Steps I took as a 20 year old to overcome crippling ED

Now I’m not really an ‘expert’ as such, but I experienced a traumatic event half way through 2024 which led to the breakdown of my relationship at the time, and erectile dysfunction for over 15 months. When I noticed that it was actually a problem, I did research and essentially eliminated every possible cause. For starters, sildenafil worked early on in doses of 50mg, but at its worst, not even 100mg could get me hard when it was needed. So here it what I did in no particular order: \- NO PORN. I know it’s difficult, but I realised I was totally ruining myself by masturbating and watching porn, not because I was even horny, but because I was bored. I would be death gripping like crazy, and most of the time, would be soft for 90% of the time. I think a thing that really helped was only masturbating when I ticked off these things: Was I hard? Was I horny? Would I rather do something else right now? If the answers were Yes, Yes, No, then I did it! But NO porn. Rather than putting yourself in a false scenario, laying there, connecting with yourself and enjoying it all made it much more enjoyable, and in hand really increased my libido as well. \- Supplements. Now I know this is somewhat of a grey area, but I thought, “if there’s a chance it could help, then I’m doing it” so I took ashwarganda, zinc and vitamin d every day, religiously. \- Telling your sexual partner. This was by far the hardest hurdle. But, when I was hiding it, it made it worse because I was anxious about not being able to get hard, and in turn, found it even harder. Introducing a more ‘relaxed’ atmosphere kinda calms you down; actually getting you in the mood. I remember literally being so horny at times, going to hers, and then being so anxious about not being able to get hard, that I instantly lost interest. It was SO frustrating. \- Get a Testosterone test. In my case, I actually had high testosterone, (which was actually way more annoying because I had convinced myself that was the problem) but ruling out lets you focus on other causes. \- Death grip. Please be careful with your little friend. He doesn’t want to be strangled, take it smooth, use some lube, and lighten up. Over gripping will kill your ability to get hard at all. \- Talk to your doctor. Explain everything and anything. Another face to face opinion really helps. This post was more of a reflection rather than instructional, but I think guys my age would really benefit from the above. And id also like to make one more point. If you have underlying trauma and mental health problems, address these first. As much as sex is so important in a relationship, your health, wellbeing, and life is more important. Take a deep breath, reach out and tackle what may in fact be the underlying, root cause for all of this.