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Arousal makes us do crazy things, right? Even simple sex acts like open mouth kissing and oral sex seem strange if you think about them rationally for too long! Things we would never normally want to do can suddenly become intensely pleasurable with the right person and the right amount of arousal.
It turns out that disgust and lust have an intimate and complicated relationship in the human brain.
This relationship can work both ways. If you experience disgust before trying to get aroused, it can be way harder to get turned on. But if you get really aroused first, then things that would ordinarily disgust you won’t bother you at all. Knowing how these emotions work in your body can help you manage your disgust so you can get more aroused, and get more aroused to become more sexually adventurous!
Sexual arousal is a motivational state that moves humans toward situations that inherently pose a risk of disease transmission. Disgust is an emotion that adaptively moves humans away from such situations.
These two experiences can interact in strange and important ways in your sex life. Tune in to find out what happens when lust and disgust meet in your erotic mind.
We cover:
- how to minimize disgust to maximize arousal
- how arousal minimizes disgust
- why you need to figure out your personal disgust triggers
- communication skills to help navigate the tricky terrain of disgust in your relationship
- how disgust interuppts arousal, even more so than fear!
- why women are more likely to struggle with disgust in their sex lives
Here are some scientific studies about lust vs. disgust:
Feelings of Disgust and Disgust-Induced Avoidance Weaken following Induced Sexual Arousal in Women
Disgust versus Lust: Exploring the Interactions of Disgust and Fear with Sexual Arousal in Women
“Women [who] were sexually aroused were more willing to touch and do initially disgusting tasks,” study co-author Charmaine Borg, a researcher in the department of clinical psychology and experimental psychopathology at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.