A 2021 study in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that hypersexual behavior may be a reaction to past trauma, and that it's linked to post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Trauma can affect sexual desire in a myriad of ways. For some, it can cause both hypersexual and hyposexual behaviors. The ways that it impacts sexual desire are based on the person's response to and type of trauma experienced.
Hypersexuality may be a way of coping with anxiety for some people. Engaging in sexual behavior can release endorphins, which can help reduce anxiety symptoms. However, the relief is often temporary and can lead to a cycle of compulsive sexual behavior.
Hypersexuality is derived from particular pathways of post-traumatic symptoms. Depression is strongly related to hypersexuality, although gender has an important role in our model. Depression and guilt are serial mediators of trauma-hypersexual behavior relations.
Problems with alcohol or drug use. Another mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety or a gambling addiction. Family conflicts or family members with problems such as addiction. A history of physical or sexual abuse.
Traumatized individuals have an extreme mistrust of the Arousal Cycle. As they are reminded of the traumatic experiences that they have gone through, feelings of fear and frustration begin to smother and overwhelm them.
People also often feel tremendous guilt or shame in line with their trauma, which can promote hypersexual behavior. Sex, in this case, can be seen as a coping mechanism used to manage the symptoms of PTSD.
Feeling dissociated or disconnected from the body is common for sexual trauma survivors to experience during intimacy. It can happen occasionally or be a long term symptom the survivor struggles with. Many survivors experience dissociation during sexual trauma.
Hyperarousal is caused by overactive fight-or-flight stress responses that keep the body and mind on high alert, even when there's no cause for alarm. It is a commonly experienced symptom of PTSD. Being in a constant state of arousal can disrupt daily life in several ways and make it difficult to sleep.
There are actually 5 of these common responses, including 'freeze', 'flop' and 'friend', as well as 'fight' or 'flight'. The freeze, flop, friend, fight or flight reactions are immediate, automatic and instinctive responses to fear. Understanding them a little might help you make sense of your experiences and feelings.
In the most extreme situations, you might have lapses of memory or “lost time.” Schauer & Elbert (2010) refer to the stages of trauma responses as the 6 “F”s: Freeze, Flight, Fight, Fright, Flag, and Faint.
Reliving aspects of what happened
vivid flashbacks (feeling like the trauma is happening right now) intrusive thoughts or images. nightmares. intense distress at real or symbolic reminders of the trauma.
Physical Symptoms of Trauma
Trauma often manifests physically as well as emotionally. Some common physical signs of trauma include paleness, lethargy, fatigue, poor concentration and a racing heartbeat. The victim may have anxiety or panic attacks and be unable to cope in certain circumstances.
Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.
Hyperarousal is a pervasive mood- and life-altering symptom in which you are consistently irritable, angry, and paranoid.
Misdiagnosis with BPD
Some of the symptoms of complex PTSD are very similar to those of borderline personality disorder (BPD), and not all professionals are aware of complex PTSD. As a result, some people are given a diagnosis of BPD or another personality disorder when complex PTSD fits their experiences more closely.
Re-experiencing is the most typical symptom of PTSD. This is when a person involuntarily and vividly relives the traumatic event in the form of: flashbacks. nightmares.
Here are some common reactions to trauma: Losing hope for the future. Feeling distant (detached) or losing a sense of concern about others. Being unable to concentrate or make decisions.
Smiling when discussing trauma is a way to minimize the traumatic experience. It communicates the notion that what happened “wasn't so bad.” This is a common strategy that trauma survivors use in an attempt to maintain a connection to caretakers who were their perpetrators.
But, when we talk about apologizing, we wrap all of these complex concepts up into a single practice. It's a common trauma-state response to want to avoid conflict. Conflict can feel dangerous.
While venting can be a natural part of working through our negative emotions, does it become toxic at a certain point? It turns out, it can. And that's when venting becomes trauma dumping — the act of oversharing your emotions in a way that becomes harmful to the other person.
Hyper-Rationality is a trauma response and coping strategy. Overthinking, over-analyzing, and over-rationalizing are coping strategies that we learned early on to help us make sense of an unpredictable environment that at some point made us feel unsafe.
Fawning is a trauma response that uses people-pleasing behavior to appease or supplicate an aggressor, avoid conflict, and ensure safety. This trauma response is exceedingly common, especially in complex trauma survivors, and often gets overlooked.