- Date posted
- 1y
Identity
Am i not authentically straight if i choose to identify based on how i want to live my life and how i want to be attracted vs if i have attractions that fall into the category
Am i not authentically straight if i choose to identify based on how i want to live my life and how i want to be attracted vs if i have attractions that fall into the category
You may find this answer to be a little infuriating but you can be whatever you want to me. You don’t need to have an answer to this question. The thing that wants you to find the answer to this question only wants you to think that there is an answer, but there is no answer that is 100%. The best thing I can recommend is to acknowledge how those thoughts make you feel, ex.I acknowledge that these thoughts make me feel anxious” or “Yep, that could be true, I might never know the answer to that”and then try your best to move on. This is not like a cold that will just go away though. This is something that takes a lot of practice and I recommend finding a therapist trained in ERP therapy and looking into that
@Zoroarcanine I really needed to read that. I’ve had a really bad day today
@AmandaB345 I’m really sorry to hear that! I’ve had my fair share of bad days and I’m sure I’ll still have more. I’m glad this was able to help you and I really hope your day turns around!
@Zoroarcanine Thank you!! I’ve had about 3 crying sessions today. But I’m starting to comeback to me slowly
@Zoroarcanine Sexual orientation is not a choice
@Neytiri You’re 100% correct, and guess who loves that fact? OCD. I had a reoccurring thought during therapy that was: “People don’t get to choose their sexual orientation so what gives you the right to” While not definite for every case, I believe the majority of people who go through SO OCD, that identify as straight, are ally’s of the lgbtqia+ community, and I’ve found my OCD to love that. In the midst of trying to crawl out of the hole SO OCD puts people in, seeing the difference between choosing your orientation and knowing what you are feels like it is impossible to see. No one chooses their orientation but we also don’t need to spend hours trying to find the absolute right answer
Relate to this sooo much! I feel like I live by this reassurance sometimes and it helps for a bit but then I get awful feelings like I’m not fulfilled in life …that’s my worst symptom recently and then I worry that’s because I’m “hiding” my true self and I go round in circles in my brain …and I’m only anxious cause something isn’t right 🥰
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I am scared we just cannot choose. Sexual orientation is not a choice :-(
Sorry long post. Anyone feel like now they’re just in extreme denial. Like when I was little I noticed guys more than girls in movies and was more drawn to them. I remember changing my mindset to switch that. 98%of my life has been straight until recently. I felt drawn to some guys but never thought of it sexually. Always had girl crushes dreams and porn. Now I watch porn and I feel like straight takes longer and then I go and watch gay porn and feel nothing until I tell myself it’s two attractive dudes and love is love and imagine physical sensations and then it hits like suddenly. Like I have to convince myself it’s alright. Then when I try again I can do all that but feel nothing and then straight porn works. Idk if it’s just getting a fix or the first time works with anything or what but it’s confusing. On top of that I’ve felt girl relationships including my wife maybe miss something and a guy maybe matches that feeling that but then I feel like I’d be missing something without a girl or my wife. Idk I’ve had some rough times in life with male figures in my life but idk. I feel like I have to convince myself more and more that I’m straight even more than the first time I dealt with this. Can someone relate? Please
As a lesbian with SO-OCD, I feel so helpless. It's truly exhausting because no one I know understands what I'm going through. The first response is always, "You're just confused" or "You don't have to know yet." But that's not the issue, I do know. I just never see any lesbians with SO-OCD so I feel so invalidated. These thoughts flood my brain constantly, forcing me to analyze my reactions to every man I see. I feel trapped in an endless cycle of "testing" myself, trying to prove that I don't like them. But my brain fights back, telling me I do want to love a man, making it feel real even though don't want it. It's terrifying. At this point, it's hard to even hold onto my identity as a lesbian because I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know if this is what real attraction is supposed to feel like, and that fear eats away at me. The truth is, when I think about being with a man, all I feel is disgust and fear-but my brain twists that into doubt. I hate it. I'm at the point where I'm scared I'm going to have to accept something I don't want because I don't know if this will ever go away. I miss who I was before all this.
How can you tell if it’s SOOCD, being in denial or sexual orientation fluid change? I really really hope it’s just SOOCD but I suffer so much from the loss of attraction to opposite gender and severe‘false’ attraction to same gender. It makes me feel sick and want to cry every time I have false attractions. I find it so difficult I feel my entire life has flipped and been destroyed.
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