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Poll Has Ptsd Effected Your Sexual Preferences?

Has PTSD Affected Your Sexual Preferences?

  • No

    Votes: 48 39.0%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 26 21.1%
  • Yes

    Votes: 49 39.8%

  • Total voters
    123
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Not editing my answer, just my rationale... I grew up in a very xenophobic home. When I grew up, both of my parents thought that everyone who was different from them in any way were basically freaks of nature...mom has changed over the years, but I think that if it weren't for the fact that I was abused by several men, I probably would never have experimented with girls and found out that I really liked it. I am bisexual now, and my mom knows, but my dad doesnt because he would be furious...Being bi may be the only good thing that came out of my abuse.
 
I tried very hard to like girls. I thought that it would be much safer (I know that's sexist--sorry, but it's what I felt). I thought it would be easier to trust a female because of what men had done to me. But I realized after several attempts that it wasn't going to happen. I like men.

I do have many problems surrounding sexuality, though, and it's very hard for me to understand myself or sex or myself and sex. It exhausts me to even mention. So confusing.
 
[I tried very hard to like girls. I thought that it would be much safer (I know that's sexist--sorry, but it's what I felt). I thought it would be easier to trust a female because of what men had done to me.]
I definitely hear where you're coming from, and I do always feel safer when I'm in a relationship with a woman than when I'm in a realtionship with a man. It's different for everybody...I don't think that I'm bi because I was abused, I just think that my abuse caused me to experiment in an attempt to find a relationship that i "felt safe in" and just happened to notice that i also like girls :)
 
I don't think that I'm bi because I was abused, I just think that my abuse caused me to experiment in an attempt to find a relationship that i "felt safe in" and just happened to notice that i also like girls

I get so mixed up trying to sort out how much of Me is in my abuse and how much isn't. Okay, I'm scared of men, so I want to seek out relationships with girls, but I don't like girls, generally because I find even the most masculine of them afford me no comfort or sense of safety from others, even if I am not scared of them, so then... do I like men because I have a complex where I feel only men will keep me safe from other men?

Agh. *headache*
 
John1963

I'm totally with you; as of recently I’m the least interested in just about everyone. I don't care who you are or what your gender is. I pretty much love and adore my cat and I’m totally okay with that. I've always identified as queer (recently identified) but my preferences hadn’t changed because of PTSD. PTSD has definitely affected my ability to have sex and enjoy it, with medication I don't think about sex, as often which for me has been a godsend. PTSD hasn't affected my preference but it's definitely affect how I have intimate relationships.
 
My preference is still hetero... but my preference for some positions and acts has changed. There are some things I just won't do. I have become sexually repressed and have not been able to experience unabashed joyful expression of love making for a very long time... near as we can figure... around 13 years. I didn't vote... because I read into the question what it meant for me.

I do though recognize that some acts and positions are distressful for me or trigger me to stop completely or disassociate out... because of the sexual traumas and PTSD.
 
It's interesting a lot of you became more asexual out of it. I guess I went the other way and became overly sexual.
But I definitely do think it's influenced by sexual orientation. Maybe not 100%. But I am bisexual, and I lean towards women but theres some need to be with men that I can identify as very different than my want and attraction to women. So I feel like the need to be with men would be very reduced if at all noticeable had I never had trauma at a young sexual age.
 
I get so mixed up trying to sort out how much of Me is in my abuse and how much isn't. Okay, I'm scared of men, so I want to seek out relationships with girls, but I don't like girls, generally because I find even the most masculine of them afford me no comfort or sense of safety from others, even if I am not scared of them, so then... do I like men because I have a complex where I feel only men will keep me safe from other men?

Agh. *headache*
I;ve never quite felt like that, but sometimes I've had the feeling that only men can help me fix the part of me I feel is broken by my abuse (from a man). Which is obviously not going to work, I realize. But I think what you feel makes sense in our strange ways.
 
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