Sex Drive vs Sexual Desire

[KendraPM]

I've seen some people use these interchangably and was wondering if anyone else experienced them separately?

I think of a sexual desire as the desire to be turned on/get off/etc. It's not necessarily tied to the libido. There are times when I want to get off, want to be aroused, and will try to do so, only due to whatever reason, I just can not get aroused. At those time my desire is high but my libido is low.

As for libido/sex drive; there are times when anything and everything arouses me, but I have no want to be turned on. My sexual desire at those points is low, but my sex drive is in overdrive.

Have I just mixed up the names or does anyone else see them as separate things?

EDIT: Thanks for everyone whose answered. I have the terms wrong, but the correct terms really helped me figure out what I was meaning. Libido vs arousal, people can experience them separatly.

Sometimes I want to get turned on/experience an orgasm/etc, but am unable to (due to hormones usually)= high libido, low arousal.

Sometimes I am turned on, but have no desire to be/to get off/etc.= low libido, high arousal.

[Guest]

I see them as separate. I have low sex drive but still have sexual desire.

[Star Bit]

They're both the same. 1, Sex-drive clearly refers to sex, not masturbation. Sex is defined as between two people. 2, The problem is with sexual; it means sex-like so it's hard to distinguish sometimes if it's referring to the things associated to it or actual sex. You're most likely referring to it by arousal (getting or wanting), and comparing it to libido it's still no, they're the same thing. Libido has many types/people do it for different reasons. So you doing it just because you want to be turned on/get off, etc. is completely under it. Libido is masturbation-drive, it's not only caused by arousal due to natural hormonal fluctuations. Yes, there can be a mix of desiring arousal and not desiring arousal while having the opposite. I think that's normal.

Some people use sex-drive and libido to mean two different things since english doesn't actually have a word for masturbation-drive. But factually/definition wise they both refer to a desire for sex and not the former. Though these are also old words so it's no surprise the allosexual majority thinks the two are the same thing.

[Guest]

Most people here say sex drive, but they are meaning libido. Libido however is just the hormones that cause someone to become sexually aroused. A sex drive would be the drive to seek release of your libido with another person, the desire to have partnered sexual activity with another person. It is that drive for partnered sexual contact that asexuals lack, we may still have a very high/healthy libido (become aroused often due to hormones) but have no desire to relieve our libido with someone else (whereas a sexual person may still desire partnered sexual contact under certain circumstances even if they have a very low libido)

Many definitions of ''libido'' will say ''the desire to have partnered sex'' but that definition was coined when people didn't know it was possible for someone to have a very healthy, very active libido, yet still have no drive to have partnered sex. For a sexual person, libido and the desire for partnered sex almost always go hand in hand, the same way many people think it's impossible to have a romantic relationship that doesn't include the desire for partnered sex with your lover - For most of the population, the desire for partnered sex almost always comes alongside the emotion of romantic love, so people just cannot see how it would be possible for someone to experience those emotions without also desiring sex (though they are perfectly able to accept that people can also desire partnered sex without being romantic love, lol) Anyway, that's what it's like with libido. Libido (sex hormones that cause arousal) has always been so intrinsically linked with the desire to seek partnered sexual contact that many (even doctors, sex therapists etc) automatically assume they are the same thing. But no, there are plenty of asexual people with very healthy, very active libidos who have no desire, no drive, to seek partnered sexual contact.

[Star Bit]

One can still masturbate without the arousal caused by hormone fluctuations just for the pleasure of it. Maybe the desire for pleasure is caused by hormones too, but they're not getting aroused beforehand.