Understanding Desire & Arousal After Cancer
Dual Control Model Explained
- Explains the central mechanism that determines how and when you respond to sex-related stimuli (sights, sounds, feelings)
- Two main parts that affect our sexual responses:
- Sexual Excitation System (SE): the accelerator of your sexual system, receives information about sex-related stimuli in the environment (things we see, hear, touch, smell), sends signals to the genitals to tell them to “turn on”
- Sexual Inhibition System (SI): the brakes of your sexual system, neurological “off” signals, notices all the potential threats in the environment (see, hear, imagine, smell), signals that say “turn off”