A man has opened up about what it's like to be a virgin at the age of 58.

The anonymous man from Paradise, California, told New York Magazine that he believes an abusive childhood and a crippling lack of confidence are just some of the reasons why he has never once had sex in his life.

'Up until about five years ago... it was absolute torture,' he confessed. 'When I was younger, I'd lay there hour after hour burning with passion. I recently said a little prayer and decided to stop thinking about it.'

Loveless life: An anonymous man from Paradise, California, has opened up about what it's like to be a virgin at the age of 58 (posed by model)

While he was prone to sexual fantasies in his teens and felt a strong desire to be intimate with women, the man says his libido has all but dried up in his later years, and he has only ever been on one date in his life.

'Sometimes I would imagine myself having sex or holding a cute person I knew,' he says of his younger years.

'But I don't masturbate much these days because it just causes misery and suffering. Also, I think I've got to the point where I no longer have much of a libido. My sex drive is just about gone.'

The man, who lived with his grandmother until his 30s, currently lives in a friend's trailer and is unemployed due to problems with his back and legs.

'I have no mate. I have no car. I have financial worries. There's really nobody to talk to,' he said, explaining that he is in no position, financially or emotionally, to sustain a relationship.

His perennial loneliness began in his childhood, when he was physically abused by his father and bullied by peers.

'I had some friends, but I was beat up a lot because of how I looked,' he says. 'I was a rail-thin nerd; I'd stuff cardboard in my shoes to make myself taller and my left eye is messed up.'

Couple that with the abuse at the hands of his 'strapping Marine' father, who would sometimes wake him up at 3am just to beat him with a belt, and it's clear to see how the man became cripplingly shy and self-conscious.

Throughout the interview, his unshakable hang-ups about his appearance manifest themselves frequently.

At one point, he jokes: 'When people ask me why I'm a virgin, I tell them I suffer from terminal ugliness. I have an eye that doesn't line up with the other one. I'd probably look better if I wore a pirate patch.'

The man - who is religious, but says that has nothing to do with his virginity - also reveals that every time he has gotten close to a woman, something has gotten in the way of of him making the next move.

'My mind would just go blank and I couldn't think of anything to say. Typical nerd. I felt like a freak,' he says.

There was a time where I was just getting so inflamed and lonely I would have done it with anyone who offered

And when he went back to college at 32 to study computer programming, 'everybody was getting something and I wasn't. There was a time where I was just getting so inflamed and lonely I would have done it with anyone who offered.'

Anyone, that is, except for a prostitute. While he has considered buying sex, the man admits he's afraid that it would just aggravate the situation.

'It will just be worse because I'll know what it’s like and then I'll want more,' he explained. 'Like having a taste of a fine steak and then learning you will only get to eat hard beans and drink water for the rest of your life.'

Despite his difficult upbringing, the man seems to blame his own self-professed unattractive appearance and unapproachable personality for his bad luck with women.

'The biggest problem is that I'm so shy around the opposite sex. Women are attracted to confident guys and I am not confident. I end up friend-zoned,' he explains.

The man adds: 'I consider myself damaged enough, emotionally, to never be able to function in a relationship. I think you need a certain amount of stability to cope with the dynamics.'

As he gets older, the man says he has pretty much given up hope that he will ever have sex.

And it's not necessarily the physicality of it that he feels he is missing out on - it's the intimacy that comes with it.