Can somebody please explain to me why POCD takes away my attractions to adults my age? I wasn’t feeling this way a couple weeks ago. I have always been attracted to adults but here I am questioning if I’ve been a pedo this whole time and not realized it and it’s this feeling of no more attraction that makes me even more afraid that I’m a pedo. It’s such bullshit and it’s pissing me off!!!

Yeah but this has been this way for several weeks now and before that is was almost 6 months of feeling virtually no attraction to adults it’s so freaky. Unfortunately I’m using pornography to try and combat that as I feel that’s my only option.

@Hmac Has that helped?

@NOCD Advocate - Katie Kinda but I still don’t feel nearly as attracted as I used to be to porn which starts to scare me

@Hmac Would you be willing to experiment with not using porn for a couple weeks? I have no opinion on whether porn itself is bad, I just know that using it to check for arousal is a common compulsion in people with OCD focused on attraction

@NOCD Advocate - Katie Sure if it helps

@Hmac I'd give that a try then. See what happens

@NOCD Advocate - Katie Is it normal for people to loss their attractions with this kind of OCD?

@Hmac I hear a lot of people talking about it

@NOCD Advocate - Katie For a long time I was terrified and disgusted by anything sexual because of my POCD but then I masturbated and didn’t have any intrusive thoughts. Nothing happened. Now I feel like masturbating and hypersexuality are my way of reaffirming to myself that I’m not a p***. But you’re saying disgust makes people not want to have sex. I’m confused?

@ocdsurvivorem I don't imagine most people feel turned on when they're feeling disgusted

@NOCD Advocate - Katie This is very true! For a long time I was really scared of my body and such because of my intrusive thoughts. I was very disgusted and I never did anything sexual. However, I did masturbate during a period when my intrusive thoughts had pretty much completely disappeared and it was affirming to know I was aroused by people my age. This is the opposite problem OP has had. I wasn’t turned on by the disgust and please correct me if I’m wrong but I’m a little offended that you would perhaps insinuate something like that. I was merely able to enjoy an appropriate sexual fantasy after my OCD symptoms had receded. I guess what I mean to say is that it’s different for everyone. While it’s very true that many people may be terrified of sex (I know because I also was), others might not have the same experience. It doesn’t make them suddenly terrible. If someone with a sexual obsession can still enjoy sex, that doesn’t mean they suddenly don’t have a sexual obsession. The whole point of recovering from OCD is being able to do things that may have triggered you in the past— like going in public or enjoying sex. I guess that’s what I meant from my original post. I too was terrified and even traumatized by sex, but after a long while I was able to be comfortable with my body. Sorry that I was vague . Looking back, I was definitely looking for some sort of reassurance. I’ll avoid doing that in the future. But I also was trying to communicate that someone who suffers from a sexual obsession can still heal and have a healthier relationship with sex. At the end of the day, your OCD is gonna scream at you no matter what you do. In OP’s case, he’s terrified because he doesn’t feel as attracted to people his age. In my case, I’m kinda terrified because I can still feel sexual arousal for a lot of men and women my age (that’s especially scary when some people are saying you shouldn’t feel any sort of arousal because you should always feel disgusted). Sorry for the long post, these were just some of my further thoughts.

@ocdsurvivorem I was not trying to say that people can't heal. They absolutely can. The poster's question that I was responding to was "why does pocd take away my attractions?". In general OCD symptoms of any type don't put people in the mood for sex because usually feeling anxious, disgusted, guilty, embarrased, etc. Aren't feelings that turn us on.

@NOCD Advocate - Katie Once treatment takes effect and those feelings change, my assumption is that "attraction" will return

@NOCD Advocate - Katie This isn't just a sexuality OCD issue. The same thing happens with people vwitg contamination fears. When sex feels scary it disgusting, they don't want to engage in those behaviors. What sexuality OCD adds on top of that is "omg, I don't feel like having sex, WHY have my attractions disappeared? WHAT IF they never come back? HOW will I live a normal life?" And the rumination spiral takes hold

@NOCD Advocate - Katie Thanks for the clarification. Sorry if my response was a bit angry.

@ocdsurvivorem No problem ?