A year ago I made a paper about how I overcome some symptoms of HOCD, I hope it will help some people: I made this paper to help people overcome their symptoms as I was able to do. So it will be a list of my symptoms and solutions that have worked for me to overcome them. Doubts : Not paying attention to it they aren't legit doubts, it's OCD. A legit doubt will be accompanied by a true desire.Groinal responses : Not paying attention to it, there is no desire, so it's OCD.False attraction : Not paying attention to it, there is no desire, so it's OCD.Intrusives thoughts/images : Not paying attention to it, there is no desire, so it's OCD.Testing your sexual orientation in your head (by scenarios or other things) : Stop doing it, it will not work.Testing your reactions about member of the not desired sex : Stop doing it. The more you test, the more likely you are to have a reaction, not because you are excited but because you focus on the genital area, it is worse if you check physically.Fear of becoming gay : Firstly, not paying attention to it, there is no desire of men, so it's OCD. Secondly, a bit of education, sexual orientation can't changes overtime. I repeat : SEXUAL ORIENTATION CAN'T CHANGES OVERTIME. On the other hand, the sexual identity can change. Let me explain :  Sexual orientation is defined as a physical, sexual, emotional and romantic attraction to people of one or more particular sexes or genders. This is the sexual orientation. So, if you are a man attracted to women, you're straight. That's your sexual orientation. And you will choose to define yourself as heterosexual: it is your sexual identity. Let's keep this example of a man but let's change it a little. This man has never liked girls, has always had his eyes on boys, but defines himself as heterosexual. Is it straight? No, but it will define itself as such. Then one day, he will realize that he is using the wrong term and will choose to use another term: gay. Has he changed his sexual orientation? No, he just changed labels. This is called sexual fluidity. When people tell you that sexuality is fluid, they talk about it.Fear of being so deeply in denial that you won't know it: Not paying attention: it's not possible. And you're going to tell me: but you didn't mention anxiety? I didn't mention it because it's the anxiety that produces it. Anxiety produces doubts and symptoms. We have to get rid of it first to make things better. After a while, the symptoms no longer bother us and gradually they disappear. You may wonder why I didn't mention any other symptoms:  First because these are the most frequent cases I have had, and second because each case is different. I repeat: EVERY CASE IS DIFFERENT! And this is a list of thing I was going through: rentry.co/HOCDSymptoms

It's a thing but I wasn't confrontate to it.

Er, are you sure? I'm not seeing that. I see some response prevention in terms of replacing rumination, but it seems to have often been replaced with a very long list of self-reassurance statements, many of which are fragile and easily challenged. I'm seeing acceptance of the fact that intrusive thoughts do happen, but definitely not acceptance that the question is not something it's possible to have certainty about. This reads more as the hitchhiker's guide to fending off scary thoughts. He's right that not getting sucked into it every time a thought comes up, reduces general anxiety and makes the thoughts happen less, I'm not at all surprised that he's found success just by minimising the compulsions down from the all-consuming habit they used to be. But I can't picture this strategy ever actually resolving anyone's HOCD. All the self-reassuring ideas he's invested in are extremely vulnerable to collapsing in the face of challenge or new information, and I don't see any element at all of allowing the anxiety to happen and pass away again in full, which is of course the way we improve our tolerance for unanswered scary questions. I think it's extremely misguided for him to be trying to influence other people to do the same- the whole strategy relies on deciding "I'm going to believe this set of things and avoid any contradicting information". Other people probably aren't going to find it as easy to buy into the same beliefs, although his confidence may serve as reassurance for them.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-05-sexuality-adulthood.html "For example, 67% of women in the 'mostly straight discontinuous' group were attracted to both sexes in their early 20s. However, this number dropped to almost zero by their late 20s, by which time the women reported only being attracted to the opposite sex." I used to be attracted to men and women. Now it's just women. This isn't just about identity and how I identify, I literally am no longer attracted to a whole gender of people I used to be attracted to. You've totally misunderstood the definition of sexual fluidity unfortunately.

@Scoggy Nope. Your sexual orientation never changes. If you like the opposite sex exclusively then you're heterosexual, same sex - homosexual, both - bisexual. Bisexuals have it more fluid,aka they have the so defined bi-cycle where their preferences can change drastically, but bisexuality is defined as attraction towards both sexes. You have experienced both, so therefore you're bisexual and there's that.

@ｆｅｎｎａ ⚢ You're literally wrong tho. I have a degree in sociology and social psychology, I have written a LOT of papers on gender and sexuality. You also don't get to decide what my sexuality is based on my past feelings. Here's a straightforward link for you: https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/can-sexuality-change-what-sexual-fluidity-is-and-is-not-0624187

@ｆｅｎｎａ ⚢ Put it this way: either you're mistaken or all of my lecturers at a top uni, the curriculum and the entire field of sociology are mistaken.

@Scoggy The keyword is "mostly-straight" :)

@Scoggy Authority argument is not an argument. You could be anything.