r/queer • u/Relevant-Departure84 • 5h ago
Help with labels I’m confused about my sexuality but think I might be a lesbian?
I’m 31 and incredibly confused about my sexuality, I really need some guidance. Here are all the relevant facts:
Overview of my life:
I (31F) grew up in a chaotic, conservative and abusive household with a very dominant father and I am still in a place where I do a ton of caretaking for my family. Individuating was hard because there was never time to be myself or think of what I wanted from life, there were always people to take care of and mitigate harm. Now I’m starting my thirties and trying to figure out who I am.
Friendships:
I have only really ever had female friends and I love and feel very protective over them. I listen to their stories about dating and feel sad that a lot of female bonding in my context seems to be around solidarity about dating men, loving men, and having bad experiences with men.
Crushes/Fantasy:
When I was younger I was a bit romance/boy crazy but mostly either fictional characters or daydreams about being seen as cool or fascinating by a conventionally attractive guy in my class. I was obsessed with rom coms and fantasy romance books. I was a total ‘pick me’ girl and tried to be cool and one of the boys even if I wasn’t really interested in guy stuff. I have always (and still do) read fanfiction featuring two men and the occasional straight pairing. When I fantasize it’s often about other people with each other but only ever gay or straight couples.
Women:
Every time I make a new friend group I will get extremely attached to one person in the group, always a woman. I want to spend time with her and do favors for her and listen to her about all her issues with guys and generally be kind of her knight in shining armor. This has landed me in some extremely intense friendships, some pretty unhealthy and others that were just very intimate and grew a bit more distant after I moved away or my friend got a boyfriend.
Men:
I don’t think I’m that conventionally attractive so honestly I am not sure what to think because I don’t get a ton of male attention. I absolutely crave male approval and am compulsively flirtatious or at least fawning with all guys I meet—I actually feel really guilty about this and try to tone it down but it’s difficult. I’ve gotten asked out a few times but every time I feel extreme disgust when this happens, I tell myself it’s because the more conventionally attractive guys (sorry that feels kind of like a shitty way to classify people but I don’t consider myself conventionally attractive either so I hope that helps make it a bit gentler 😅) aren’t hitting on me but honestly I’m not sure if I really would feel flattered if they did.
Dating/sex life:
I had two boyfriends, one for a few months at 19 and the other for half a year at 22. As friends I thought they were both ok but then when we started dating I felt increasingly stressed and dissociated. I was not attracted to them but thought it was because maybe the relationship was not meant to be. Sex was ok technically, they both tried their best even if they weren’t super focused on my pleasure. It was ok. But after sex I always felt a huge wave of heavy sadness. My last relationship got a bit controlling and then I had family issues to take care of so I broke it off and have not dated or had sex since then.
Current life/lesbian questioning:
I’ve moved to a bigger town to be a bit further from my family even if they still take up some of my time. I have not really had close friendships since college and mostly I just feel tired a lot and don’t know if I even have the energy to have a crush or relationship but I feel kind of stuck and lonely.
I still am trying to figure out my sexuality though because I feel like it might help me unblock some things that I’m not aware of. I’m aware that I’ve always had intense feelings towards women, I also would watch every single LGBT film I could get my hands on as a teenager and spend most of my free time experiencing queer culture online. But somehow in my day to day life I can’t seem to make the connection or jump. I think I compartmentalized so hard because I didn’t have time or safety to be myself that I experience queerness as this separate entity detached from my real life. I tried going to a pride parade in my city but started to have such a bad panic attack I had to go home.
If you’ve read this far thank you! And yeah I guess I just needed to write all of this down somewhere and ask for some help if you relate or have thoughts.