Mental Margins: Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder
Release Date: 07/08/2025
Mental Margins: Three A.M. in Mexico
Mental Health Rewritten
The call from the sheriff’s office. The Netflix notification from Baja. The 3 a.m. plea for a room. Each detail reads like a breadcrumb trail—fragile, almost surreal—marking the chaos of a loved one’s unraveling. What happens when systems meant to protect instead withhold? When family becomes both the lifeline and the witness to an impending collapse? This Mental Margin segment pulls us into that liminal space between presence and absence, where silence from a loved one becomes unbearable, and news delivered at the doorstep turns final. This preview sets the scene for our upcoming full...
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Mental Margins: Layers of Suicidality in the Hijacked Mind
Mental Health Rewritten
This Mental Margins bonus segment expands on Episode 105: Rewriting the Conversation Around Suicide. In the full episode, we heard Ashley-Lauren Elrod’s powerful story of surviving prolonged suicidal ideation. Here, Tina Aggarwal offers additional commentary that did not make it into the main release—breaking down the complex, overlapping forces that can drive someone toward a suicide attempt. Tina emphasizes a critical truth: suicidality is never the result of a single factor. Instead, it emerges from a combination of influences—mental illness, racial trauma, childhood sexual trauma,...
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Mental Margins: The Anchor in the Dark
Mental Health Rewritten
In this segement of Mental Margins, we share two perspectives on the hidden weight of high-functioning pain. First, trauma therapist Denise D. Moore shares a testimonial and reflects on dismantling the “strong Black woman” stereotype—reminding us that while not every story ends with a cure, every story can still carry meaning. Then, from Episode 105: Rewriting the Conversation Around Suicide, we check in with Nia—the friend who remembers every birthday, keeps the group chat alive, and always shows up for everyone else. From the outside, she’s the glue holding her circle...
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Mental Margins: Major Depressive Disorder
Mental Health Rewritten
In this week's Mental Margin, we step back from the noise and dig deep into Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)—not just as a diagnosis, but as a lived experience. With over 700,000 lives lost to suicide annually, understanding MDD isn't just clinical—it's critical. We explore how Major Depressive Disorder manifests beyond sadness: in executive dysfunction, in physical exhaustion, in a feeling of cognitive suffocation.
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Suicide: Rewriting the Conversation Around Suicide
Mental Health Rewritten
In this episode of Mental Health Rewritten, we tackle the subject of suicidal ideation with care, nuance, and urgency. Through a combination of real survivor stories, fictionalized scenes, clinical insight, and historical framing, host Dominic Lawson guides listeners through what it means to live on the edge of despair — and what it takes to survive it. We hear the stories of: Nia, a high-functioning professional whose emotional unraveling is invisible until it’s too late. Ashley-Lauren, a survivor navigating abuse, chronic illness, and a suicide attempt that ultimately catalyzed her...
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Mental Margins: The Cost of Silence
Mental Health Rewritten
In this segment from episode Starting The Conversation Around Sexual Anorexia, we begin with what looks like a familiar path—trauma responses—but quickly uncover a deeper, more insidious truth: how intimacy, when distorted by early harm, can turn into a war zone. Janet's story isn’t just about survival. It's about expectation, submission, and the silent cultural scripts many women are forced to internalize about marriage, sex, and safety.
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Mental Margins: Janet Bentley Discussing Intimacy and Shame
Mental Health Rewritten
In this deeply personal bonus segment from Episode 104 Starting The Conversation About Sexual Anorexia, we hear more from Janet Bentley, a woman navigating the silent emotional toll of sexual anorexia within her marriage. What begins as a quiet irritation toward her partner, Simon, unravels into a poignant reflection on internalized shame, intimacy avoidance, and the emotional impact on those who love us. She courageously details her struggle to name what she was experiencing, her relief in discovering Patrick Carnes' work on the sexual addiction spectrum, and the painful vulnerability of...
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Mental Margins: Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder
Mental Health Rewritten
In this segment, Janet reflects on her lifelong struggle with intimacy and the emotional walls built from trauma, exploring the complex relationship between Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (FSIAD) and sexual anorexia—two conditions often conflated but profoundly distinct. Perfectionism as Protection: Janet shares how perfectionism, an unhealthy coping mechanism, became her shield from past trauma, providing control while distancing her from deeper emotional wounds. Terror of Intimacy: Janet vividly describes the escalating fear that intimacy evokes—initially sexual, but eventually...
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Sex: Starting the Conversation Around Sexual Anorexia
Mental Health Rewritten
Kyle sits awake at 2 AM, the glow of his laptop revealing a single word in the search bar: “avoidance.” He scrolls past harsh phrases like fear of intimacy and sexual withdrawal that feel like accusations. Then one term stops him—“sexual anorexia.” For the first time, he wonders: What if I’m not broken, but scared? And what if scared has a name? This episode of Mental Health Rewritten explores the little-discussed realm of sexual anorexia, a term for fear-driven intimacy avoidance often rooted in trauma. Though not officially listed in the DSM-5, sexual anorexia is a...
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Mental Margins: Internal Barriers & OnlyFans Reveal
Mental Health Rewritten
In this special reflection episode of Mental Health Rewritten, host Dominic Lawson celebrates 40 days of the podcast's journey with over 1,000 subscribers and nearly 13,000 downloads. Dominic shares heartfelt gratitude for listeners' impactful messages, highlighting how powerful storytelling can transform conversations about mental health. Listeners discover the deliberate use of the gentle chime within episodes—a signal indicating insights grounded in respected clinical texts, DSM-5 and ICD-11, ensuring a balance of accuracy, clarity, and empathy. Bonus Content Highlights: Dr. Justin Dodson...
info_outlineIn this segment, Janet reflects on her lifelong struggle with intimacy and the emotional walls built from trauma, exploring the complex relationship between Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (FSIAD) and sexual anorexia—two conditions often conflated but profoundly distinct.
Perfectionism as Protection: Janet shares how perfectionism, an unhealthy coping mechanism, became her shield from past trauma, providing control while distancing her from deeper emotional wounds.
Terror of Intimacy: Janet vividly describes the escalating fear that intimacy evokes—initially sexual, but eventually manifesting in everyday acts like holding hands or engaging in emotional conversations.
Survival vs. Connection: Janet’s story reveals a heartbreaking paradox where her greatest desire—intimacy—is also her greatest fear, trapping her in profound loneliness even within marriage.
Clinical Insights (Host Reflection): The segment explores the clinical perspective, highlighting how FSIAD in the DSM-5 categorizes a lack of desire or arousal biologically and culturally, yet often fails to capture the lived reality of trauma survivors.
Beyond the DSM: Janet’s narrative underscores how clinical terms like FSIAD may fall short, illustrating a gap between diagnostic categories and real-world experiences, especially when trauma is central.
Understanding Through Listening: The episode emphasizes the importance of validating individual experiences and listening deeply to understand mental health challenges beyond conventional frameworks.
Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (FSIAD), according to DSM-5, is specifically defined around desire and arousal issues experienced by those assigned female at birth, combining two previous diagnoses (low desire and arousal issues) into one. Sexual anorexia, although not officially recognized in the DSM-5 or ICD-11, focuses on an intense fear-driven avoidance of intimacy, distinctively linked to trauma rather than simply desire or arousal issues.