No sex please, we’re credit-crunched bankers

For testosterone-driven City high-fliers, the world has fallen apart, says psychotherapist Lucy Beresford — and one result is a dramatic rise in sexually disturbed behaviour

There’s no doubting the trauma in today’s City: redundancy is rife and those who still have jobs are struggling to cope with an utterly changed financial world. No wonder a spate of banking suicides has made headlines. But stress is also showing itself in a more private way: in the bedroom.

In the past six months, clinicians have seen a dramatic rise in sexually disturbed behaviour, ranging from a 20 per cent rise in sexually transmitted diseases among over-35s, to sex addiction and its flipside, sexual anorexia. Sex addiction refers to those who cannot control their sexual activity, and crave the highs associated with the next sexual encounter. They may have serial affairs, binge on prostitutes, or compulsively surf the net for porn. Sexual anorexia, though not yet an official psychiatric term, refers to people who obsessively avoid (consciously or unconsciously) sexual activity — even if they are in a relationship.