GoodGuys2GreatMen Video Podcast

How to Turnaround a Long Term Sexless Relationship

Dan Dore & Steve Horsmon • 14m 32s • 9 April 2022

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How to Turnaround a Long Term Sexless Relationship
Video overview: If you’re in a sexless relationship, it can feel lonely, humiliating, and deeply confusing — especially when you still want closeness. This conversation is about how to stop losing yourself in the pain of rejection and start getting your confidence, energy, and spark back.

A sexless relationship can make a man feel like something private and painful has gone missing from his life.

It’s not just about the sex. I know that’s the part that hurts and frustrates you the most, but the deeper pain is what the lack of sex starts to mean.

It starts to feel like you’re not wanted. Not attractive. Not interesting. Not masculine. Not chosen.

You may still be living in the same house, sharing the same bed, handling the same responsibilities, and looking like a normal couple from the outside. But inside, you feel lonely. You feel confused. You feel like the one area of your life that should feel warm, playful, affectionate, and alive has gone flat.

And if you’re over 50, this can hit even harder.

You may be asking yourself, “Is this just what happens now? Is passion gone? Are we too old for that kind of connection? Am I supposed to just accept this and be grateful for everything else?”

Brother, no.

I’m not saying you can force your wife to feel desire. You can’t. I’m not saying every relationship can or should go back to the way it was in the early days. It won’t. And honestly, it shouldn’t.

But I am saying you do not have to quietly disappear inside a relationship that has lost its fire.

You do not have to become a frustrated roommate, a resentful provider, or a man who keeps waiting for permission to feel alive again.

In this conversation with Silke from 2nd Act TV, we’re talking about what it really means to find yourself in a sexless relationship and how a man can begin to handle it without panic, pressure, shame, or collapse.

Because most men don’t handle this well at first.

They either try harder to be pleasing, hoping their wife will finally soften, or they withdraw into bitterness and start telling themselves she just doesn’t care. Some men start begging, negotiating, complaining, researching, hinting, or counting the days since the last time.

Others go quiet and pretend it doesn’t matter while they slowly build a wall of resentment inside.

None of that brings the spark back.

The first thing a man has to understand is that his sexual confidence cannot depend entirely on his wife’s current level of desire. If your mojo only exists when she wants you, then you don’t really have your mojo. She does.

That’s a hard truth, but it’s also a freeing one.

Getting your mojo back begins with taking your self-respect, your energy, your direction, and your sense of aliveness back into your own hands. Not as punishment. Not as revenge. Not to make her jealous. But because you are still a man with a life, a body, a heart, and a future.

Your sexuality is not just a request you make of your wife.

It is part of your vitality.

It shows up in how you move through the world. How you care for your body. How you speak. How you lead. How you create. How you flirt with life. How you stop acting like a man who has to be approved of before he can feel strong.

This matters because a sexless relationship can slowly train you to become less of yourself.

You become careful. You become awkward. You become afraid to touch. You become afraid to ask. You become afraid to want anything because wanting has become so painful.

And over time, you start confusing emotional shutdown with maturity.

You tell yourself you’re being patient. You tell yourself you’re being respectful. You tell yourself you’re being a good husband.

But underneath that, you may be avoiding the truth.

You want more.

You want closeness. You want warmth. You want play. You want to feel like a man in the presence of the woman you love. You want to stop feeling like your desire is a problem that needs to be hidden.

That doesn’t make you needy. It makes you honest.

The real work is learning how to bring that honesty with strength instead of desperation.

A strong man can say what he wants without making his wife responsible for his worth. He can face the reality of a sexless relationship without begging, blaming, or pretending. He can listen to her experience without abandoning his own. He can become more attractive because he’s no longer outsourcing his confidence to her response.

That is where the spark has a chance.

Not from pressure. Not from another talk that turns into another circular argument. Not from waiting around and hoping she wakes up different one day.

The spark comes back when you come back.

When you stop treating this as a problem only she can solve. When you stop shrinking. When you stop making your desire either a demand or a secret. When you become a man who is grounded enough to be both loving and honest.

This conversation will help you see your sexless relationship differently.

Not as proof that you’re doomed. Not as proof that you’re unattractive. Not as proof that the best years are behind you.

But as a wake-up call.

A call to reclaim your confidence, your clarity, your warmth, your strength, and yes, your mojo.

Because you’re not done.

And your relationship may not be done either.

Get your spark back

If you’re in a sexless relationship and you’re tired of feeling rejected, ashamed, or stuck, we can help you find solid ground again. You don’t have to pressure her, pretend you’re fine, or keep carrying this alone.

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About the Hosts

Steve Horsmon & Dan Dore | Certified Professional Men’s Coach

Steve Horsmon and Dan Dore have spent over a decade supporting good men who are confused, frustrated, and afraid that their marriages and families are falling apart with no idea what to do about it. We've both experienced the same emotions that you're going through now. We know what it feels like to try all the mainstream try harder, be nicer advice while watching things continue to get worse. And that's exactly why Goodguys2Greatmen exists. Since 2012, we've coached thousands of men through some of the hardest periods of their lives; marriage breakdown, emotional distance, sexless relationships, fears of divorce or separation. We focus on practical solutions to help you survive some of the most challenging and painful experiences that a man can go through. This podcast is for men who are done waiting for their life and relationships to improve and are ready to make some bold decisions so that you become more calm and confident and start moving toward what you really want.