Erectile Dysfunction and Unemployment

I’m going to go way out on a limb and make a statement so radical you may be tempted to close your browser window and go screaming out into the night never to be seen or heard from again. Ready?

Men and women are different.

I’m not talking about genitals – as much as I really like to. Breasts? Nope. I’m referring to psyches, minds, ways of perceiving the world, their families, and themselves. Most applicable to this discussion of erectile dysfunction is unemployment.

Just as women have a “maternal instinct,” men have an “instinct to provide.” When our ancient ancestors lived on the land, in caves and temporary shelters, division of labor was the only formula for survival. Women gestated, gave birth, and nurtured the children. Men protected their families from other tribes, predatory animals, and caught game for food and skins for clothing. Men who were better at these tasks kept their families alive to propagate. Over the millennia, the absolute need by men to provide food, shelter, and clothing for our women and children became as much of a desperate need as the drive to reproduce.

In our modern culture, the separation of duties within the home has become blurred and in many cases obliterated. I contend that a woman’s need to provide is an offshoot of her maternal instinct; viscerally, her needs must be met, whether that's from someone else or through her own efforts. I do not demean, or in any way diminish that very real emotion, I just say that it comes from a different place than does the need by a man to provide for others.

When a man is unable to provide for his family he is stricken with a sense of being less than a man.  The best comparable emotion in a woman is that which is experienced when a woman is told she cannot bear children. Does it make her less than a person, in any way reduce her worth as a human being, a contributor to the community, a businesswoman, or a lover? No. But there is a profound sense of personal insufficiency. That is the emotion felt by men when they cannot earn a living.

Unemployment is rampant. So is erectile dysfunction.

The psychological toll of being out of work is far more profound than just the stress of paying the bills. Even if money can be found from other sources – his woman’s income, or a family benefactor – it is not the same as being the source of security. Certainly there are men who are born into wealth, and who do nothing to secure or perpetuate their stream of resources, but they play the mental “entitlement” game... they’re still the source of the money and all it provides to their families. To the working “Joe” who looks average, lives average, and has an average length penis, the only thing he’s got – or so he feels – to keep the adoration and admiration of his woman and children, is his ability to bring home the proverbial bacon. This is true even if he’s only bringing home half the bacon.

The deep feelings of helplessness that pervade the unemployed man’s every waking minute – and many of his dreams – is something that is cannot be completely removed from his consciousness even while watching his favorite team, or enjoying time with family, friends or his lover. It is there all the time. Like a missing child, it creates a hole in his stature as a man that manifests as a pressure in his gut that just doesn’t go away.

Some men – perhaps younger men with more options – may take this as a temporary setback. However, a man in his 40s, and certainly in his 50s or older, whose prospects for finding work are dim in this economy, will be affected to his core. Erectile dysfunction – so much a disease of poor nutrition and lack of exercise – is almost inevitable as the stressers multiply.

I won’t bog you down with the details of the biology and endocrinology of stress. But the distress of unemployment will cause a cascade of compounds to be formed in the body that can wreak havoc on the hormonal balance necessary for erectile function. With everything else that’s going wrong in your life, your woman comes to you, perhaps out of personal need, but also out of concern for your happiness and pleasure, and gives herself to you... and nothing happens. This leads to clinical,  or more often, subclinical depression. You know, you just feel like crap.

Oh, by the way, anti-depressants (Zoloft, Prozac, and other SSRIs) shut down your dick with the first pill. Medication induced erectile dysfunction may take months to reverse after you stop taking the drugs. So if you want to be happy and flaccid, be my guest.

On the other hand, there’s the irony that just when you think you need Viagra or Cialis the most, the cost of a doctor’s visit to get a prescription, and the price tag on those damn pills is just completely outside of your budget – because you don’t have a freaking job.

As hinted at earlier, the cause of ED is usually not just psychological. Stress exacerbates an underlying predisposition to erectile difficulties. That root cause is poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Here’s where there’s a good reverse correlation. The depressive state that unemployment causes can be lessened or eliminated through exercise and improved eating habits. Everything ties into everything else.

If you want to get back to work you have to make yourself more attractive to employers. If you want to get back into action between the sheets, you’ve got to whip yourself into better physical and psychological states. It all goes to becoming healthier. Conveniently, you have the time to improve your health while you’re not working. Take an hour a day to walk, run, bicycle, or work out at the gym. For the remaining “job hunting” hours of the day, you will be more effective in performing that chore, and more likely to land a position.

In my book, I provide you with a cafeteria plan of actions, foods, and strategies for getting yourself back into erectile shape. The precise protocol for regaining and retaining erectile potency will also make you potently attractive as a prospective employee. When you feel healthier, and sexier, you will project that level of confidence you had in your 20s – and all of life will improve.

Read the book. It’s the best freaking few dollars you’ll spend.

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. A concise and powerful men’s health guide, HARD! provides a protocol for how to do everything right. 

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.