I can’t stop

I'm so confused on what's appropriate and not "pedo" "groomer" "gross" when it comes to age gaps. I'm also unsure if age gaps are inherently weird and wrong. People will say 2-5 year age gaps are so weird and disgusting, that the older is much more mature than the younger. Especially with 18-21-year-olds. But I don't see that at all?? 18-23 blur together for me, and I also think once you're 18, your peers are basically 3-5 years. Like, y'all are basically the same and everything. I see my older brother and his friends, and they all range 18-25, even up to thirties with older guys form our church. None of them seem out of place and seem to be equal levels of maturity and peers, especially the younger ones. But then people will also mention how my brother is "older" (he's one the oldest in the young adult friend group at 23) but he's only a year or two older than them?? Anyways, I just turned 18 and by bff is about to turn 19. I also don't think it'd be weird for my brothers or any of their friends to date her at all (not that they want to, I'm just saying if they did) When it comes to bigger age gaps, I also think that sometimes it's just two people who love each other, y'know? When I see age gaps, I usually don't pay much attention to it, especially if they seem happy. I just think, good for them. Even if the person is like 18/19. But on top of that, I feel like people freak out when someone like 3+ years finds younger people attractive and feels attracted, and y'know, views them sexually and everything. Like porn, sex, fantasies, etc. But again, I see up to 5 years as definitely peers. And even beyond that I see people as peers. My brother and his friends are young, but they are adults and I see them as peers to the older men they hang out with. But anyways, I think someone at any age being sexually/physically attracted to 18-25yos is fairly normal? They are adults and done with puberty unlike underaged teens. So, I don't find it wrong or odd for someone to be like 25+ and attracted to 18-21yos and also view them sexually or have casual sex. I try to find answers, and the most common thing I see is that above 2 years before 25 is extremely weird and too different, and how someone like 21/22+ dating an 18yo is a pedo and too mature. But then I also see occasionally some people not seeing these things as weird, even thinking that as long as two people are 18+ it doesn't matter. I find that I fit into that category more, not seeing it as weird and a problem if two people are adults. But am I am wrong? Is it disgusting? Pedo? Is more than 2 years "too much" and weird and predatory?

So one day a couple months ago I saw some posts on threads pop up on instagram and they said I’m 17 and horny and 18 and horny or I think I even remember see a 16 year old one. I’m 20 and I remembered that when those popped up I clicked on them and I don’t know if I did it out of true attraction or out of the urge to make my anxiety go away. I feel like often times if I see something that says any number under 18 even if it has nothing to do with age it could be talking about season 17 of a tv show my mind immediately goes what?? 17??? And then I click on it to make my anxiety go away. So when I remembered all of this I downloaded the threads app because I wanted to see if I could get reassurance and see if I could rekindle how I felt in these moments. When I opened the app all I saw was posts like that but everyone claimed to be 18. The only problem is none of the girls looked 18 they looked like 14-16 so I started to panic I and worry that because I clicked on the threads in the past it popped up more and I was a pedophile for that. All of the accounts all pretty much had only fans links so at that point I was like well they have to be 18 then but now I’m worried that maybe it’s a scammer and they are using underage pictures of girls and putting them on onlyfans. Which I know is out of my control but I just feel like a Pedo and like I did something wrong. Does anyone have any advice? Or have any similar situations/ similarities with this?

I have no idea anymore. I guess this all started with me worrying about whether I was gay, then whether I was a P, then worried about being just attracted to teenagers. After that I started freaking out about not feeling “grown up” enough. Like “I’m an adult wtf is wrong with me for seeing someone who is probably younger and thinking they’re physically attractive. Then I started overthinking not finding older adults (like 30 or 40) very attractive. Like ofc I’m probably not gonna find them attractive, they’re not anywhere close my age. Maybe the desires are half real. Maybe as a 21 yr old young adult I do find older teenagers (16+) somewhat physically attractive. I still think it’d be weird to date one. Maybe that’s the normal reaction I’m supposed to have. If not, please let me know. I just don’t wanna do anything illegal one day and I’m super scared I will. I can’t tell if the fear is my just being afraid of the law though, in which case I might actually just be a bad person. I hate that my brain is just rationalizing thoughts now. I feel like I can’t do the ERP thing of “just accept that the thoughts are there but don’t engage.” Like what? How can I just think a thought that might be so integral to my identity and just ignore it? If it’s all true and I don’t like people my age anymore then I have to know and plan around that, that could change my entire life. I’m rambling, my b.