I first started to worry about the possibily of beg bisexual when I was 12. I was aaid of beg gay, like many people who are nfed about their orientatn. I remember havg my first csh on a girl elementary school, but I stggled wh sexual obssns om my early teens, which sued me to repeatedly qutn my orientatn.…
Contents:
- HOW DO I KNOW I’M NOT REALLY GAY/STRAIGHT?
- DO YOU HAVE HOCD OR ARE YOU JT NYG THAT YOU'RE GAY OR BI?
- AM I GAY OR IS MY OCD?
- HOW DO I KNOW I'M NOT REALLY GAY?: OCD AND SEXUAL INTY OBSSNS
- YOU’RE NOT GAY: HOMOSEXUALY ANXIETY OCD
- GAY OCD / HOCD TT
- HOCD; GAY OR STRAIGHT OR OCD?
- 'HOMOSEXUAL OCD': STRAIGHT MEN WHO SPECT THEY ARE GAY
HOW DO I KNOW I’M NOT REALLY GAY/STRAIGHT?
* am i gay or do i have ocd *
In orr to have doubts about one’s sexual inty, a sufferer need not ever have had a homo- or heterosexual experience, or any type of sexual experience at all. ” Some people’s doubts are further plited by havg such experienc as hearg other people talkg or lookg their directn and thkg that the people mt be analyzg their behavr or appearance and talkg about them – discsg how they mt be gay (or straight).
Let’s face , gay people have always been an opprsed mory wh our culture, and to sudnly thk of beg this posn, and to be stigmatized this way, n be ighteng.
I have sometim wonred if those who experience the most distrs om such thoughts as the do so bee they were raised wh more strongly homophobic or anti-gay attus to beg wh, or if is simply bee one’s sexualy n be such a basic doubt. Lookg at attractive men or women, or pictur of them, or readg sexually oriented lerature or pornography (hetero- or homosexual), to see if they are sexually excg. Readg articl on the ter about how an dividual n tell if they are gay or straight to see which group they might be most siar to.
DO YOU HAVE HOCD OR ARE YOU JT NYG THAT YOU'RE GAY OR BI?
The flip si of this is when they look at thgs havg to do wh sex of an oppose orientatn and then feel aroed some way, which they then nclu to mean that they liked , which means that they are gay (or straight). Makg a seri of three-mute tap that based on the wrgs gradually suggt more and more that you are gay, and listeng to them several tim a day changg them when they no longer bother you).
Probably the most mon qutn asked by those likely to be sufferg om homosexual obssive pulsive disorr (HOCD, also lled Sexual Orientatn OCD or Gay OCD) is "Am I gay? The qutn is right at the heart of HOCD feelgs, sce this particular type of OCD foc on an obssn wh gay, lbian, or bisexual activy and the patient's uncertaty about his or her own sexualy. If you have been or have experienc om beg straight and you fear that you're gay, 's very likely that you're straight and the "gay feelg" is jt a symptom of your unrlyg OCD.
AM I GAY OR IS MY OCD?
It's not unual for pletely straight guys to not have a problem showerg a gym, not enjoyg sports, likg art, or otherwise dog culturally "gay" thgs. 3) Do you worry that you are NOT attracted to members of the oppose sex (if you're straight) and that 'that might mean' that you are gay?
HOW DO I KNOW I'M NOT REALLY GAY?: OCD AND SEXUAL INTY OBSSNS
In my practice, I sometim enunter men who are so obssively worried they may be gay or bisexual that tak up such a signifint amount of their daily life and thoughts and them nearly cripplg anxiety.
” He may worry that he appears to be gay if cross his legs at the knee like a woman when stg down rather than havg the typil “man spread.
Like those wh Obssive-Compulsive Disorr (OCD), he may exhib the same kd of repet behavrs, such as stg and standg over and over aga to see if they may appear gay the way he do . This may sound like ’s a set-up for a joke, or an ongog lgh le a s, but is a real disorr that some have labeled as Homosexual Obssive-Compulsive Disorr (HOCD), though the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs, the “bible” of psychiatry, has yet to regnize .
YOU’RE NOT GAY: HOMOSEXUALY ANXIETY OCD
HOCD n sudnly occur for some men who, for example, fd themselv beg h on by other gay or bisexual men, mistaken for beg a gay or bisexual man, fd themselv attracted to another man or stumble onto gay porn that exc them.
They will often blame the thgs as reasons for how the HOCD started, but isn’t about homosexualy nor bisexualy, is about OCD. In my own clil experience workg wh the men, those who suffer om this may fd themselv obssively lookg at porn, eher gay or straight, to see if they bee sexually exced by eher.
They might nstantly check out others’ reactns to their gtur or nversatn to see if they get any strange looks or other signals that would imply homophobia.
GAY OCD / HOCD TT
They sometim will go to extreme lengths, such as havg sex wh men even though they are not gay or bisexual, which typilly leav them feelg unsatisfied and unfortable.
Even though they have not been able to nfirm by their pulsive experimentatn that they are, ed, gay, they may even ask me to help them e out as gay or bisexual jt to end the sufferg. I am a specialist sexual orientatn and relatnships and not traed to al wh OCD, so I first mt set out to terme if they are simply closeted gay or bisexual men, or if there is somethg else gog on. Influenced by the heated atmosphere around sexual polics nowadays, and even the amount of media verage around LGBTQ issu, some gays argue that the g-out procs they went through much of the same nfn, and therefore believe that the HOCD person is simply experiencg the same thg.
Theirs is a particular kd of trouble, one that will not be rolved by “g out of the closet” bee they tly are not gay or bisexual. There are some clil therapists, such as Monni Williams, thor of Homosexual Anxiety: A Misunrstood Form of OCD Leadg Health Edutn Issu, who may help brg more a ser nversatn of this disorr to the theraptic world.
HOCD; GAY OR STRAIGHT OR OCD?
When we talk about treatg the thoughts, we are only referrg to workg wh those who tly are heterosexual and who only obss about beg orr to have such a thought, a sufferer need not ever have had a homosexual experience, or even any sexual experience at all. Let's face : gay people have always been an opprsed mory wh our culture, and to sudnly thk of beg this posn and to be stigmatized this way n be ighteng.
I have sometim wonred if those who experience the most distrs om such thoughts as the do so bee they were raised wh more strongly homophobic or anti-gay attus to beg wh, or if is simply bee qutng one's own sexualy n be such a basic doubt.
In the se of homosexual obssns, the most mon pulsns people e to pe their fears are double-checkg (pecially mental self-checkg), pulsive qutng, and avoidance.
'HOMOSEXUAL OCD': STRAIGHT MEN WHO SPECT THEY ARE GAY
Compulsively reviewg and analyzg suatns you were wh other men or women to see if you acted like a gay person or acted sexually toward someone of the same sex. They bee so nervo about what they may see themselv that they don't feel very exced, and then thk that this mt mean they are gay. Not drsg ways that would make one look effemate (if a man) or mascule (if a woman) talkg about gay issu or subjects wh wh other typ of OCD, there is no magil or stant "cure" for the thoughts.
You may still get the thoughts here and there, but you will no longer feel that you mt react to them, and you will be able to let them typil Exposure therapy homework assignments I have assigned to people are highlighted below (please note that the are no special orr):Readg books by or about gay persons. Makg a seri of two-mute d rerdgs that, based on the wrgs, gradually suggt more and more that you are gay, and listeng to them several tim a day (changg them when they no longer bother you). I am wrg for the benef of heterosexual folks who hope to e this article to unrstand their fears about beg gay (also known as gay OCD or HOCD).