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