What the 6 responses to Sexual Stress?

Depending on what kind of activity we are engaged in, there will be a dominant key state, the other states may also be present.

The 5 Key States are:

• Hunger

• Thirst

• Calm

• Anxiety

• Arousal

Anxiety is the life-or-death state that wins out over all the other states; it triggers the sympathetic nervous system and causes a defense cascade of reactions within the human body. This is expressed by one or more of six responses:

The “6F” response to stress:

Fight: Fighting a threat

Flight: Fleeing a threat

Freeze: Freezing and not doing anything in response to a threat

Flooding: Being flooded with emotions in response to a threat

Fawn: Cooperating or submitting to one's threat or captor

Fatigue: Feeling tired and/or sleeping in response to a threat

All six of the responses cause changes in physiology

The “6F” response to SEXUAL stress:

Fight: Arguing with a partner to avoid sex and/or intimacy

Flight: Avoidance of sex, relationships or engaging in meaningless sexual activity (one-night stands)

Freeze: Pretending to be asleep, no physical response to a partner, going through the motions

Flooding: Feeling overcome with negative or fearful emotions in response to sex or arousal

Fawn: Cooperating or submitting to a partner, to “get it over with”

Fatigue: Feeling tired and/or sleeping in response to sexual advances