I don't know the answer for your comment question, but to your post question I can say YES, it definitely can. The same happened to me. I am on the road of recovery and there are little "signs" to the attraction came back, but I have to abstain for a while because I have been addicted to porn/mo 10-12 years ago
humm... is there something you don't cover here? I mean some people, because their porn surfing habits brought them an acquired taste for "other" genres makes them believe their orientation changed. Is it what you experienced? But yes, in all cases, if you stop watching porn AND you stop objectifying the opposite sex (only seeing the human, not the sex) you could very well tame the beast...
I am going through puberty and do suffer from HOCD (Homosexual OCD, Fear of being gay) I have only watched straight porn and lesbian porn and girls masturbating. I did experiment with gay porn images, but was quite disgusted by it and it did not turn me on or arouse me. When it comes to pictures of naked women, I got very hard. Since I am going through puberty, I do get homosexual thoughts, which are caused by raging hormones.
You are having intrusive thoughts that every single person has. Your brain just doesn't process them the same as everyone else. For example, most guys could see a ripped guy and think "that guy looks ripped. I wish I looked like that". The OCD mind says "you looked at that guy who was ripped - you must be gay". Thing is, you're calling it a "gay" thought but it's only a gay thought because that's how your brain has labelled it. You attribute that feeling as evidence that you might be gay. You obsess on that uncomfortable feeling until you create a compulsion to alleviate it. The compulsion just leads to more thoughts, more obsessions and more compulsions. HOCD is more than a fear of being gay. It's a fear of not knowing your true sexual identity. It's actually really common in men who suffer with OCD (over 11% of male OCD sufferers get it at some point in their lives). Porn use distorts your view of attraction. Nothing real life can ever be as stimulating as the hypersexualisation that you are seeing on screen. So it's not uncommon for people with heavy PMO use to lose attraction to real world people. OCD says that's evidence that you might be gay and hence the whole "I don't know my sexual orientation" obsessions continue. Making multiple threads about this is feeding your OCD (this is a reassurance seeking compulsion) and ultimately you're just slowing your recovery. The only way you're going to beat this is by calling the intrusive thoughts for what they are and stopping doing your compulsions when you feel the urge to do them (it will be horrible at first but you have to get through it to come out the other side). Read about OCD, CBT, mindfulness and ERP and start putting them into practice. It won't be easy but do you really want a life ruled by OCD?
Thank you, I will try my absolute best to stop doing compulsions. I will remind myself when ever I get those thoughts that it's only puberty and HOCD playing tricks on my mind. Cheers
In my own experience I would say Yes because in an attempt to feed my sexual imagination my mind runs wild when I see an attractive women in public when I don't look at porn. Everyone has different mindset or imaginations though so I'd stick with maybe not for everyone.
YES, absolutely. I have talked to (honestly) hot girls once or twice and I barely had ever cared about them, the conversation, nor having a relationship at all. It was like talking to a wall that happened to answer back and expected me to be interested about it.
Absolutely yes! When I was at my peak of pmo use I only talked to girls who approached me first, which was a handful at best. When I talked to them I had no clue what I was doing so I always came across as creepy and clingy, thus chasing them away, which demotivated me to approaching girls myself. I was never good with girls to begin with, being a shy introvert before the pmo use started. Once I fell down that path it just made things worse and I always felt inferior to girls and that they were always better than me. After a while I just gave up you could say. After going on good streaks (30+ days multiple times) the motivation to seek out girls and interact with them has never been higher and I no longer get the nagging fear of rejection like I used to, nor put them on pedestals either. I attribute it to 2 things, 1 stopping pmo (because I was "satisfied" with the digital version and that's what my brain was wired to) and gaining confidence from now approaching them and not giving a fuck if it doesn't go how I want it to.
I did not loose the interest in the sex I am attracted to (women), but there is definitely a change in what made me horny. Seeing all the shitty P makes your brain get used to it, and "normal" things don't attract you anymore!
