In the initial stages of alcoholism, alcohol consumption increases sexual desire, improves erection, and delays ejaculation. This creates additional incentives for alcohol consumption. Sexuality in wives and husbands who suffer from alcoholism awakens twice as often in the first months of marriage than under normal conditions. This circumstance makes it necessary for husbands to maintain an appropriate rhythm and level of sexual relations, which soon becomes unbearable for them. A woman with an artificially inflated level of sexual aspirations begins to reproach her husband for his failure, thereby causing him a strong psychotraumatic effect, which encourages the man to additionally consume alcohol as a stimulant of sexual activity. The consequence of such tactics is the regular abuse of alcoholic beverages by the man, justifying his drunkenness by the bad character of his wife and the level of her aspirations. A temporary increase in sexual desire and potency at the initial stage of alcoholism is replaced by suppression of sexual functions. Drinkers complain of erectile dysfunction, rapid ejaculation, and a rare desire to have sexual intercourse. Constant disorders of sexual functions are recorded in 30-50% of patients with stage 1-2 alcoholism. Later, they are joined by a decrease in sexual feeling and sensations during sexual intercourse. There is also a violation of motility and the appearance of altered forms of spermatozoa. In some patients whose alcoholism develops at a late age, sexual function suffers insignificantly. However, the personality of such patients changes (flattens) with a predominance of primitive attitudes, poverty of interests, and concentration on sexual issues.In the development of sexual disorders in alcoholism, the presence of a psychological conflict is of great importance. A conflict is a clash of contradictory, incompatible tendencies in people's consciousness. Conflict can be intrapersonal, if it concerns an individual, and interpersonal, if it affects the relationships of two or more people. Intrapersonal conflict arises as a result of a clash of needs, interests, and desires that are opposite in direction. Interpersonal conflicts often arise when goals and
ideas about life values ??are incompatible. Alcoholism gives rise to both types of conflict. Only primitive or overly selfish people may not experience intrapersonal conflict at the initial stage of alcoholism. Usually, systematic alcohol consumption gives rise to a clash between intentions in achieving previously set goals, in particular, creating a happy and strong family, and the desire to get pleasure through drinking alcohol. This kind of intrapersonal conflict escalates up to a certain point, which is facilitated by the development of mental dependence on alcohol. This is accompanied by an experience of internal duality, tension, negative emotions, inconsistency in actions and behavior. Intrapersonal conflict arises not only in the drinking spouse. In parallel, it develops in the second family member, who begins to realize the contradictions of the developing situation and the uncertainty of further prospects for life together. Such a conflict often reaches such a degree of severity that it leads to a painful neurotic breakdown. Wives of alcoholics experience a feeling of internal anxiety, emotional instability, irritability, sleep disturbance, headaches, and a feeling of general discomfort. The disorders are more pronounced during periods of the husband's binges and decrease after they end, although anxiety and a feeling of internal tension remain. As the husband's alcoholism progresses, painful manifestations become more prolonged and persistent, often resulting in a picture of severe neurosis.