Alcohol and sexual relationship

Too much alcohol eventually decreases sexual potency, as it does health in general. A well-balanced diet, enough rest, and general care of the body, as discussed elsewhere in this book, are essential to your health, of which your sexual health is an important part. It is obviously hazardous to try to decrease sexual desire by exhausting yourself or eating so little as to feel generally below par. Let us add that there are no special foods that increase or decrease potency. 

When abstinence is necessary, keeping busy and avoiding erotic stimulation as much as possible may relieve sexual tensions. Is intercourse ever dangerous or harmful? It is dangerous when either partner has a venereal disease. Intercourse, as well as other forms of close contact, should be avoided during contagious illness of any type. Certain non-contagious diseases make intercourse unadvisable or even dangerous.

Anyone who is not in good health should discuss this matter frankly with his or her physician, who will be able to decide whether or not coitus is permissible. However, we want to make the point that it is often possible to prevent undue strain or overexertion for one or both partners by using certain positions during intercourse. 

We know of couples who have abandoned sexual relations because the wife could not tolerate the weight of her husband, or the activity was too much for the husband's heart. They had the misconception that it was not "nice" or "right" or "normal" to use positions for coitus that would overcome their difficulties. While most people in our culture assume one position for intercourse, this is only a matter of custom.

There is absolutely no reason to consider those over 40, worry unduly about such an episode and develop a "fear of failure" cycle. It is the fear, not the aging that leads to their chronic impotence. What if a husband wishes sexual relations when the wife is not in the mood? Assuming that she is not disturbed by unsettled problems outside the bedroom and that she is not withholding sex as a kind of punishment, the fortunate fact is that a wife can participate in sex as a loving partner even if she is not in the mood. Often, the fact that she is giving pleasure to her husband is enough to change her mood, to transform passive acceptance into active desire. 

Changes in sex habits affects health

 Changes in sex habits are likely to occur and to take the form of reduced potency in men, menstrual disturbances in women. According to one industrial physician, Dr. Rex.H.Wilson, of the depressed people who suffer from digestive upsets, nausea, vomiting, constipation, or diarrhea too often may be thought to have ulcers or colitis. 

The depressed, he also notes, may develop urinary frequency or urgency, sometimes accompanied by burning and sensations of pressure in the bladder area; many feel heart palpitations, chest constriction, pain in the heart area, and may seek medical help for "heart trouble"; still others may have noises in the ears, visual disturbances, mouth dryness, numbness or tingling sensations; and some develop red blotches on the body.

Nobody knows how many elderly people thought to be hopelessly senile are really only depressed. "The depressions of the geriatric patient often remain undiagnosed," says Dr. Sidney Cohen, Chief of Psychiatry Service, Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital, and Los Angeles. "There is the feeling that he is too senile, too little in contact, to be depressed. Actually, depressions can contribute to or even cause senile confusion." While depression in older people may lead to weakness, sleeping difficulty, appetite loss, and many aches and pains, Dr. Cohen reports that "another depressive syndrome in the aged consists of irascibility, irritability, indecisiveness, and inertia. 

These personality changes repel family, friends, and physician. It is necessary to penetrate behind the disgruntled attitude and annoying behavior to recognize the underlying depression.

Once depression is recognized, treatment for it may be rewarding. New Treatments Until recent years, doctors had rather limited treatment to use against depression. Now there are many medicines. Not long ago, when 170 of the nation's outstanding medical clinicians and researchers were polled on the most significant new drug developments of recent years, one major advance listed was an antidepressant medication introduced in 1959.

Another major advance listed was an antidepressant introduced in 1965. There are other valuable antidepressants in addition. No one medicine is a panacea. The therapeutic compound that helps one patient may be of little or no value for another. Careful selection is needed. Many physicians prefer to use these medicines only when psychotherapy does not work. 

They report that psychotherapy alone and it may be brief psychotherapy provided by a family doctor, not necessarily a psychiatrist-often can work wonders. It may take the form of a few sessions in which the patient is told about the nature of his or her physical complaints, is encouraged to ventilate, or talk out, worries and feelings, and is given realistic reassurance. When psychotherapy and medicines do not help, electroshock very often does.