Performance Anxiety

[Confusedjourney]

Does anyone still feel performance anxiety even though things are working great. I think maybe this is linked to the habit of associating sex with failure for so long that it’s an internalized cognitive habitual response.

[RoboCock69]

Nothing to be anxious about once you get an implant. Just pump and hump!

[Old Guy]

I was still feeling anxious right after the surgery. Once I healed enough for sex the first few times it was "Am I really able?". It didn't take long for my mind to realize I able to do it anytime or anywhere.

[Confusedjourney]

I’m not sure why I still feel it. It’s strange though

[Lost Sheep]

Does anyone still feel performance anxiety even though things are working great. I think maybe this is linked to the habit of associating sex with failure for so long that it’s an internalized cognitive habitual response.

Perfectly natural.

My reticence for sex began with my upbringing, even before I got interested in sex. Boys were supposed want to "go after" girls and girls (nice girls) were supposed to resist sexual advances. So, as a gentleman, I was supposed to suppress my sexual desires. Then ED doubled down on that with the Pavlovian response with a sort of aversion therapy. (Like how smokers break the smoking habit by, every time they smoke, they also snap a rubber band on their wrist. After a while, the pain of the snap becomes associated with the pleasure of the smoking and the desire to achieve the anticipation of pleasure that smoking gives is replaced by the desire to avoid the mixed pain/pleasure combination.)

The realization that I can sexually perform lingered long. Years.

[Confusedjourney]

Yes I think that’s what’s happening. It’s an association that has to become extinct through the repetition of successful pleasurable sexual trials

[Lost Sheep]

Yes I think that’s what’s happening. It’s an association that has to become extinct through the repetition of successful pleasurable sexual trials

OK, then. Practice, practice, practice.

[Confusedjourney]

Twice a week LOL

[Time2Change]

Over the course of years of ED, I developed a lot of hang ups around sex. I'm still unlearning them, and sex with the implant has been good for a full year, now.

[merrix]

I can relate to what you say somehow, and to what Time2Change says.
You can check My Journal for a lot on that topic.
I wouldn't call it performance anxiety, but for me there was a lot of habits developed from a life of various level of ED that needed to be unlearnt and that was not a walk in the park. Even my wife whom I have been with since my mid twenties had developed habits around my ED, and she had a learning curve as well to change her habits
Took time for both of us.
How to do it?
Let go. Be free. Own it. You can fuck like a king now, at least you've got no erection limitations.
Remember all that porn you watched, and you dreamed of being able to do what they did.
You can.
It's all up to you. And most integral in that fucking like a king concept is confidence.
Most difficult for me to get into my head was that time is not a constraint anymore. Time is your friend now, not your enemy.
Women prefer you to take your time, at least most of them do most of the time.
You have time. Your dick will never go down. Play around, learn what works for you and her.
You've got a different dick now with different pros and cons than a natural dick.
Con - you need to pump. There's no way around that.
Just make sure you take advantage of the pros instead of sitting with only the con.
The pros? You can do whatever the fuck you want. Do it. Your dick will never fail you.