How do you control erections?

Last updated on August 3, 2020

Question:

How do you control erections?

Answer:

Once your body gains the ability to have erections, they are very difficult to control early on. As a result, they are often called spontaneous erections because they happen at seemingly arbitrary times. For the most part, becoming a man means learning to live with the reactions of a man’s body, which includes erections.

The primary trigger for erections is sexual ideas. If your mind strays into thoughts that have a sexual connotation, you will often get an erection.

Another trigger is touch. It is not just the genitals that are sensitive. You have numerous areas over your body that are sensitive to touch and many of these will bring on sexual feelings, which then lead to erections.

Finally, erections are caused by a set of small muscles clamping down on the veins leaving the penis. The backpressure is what creates the erections. When you get nervous, you tense up, and often during your adolescent days your body tenses more muscles than it needs to — including the ones that trigger an erection. Then when you realize that your penis is getting hard, you become more nervous, which just furthers your erection.

As you get older, you slowly learn how to keep yourself from getting tense and to distract your mind from sexual ideas. It won’t stop all erections when you don’t want them, but it will help to decrease them.