What is healthy sexuality and sexual intimacy and how do you get there?

Actually I know what it is, it is just how do you get there?

Anyone have any specific tools they have used?
Any books?
It is kind of pathetic that I have to ask this, but I do.

To me sex has always just been fun and that is the only connection I have felt....mutual silliness. Obviously with my husband being a sex addict he doesn't know either.

Wish I could help, but I'm trying to figure out / learn what a healthy sex life is too.

I think the bulk of the intimacy occurs before the sexual act. The times I've felt close to my husband when we've made love almost always follows a heart to heart discussion w vulnerability on the part of one or both of us. One of the wives suggested in a private conversation some months ago to try making love while maintaining eye contact the entire time. We found that intense and somewhat intimate. I'm not sure that every time has to be soul defining. Silliness has its place too and one of the things I've always enjoyed about sex w my husband. We've always joked and laughed during ( and that can be intimate too!)

Great question Lucy! I can't wait to read others thoughts.

male survivor here...

woah! laughter during sex is a BIG trigger for me.

and i don't really associate intimacy and sex - that's one of the things i lost as a result of CSA.

sex is only physical and has lots of difficult associations. just scary all around.

i've read books but they didn't really help - like they're talking to someone else. doesn't work for me - maybe cuz they are written for more normal people. don't know of any written for messed-up freaks like us...

lee

Ditto like Obi there, Im still trying.
A little hard now that I am not staying at home.

One thing that I am finding out now is that It is great to start dating. It is like we are starting again, I am learning to know and understand someone that I have been with for 23 years. We have not had sex yet, and things are harder after my wife's rape 4 months ago, but in an odd way it has put us on level ground.

Before the break up, we tried what one of the wives suggested, the eye contact thing, but the wife felt creeped out. Different strokes I suppose.

When I find the solution, Ill write a book, so watch this space (only joking) I hope that others will come up with ideas as this is one of the last barriers to healing that I have, and the most difficult.

Heal well
Martin

Dating your wife... imagine.

It Is Possible you know,

It may have taken me 20 years, but I finally get it. Hehehehe
Its a tough one, but I feel that it is something I could not have succeeded at till I had healed from CSA.
As I say Sex is the "Final Frontier" and possibly the scariest of all. Sometimes I think I would rather face the flashbacks and body memories than have to face intimacy in sex.
Well I have never been scared of a challenge, But I really hope that there are some with AMAZING insight into this topic, helppppp arghhh.

Martin

To me, intimacy and sex are different things and they can be combined for a great experience. Intimacy for me is love, trust and acceptance. It requires that I be emotionally vulnerable with my partner. I think of the time I disclosed to my love the secret I was most ashamed of, the most afraid that he'd reject me for. His response was beyond what I thought I deserved ... loving, compassionate, understanding and unconditionally accepting.

In the sexual aspect of our relationship, sometimes I was intimate with P and sometimes I wasn't. Sexual intimacy occurred when we both brought love, acceptance and emotional vulnerability to the physical vulnerability inherent to sex.

It might have been a deeply personal conversation before, both of us "getting into" the sensations and expressing it however the thoughts occurred, periods of direct eye contact, laughing together at some indignity of two middle-aged people having sex (sudden back pain, leg cramps), or *asking* the other person to move or touch a particular way. For me it boils down to acknowledging that I'm there with another person, we care about each other, and we're "in it" together, if you know what I mean.

Google:

Doug Weiss
Intimacy Anorexia

he is the best -- has books - tapes - phone groups
has been on TV

He is in Colorado Springs

Best of Luck

Intimacy is about being known.

If I don't know myself, (i.e. I hide, escape, or avoid aspects of myself or my past) it is difficult if not impossible to let myself be known to someone else. I regularly pile up rationalizations, excuses, fear, resentment, and all sorts of stuff that blocks me from honesty and the truth about myself and my life.

Here is a good definition of intimacy I ran across:



For me, intimacy starts as an inside job. I have to unplug from escaping and distracting behaviors and spend time reviewing, journaling, introspection, and contemplating my life and my story-especially the most unpleasant parts I want to deny but that affected me deeply.

The ancient concept of forty days and forty nights, affirms the value of unplugging for a period of renewal and discovery.

This leads me to deeper understanding and acceptance and KNOWING of myself that is profound and life-changing.

From that place, I feel myself more powerfully, emotionally, psychologicall/spiritually and physically, and I am more integrated and whole - and that leads to real sexual intimacy and joy.

It's hard to do this when I'm carrying around all sorts of unresolved chatter and past trauma and pain.