needs met.