An effect of trauma

Sexual response feeling out of your control

Trauma changes the body's relationship with physical intimacy. Numbness, pain, shutdown, disconnection, involuntary responses that feel confusing or distressing. This is distinct from not wanting intimacy emotionally. It is the body having its own response independent of what you consciously want. The nervous system learned to protect you in certain situations and it does not always distinguish between threat and safety. Your body is not broken. It is responding to a history it has not finished processing.

It can sound like

“My body shuts down during sex.” “I dissociate during intimacy.” “I feel pain when I should not.” “My body responds in ways I do not understand.” “I want to be close but my body does not cooperate.”

If any of those sentences live in your head too, you are in good company here.

Experiences this often follows

Effects do not come from nowhere. These are some of the experiences that people who carry this one often describe. You do not need to have been through any of them for what you feel to be real.

Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.

You do not have to carry this alone.

Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.

Find a meeting Join the fellowship

Need support right now?

See everything we cover