- Username
- Nameless000
- Date posted
- 40w ago
false attraction
do you guys often confuse being triggered with actually being attracted. I struggle with this a lot.
do you guys often confuse being triggered with actually being attracted. I struggle with this a lot.
“Attracted” feelings often get confused with fear/anxiety. There’s a whole wiki page on it, sometimes we think “warm face, heart rate, and jitters” must equal attraction. But your brain can easily get confused, I mean it’s just a ball of meat in your skull, of course it’s gonna get things wrong. The worst part is groinal responses which can really push ocd havers off the deep end. But it’s also completely normal.
Absolutely. When I'm in a relationship and I notice someone else's appearance is attractive, I feel bad as if I am a cheater.
But mine is a different thing, because the object in question is a k**, what if I was actually attracted and not just triggered?
Yes and it’s incredibly tiring, every time I mistake it as genuine attraction. And because I deal with ROCD as well, I assume everyone else experiences life like this including my partner, and so I assume my partner gets aroused by everyone “just like me” but I’m mentally ill so I cannot assume everyone else is like me. And besides, what I’m experiencing are false groinals! 😅 So my logic is incredibly flawed. But the OCD always gets in the way of the truth.
Hey 👋🏻 there! Thanks for sharing! This is very common, I find myself asking the question itself “am I attracted to…” and then trying to disprove said thoughts.
Guys thanks for all the insights. I made a new post, it's very long, but it's the doubts I'm currently facing, if someone relates I'd be grateful for your opinions. It is very triggering so you don't have to do it.
I work at a warehouse with mostly men, and since I'm a man with SO-OCD, it's like facing the gates of he'll every day. It's silly because I've worked there since last May, but my SO-OCD didn't start happening until this past February. I don't even go to the gym anymore, and TV Shows and films I used to love are off the table. When I see conventionally attractive, I do get triggered, even angry at times. It's become a daily battle for me
so I've been trying to do what my therapist said while she's on vacation for a few weeks and do some of my routine exposures. One of them is watching tv and not looking away when there is children on screen. I tried sitting through a preview of a shows first episode that featured a young girl in a Victorian outfit with blonde hair, and he had very ghostly white skin and powder pink lips. It was a ghost show, which is the kind of genre I usually like, so I wanted to try and enjoy the clip. And my therapist always told me to "not appraise the thoughts, our goal isn't to avoid them, but to let them pass" but as I kept watching, I kept getting mental voices telling me that "she's pretty you want to kiss her" and I felt almost frozen in my seat? I felt a kind of anxiety I haven't felt in years, but I tried to continue to watch the clip and let it pass, but I couldn't. I felt this mental need to go back and "check" to really be sure if I was attracted to her, I pictured kissing her and idk if it even counts as an intrusive thought atp? I felt like if I were to have the thought and then prove myself I was grossed out by pushing it away I would feel better, but it didnt. My brain just kept telling me that I wanted her and it was very much on purpose to test to see whether I felt that way or not and it did and I kept feeling that horrible form of anxiety that makes your face hot and I don't think I was really TRUELY attracted to her but it's like a fucked up twisted form of attraction that's false but feels real at the same time? Idk if that makes sense... idk, I'm trying my best but I feel like I NEED to think the thoughts, letting them pass isn't enough. Or like the thought will stick in my brain and it'll keep going like a mini movie playing in my head and it feels like almost like I'm fantasizing even though that isn't what I want to do. I feel like I have no choice but to push them away or else I'll have a horrible realization... idk... I've been struggling with this for 5 years now. I don't even know how to properly articulate how I feel in those moments it's so confusing that I don't know how to describe it to my therapist. How do people just lable their feelings on things so effortlessly? Why is it so hard for me? Idk I don't really want reassurance bc it won't help but I just want to feel like I'm not alone in this.
so about 2 weeks ago me and my girlfriend had our first kiss and afterwards i felt very uncomfortable and off and very like dirty and i felt really upset and i couldn’t pinpoint why but i eventually did, and i think it may of been a trigger because in the past i was sexually assaulted so it may have been an unexpected trigger for me, and now i feel like I’ve lost some feelings of attraction and it’s scaring me because i don’t want to not be attracted to my girlfriend and i also have become quite numb to my feelings for her, i hope it’s temporary thought but it may be my mind protected itself by suppressing my feelings and attraction and making me numb because of the sexual assault and the kiss i think triggered me, but im not sure, im really confused and could use some advice
Sometimes when I feel false attraction, I’ll say things out of disbelief and fear, for example, I see a kid that looks older and I feel sort attraction so I panic and say “I’m attracted” “I think he’s attractive” “he is/looks attractive” ,, “he’s attractive” ,, “he looks handsome” along those lines… I panic when I say these and my brain uses it against me… I genuinely feel like a bad person. I feel like I’m genuinely attracted now and that I’m a bad person and that I need to accept it, I’m so scared. I don’t want to be this person but when I think about it, it’s like it’s not bad to be one and I don’t freak out and it makes me worry
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