Homosexual OCD Explained: Intrusive Doubts About Sexual Orientation

When one mentions the term obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), one tends to imagine cleaning or checking things over and over again. There are myriad types of OCD, and Gay OCD or Homosexual OCD is one of the most misconceived ones. Intrusive doubts and fears in this subtype focus on sexual orientation. These unwanted thoughts may get overwhelming and result in one wondering who he or she is in agonizing manners.

It should be mentioned that Gay OCD is not of real sexual orientation. It is a variety of OCD whereby fear, suspicion, and a frantic need to know are occupying the center stage. The heterosexual person could be tormented by the idea that he might be a homosexual. but one who claims to be gay might have the opposite fear. It is OCD that in both cases is causing the distress, and not a real change in orientation.

What Is Homosexual OCD?

Homosexual OCD P.O.S.O.C. Homosexual OCD, also known as Sexual Orientation OCD is a type of OCD in which an individual feels compelled to repetitively experience intrusive thoughts regarding being gay or straight. These thoughts are not selected, what is more, they are not the actual desires of a person. These are instead ego-dystonic in that they are alien and contrary to the individual sense of self.

E.g., someone can be happily married but all of a sudden be challenged by thoughts like "What should I do in case I have been lying to myself all this time? Such thoughts provoke anxiety and bring the individual into a reassurance seeking and checking loop. The difference between Homosexual OCD and curiosity or questioning is that the doubts do not actually ever resolve. The harder a person attempts to seek some certainty, the further they go into the OCD loop.

Symptoms and Signs of Gay OCD

The gay OCD is hard to identify since most of the compulsions occur in the mind. Nevertheless, one can identify some general patterns that are manifested in individuals with this disorder.

Intrusive Doubts and Fears

Intrusive doubts: the hallmark of Gay OCD is obsessive thoughts, e.g. Am I gay? or "What if I suddenly change?" These are questions that can be asked any time and soon enough, the anxiety builds into a great deal of worry. Obsessive fear can be generated by even a transient thought or even a physical response.

Mental Checking and Comparisons

Human beings tend to attempt to test their orientation. They may recreate the past memories, how they responded to some individuals or even how they feel in comparison to others. They can even test how aroused they are in various circumstances to demonstrate something to themselves. Such psychological tests are never gratifying, and they contribute to further suspicion.

Efforts to gain Reassurance and Avoidance

Reassurance-seeking is another similarity of Homosexual OCD. One might always question close friends, relatives, or even therapists, whether he or she seems gay. Meanwhile, they might not be comfortable with circumstances that might cause them to fear others, including spending time with members of the same sex, viewing specific films, or dealing with anything involving sexuality.

Emotional Distress

Gay OCD can have a great emotional impact. Individuals usually experience feelings of shame, guilt or uncertainty about their minds. They can be afraid that their whole identity is being threatened. Since sexual orientation is an essential element of our identity, such uncertainties may be very destabilizing.

The reason as to why Gay OCD is not simply curiosity

It is natural that individuals want to pose themselves some questions about their identity at various stages of their lives. The distinction is only that with Gay OCD the thoughts are different and the response to them is different. In Gay OCD:

• The thoughts are undesirable and unpleasant.
• The human being is motivated to either prove them or disprove them.
• The obsession and compulsion cycle is a time and energy consuming process.
• The uncertainty does not work out, however much one wants to be reassured.

This is not a well-being of discovery of identity. It is OCD in the workplace, which makes the individual live in a fear and checking cycle.

How Gay OCD Develops

Similar to other types of OCD, Gay OCD is a result of intrusive thoughts, coupled by an inability to accept the lack of certainty. We all think about identity or sexuality randomly. The majority of the people reject them as being meaningless. However, those thoughts are frightening, important, and cannot be disregarded to them with OCD.

When the brain invests significance in such contemplations, anxiety soars. To alleviate such anxiety, the individual takes part in compulsions- checking, analyzing or seeking reassurance. Such compulsions provide short-term relief, and they just feed the cycle. The brain becomes conditioned to be even more afraid of the thought and this leads to the recurrence of stronger obsessions.

The other major contributor is intolerance of uncertainty. Individuals who have OCD tend to believe that they need complete clarity on the thoughts. Homosexual OCD involves a belief by the person that they need to understand their orientation with absolute certainty which is not possible. The more confident they pursue it, the less certain it gets.

Difficulty in Recognizing Homosexual OCD

Gay OCD is a problem that is poorly understood, even by specialists. Since these obsessions revolve around sexuality, there are therapists who confuse the symptoms with identity confusion and not OCD. This may result in a false course of treatment, including forcing the individual to experiment with their orientation rather than treating the OCD.

Another challenge is shame. Most individuals are reluctant to post their intrusive thoughts since they will be judged. They can fear that their suspicions will be misunderstood by others as actual indications of being closet or repressed. This secrecy further enables the OCD to become even stronger.

Lastly, the compulsions are usually internal and invisible. In contrast to other types of OCD where rituals are observable, the mental checking and rumination of the Gay OCD occurs behind the scenes, and therefore, it is difficult to detect.

Treatment for Gay OCD

The positive side of the matter is that Gay OCD is a treatable condition. When approached appropriately, people will be able to train themselves to stop the intrusive thoughts and recover some peace.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

Exposure and Response Prevention is the gold standard treatment of OCD and it is also applied to Homosexual OCD. ERP assists individuals in confronting their concerns and arousing circumstances of anxiety, but in turn avoid engaging in compulsions. With time, this decreases the strength of the obsessions.