[Trigger for sexual orientation ocd/hocd] --- Man i hate this so much i hate that my brain is so convinced that im not a gay man. I wouldn't even know the first thing to say about what i find attractive in a woman. Yeah uh her boobs are so. Boobs. They exist. Yeah she has really sexy uh...i dont even know. Yes women in suits sure do wear suits. When i look at a man i can say wow i love how his chest looks i love his back between his shoulders and how his waist tapers. All these things but my brain keeps telling me im wrong It keeps telling me to try and test and check and that one day ill "unlock the secret" I know ive posted a lot here today but im just so frustrated. I wanna keep pushing with my exposures and cbt but its so frustrating especially when so many people are like "well just accept it youre probably bisexual" but I know for a fact my body and heart only respond to one despite what my brain tells me. I swear I knew the difference that attraction =/= attractive before this clocked me so hard but i spend so much of my time with this now im so exhausted and fed up and beyond annoyed. I already know who i am brain just let me be in peace please!!!

I feel man

You’re post is relatable

You gotta hold on to the truth. The more get emotionally involved in the intrusion the more it’ll pop up

Oh i did the same thing!! I found myself getting groinals over a SOUP CAN. while i do love me a good chowder, and some friends would joke i do feel that way about food i had a good laugh about it. I even tell myself "soup can" if i find myself getting too wrapped up Thank you, im trying my best ;;

I once got a gronial response to a dog. I read somewhere that the groin responds to different things but we usually don’t notice it but because we have ocd we notice

Ive talked to my boyfriend about it. Hes bisexual and his first response was "...uh. no? Ive known you 10 years and....no." hes also assured me he'll always be there for me no matter what comes out of it, which is great! Another two friends of mine basically snort laughed and said "oh god absolutely not. You? Seriously?" Which was awesome and i know they all love and care for me. I think the fear comes from the "you could have been this way all along and just not known! You missed all the signs!" But. There were ...no signs for me to miss. Its hard for me to talk to anyone else about it, because a lot of my friend circle is not very nice about men/finding men attractive. Others are very big on people discovering the "joys of being bisexual" but even they are like "nah youre pretty cut and dried exclusively gay." The bad thing is theres a lot of bad information out there. Including some people who say that lgbt people go through the "stages of grief" when discovering themselves. Maybe back in the 1970s but now everyone i know wasn't happy! Including myself. Ive just had a rocky past with regard to my relationships which unfortunately a lot of people will latch onto and say "well maybe theres a reason" which is only ever sometimes true, and is not a 100% fool proof reason. I also dont know if this is part of the ocd or not but I take other peoples experiences incredibly personally. Like. Oh no, this happened to this person, maybe thats me too! [Panic button smashed]

It could be useful to teach both your boyfriend and those two other friends a little about reassurance if you haven’t already. As people who know you, their instinct is to give you clarity. From the way you describe it, it sounds like their insistence that you couldn’t possibly be straight is something you’ve held onto as a kind of reminder, but that it hasn’t quite done the trick in the way you hoped it would. I’d stay away from clinging to that response as a kind of proof. In fact, I’d ask them to deliberately fuck with you about it from time to time if you feel like you can take it. Encourage them to make jokes that spike you a little.

Also, it’s pretty fucking rad that you’ve opened up to people about it already. Ain’t nothing.

*your

I just hate how its telling me "oh youre choosing not to find this attractive. Try to!" And im like If i have to try im not attracted!!! And then scream forever

While my OCD has since evolved, I did experience a nice two year period of quiet after 2 or 3 years of HOCD themed intrusive thoughts. Humor was key. The more I could laugh about it, the less scary it became. Embrace the uncertainty but make jokes to yourself about it. I once found myself checking out a car’s ass. My go to response: you must be gay! And then I was like, what the flying fuck, that’s not even a person! That’s a car. I was so much in OCD autopilot (and still waking up during my morning commute) that the logic was infiltrating every second of my life. Find ways to laugh, my friend. Sorry you’re struggling

Have you been able to tell any of your friends about it? I know for me a big part of what I was struggling with was the fear of suddenly seeming a fraud, and that all of my past would be rendered a lie. It was having an especially damning effect on my male relationships. Picking a few people to talk to simultaneously enabled me to both confront my biggest fear and gain some much needed love and support. That said, you gotta be careful bc confession can become its own form of reassurance seeking. I have to imagine that as a gay man, the idea of losing that part of your identity, and thus the community that it connects you to, is terrifying as hell. Leaning into that fear by talking to the same people your OCD tells you that you would lose if they knew you were a fraud is super powerful.

*everyone i know was happy, not wasnt. Oof autocorrect bad

Yeah ive told my boyfriend not to reassure me but to encourage me to do what ive learned to do instead. Sometimes he just lets me get angry and flap around if i need to. I just try not to flip out too much since hes in the military and we dont get to talk much since hes on deployment atm