- Username
- lalalalal166373
- Date posted
- 32w ago
False attraction
Does anyone else experience false attraction and if you do can you explain what it feels like to you?
Does anyone else experience false attraction and if you do can you explain what it feels like to you?
Yes I do. It feels like a rush of adrenaline and not in a good way (like the moment before a car accident). Flushing, GI upset, shortness of breath, tunnel vision q. It is tough though because anxiety/distress and arousal are controlled by the same physiologic mechanism so it can feel somewhat the same. I am conscious of the fact that in the past when I was actually interested in someone it was exciting/happy/butterfly feeling. The false arousal is absolutely not. I hope that helps and resonant for you.
@Midwestmother This is exactly what happens to me. Sorry may be a stupid question but what does ‘GI upset’ mean. But yeah I do get a horrible adrenaline rush. When I go out, If I see a lesbian couple or masculine lesbian sometimes I get this and it is so annoying does this happen to you as well?
@lalalalal166373 By that I mean nausea, abdominal pain. I think it mostly happens when I see women with a somewhat masculine appearance or women portrayed in hypersexualized ways.
@Midwestmother That’s interesting! Mostly when I think of this false crush I feel this INTENSE anxiety. I sometimes feel like I’ve convinced myself the crush is real.
I have this exact same thing and I thought I was crazy and I’m getting scared does anyone have any tips? My situation is my brain is trying to convince me I have a crush on people I don’t. It’s very difficult and it makes me so nauseous and anxious. I’ve had a thought that I had a crush on my teacher, my best friend, family, there’s more but a lot of this is so embarrassing and I don’t know how to control it😔 but I know I don’t but it’s like the 1% is making me think otherwise.
Hello! If you still want to chat about it, I'm all ears
@IloveDieguito hi sorry it’s quite a late reply but i just wanted some advice, lately i have been feeling false attraction to everything, masculine women, any women that are over sexualised on social media, overthinking anyone who has literally just brushed past my arm and feeling this anxiety rush as if i liked it is awful but how do i know its false attraction?
Yes and when it happens it sends my head into a spiral but deep down I know I am not sexually attracted to that person it’s just my hocd doing this to me
@Will 2339002 deep down i know the thoughts and feelings aren’t true but when i spiral i don’t even know what’s real or fake, do you get this too?
@lalalalal166373 Exactly that. It’s what is so annoying about the whole thing. I know I’m not gay but my brain still does this to me
When I get this it’s like a severe physical exhaustion and trembling, paired with dread. It does not at all feel like real attraction, but it seems the same in the moment. Then the anxiety and need for avoidance comes, along with rumination. It’s really horrible, but usually fades within a day. Sometimes it leads to other obsessions and compulsions later.
I have made much progress with this, but it still jumps up and scares me sometimes.
Just feels like normal attraction to 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.
For the people who have SOOCD : do you guys ever wander if your false attraction to the unwanted sex is actually what true attraction feels like and what you actually felt for the "wanted sex" wasn't real and was just forced all your life because of society? This thought is currently consuming me because I feel like its true for me... like whenever I imagine a guy it feels like forced attraction but if I imagine any girl it feel true and intense??
Im just so confused about the attraction. I feel like i’ve never really felt sexual attraction towards someone, or maybe i did i just dont remember. I personally dont really think im asexual. Maybe this is reassurance seeking but how does real attraction, or sexual attraction feels like? Im scared that my admiration for woman was actually attraction?😔 even though i had no sexual or romantic fantasies or desires with them. I can tell if a woman is pretty or attractive but i’ve never had any desire to date one. And it scares me. Like what if i’ve never been attracted to a guy? I dont even remember how does it feels like. Im so fu*ked up, like im 20 years old, my last crush was when i was 13 on a guy (even that my ocd makes me doubt) and i have these thoughts since 14. It got me in this early age when everyone around me were experiencing crushes and i DID NOT.
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