- Date posted
- 1y
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?
Just feels like normal attraction to me
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.
What’s everyone’s experience with loss of attraction to their preferred gender? (Not looking for reassurance, and I know people say stop trying to get it back) When I see a good looking woman, I feel sad that I can’t get feelings like I use too. Like the very bottom of my stomach feels heavy like it’s depressed… I know I want to be attracted to woman but this SOOCD and false attraction is destroying me.
Has anyone else gotten into a relationship before realizing that it not only started but continued due to false attraction? So in November I got out of an admittedly toxic relationship (unfortunately on both ends) and I had been in it for a year and three months. If I'm being completely honest within the first 3 months I realized that it was false attraction, but I didn't want to out right break up with him since he was also not mentally well. So, I stupidly started self sabotaging. As I said, it ended up being completely toxic, we got into plenty of arguments that rarely got resolved. There was worse things that happened than the arguments, but that's besides the point. I started it when I shouldn't have. At most I had somewhat of an aesthetic attraction to him. He had a look that I really liked at the time (long hair 😭.) But, I honestly didn't like anything else. His personality wasn't very good, he was rude as a "joke" (it was never funny to me) also he was 11 months younger than me. I know it's not an insane gap by any means, but it's just not something that I want in a relationship. I prefer my partners to be same age to like a year older. Not to mention there was a pretty clear maturity gap. If I'm being completely honest, I saw him as a friend (sometimes barely that.) Like I said, I'm aware that it was completely on me and I was wrong for it. But, has anyone gone through something similar? Hopefully not something too toxic.
Y’all I think I’m dealing with false attraction but idk and I can’t tell. It’s bugging me. It’s one specific (female) friend of mine lately. Idk if it’s cuz she’s a lesbian and it’s playing on my soocd or smthn. I keep having groinal responses around her. I don’t see her like that but I’m worried I either am starting to or already do and am suppressing it but I have had no interest in her in the last 2 years she’s been in our group. This started somewhat recently and every time someone makes a sexual joke or smthn (like flashing or twerking) it causes a groinal response and I just kinda shut down. I don’t feel anything in the crush sense of the word. And it’s bugging me that I’m having these thoughts and I keep having thoughts of my bf and then my friend gets placed into the thought and it just makes me upset. Annoyed. I feel this tightness in my chest and it’s not good. I like seeing this friend but I don’t get excited seeing her. I wonder where she is when she’s gone but I do that with all of my friends, if one doesn’t show to our group dinners I ask. I worry I’m making too much eye contact when we talk. I keep checking if I’m feeling anything anywhere but it’s just a persistent groinal response and I’m worried it’s attraction
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond