Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there
I am a bit embarrassed to ask this question/gain advice on this but I have nowhere else to go really. I want to know more about hypersexuality in autism. I am having an assessment for autism in November and want to talk to my psychiatrist about this particular issue. Again I’m really embarrassed so please bare with me and be kind. I am worried that I am hypersexual along with experiencing various other symptoms of autism, but hypersexuality is a problem for me currently. I’m not sure whether I’m seeking to be sensory soothed or what is going on with this. Excessive masturbation is a problem and I have felt extremely upset because of this issue. Does anyone have any advice on whether this falls into the symptoms of autism? I probably should give some background information as well on some of the other symptoms I am experiencing.
Obsessed with numbers I.e I have to count certain things, music has to be on a specific number of loudness, collecting information and things such as coin collecting, repeating the same lyric in a song for weeks/months, feeling overwhelmed very easily, clicking fingers, whistling, hard to know what others are thinking/feeling etc.
Any advice would be HUGELY appreciated.
I haven't known it to be associated with autism. But I have known it to be associated with ADHD. The two conditions are similar in a lot of ways and it's certainly not unheard of for someone to have both (AuDHD as it's commonly called).
I'm not going to ask you to disclose anything about yourself you're not willing to put out for yourself. If you are male, do take care, as excessive masturbation can lead to intimacy issues in the future.
ok well lets follow the logical conclusion of clasifying masturbation as a form of stimming / sensory seeking / soothing behavior. You wouldn't tell an autistic person to stop stimming in general would you? So if the stimming (in this case masturbation) is in private what's the issue with it? It hurts no one?
Hi, I’m not sure if hyper or hyposexuality are strictly connected to autism. I myself used to masturbate excessively in my teens. Years later I found out it could be a stim, repetitive sensory behavior to soothe myself. And as I remember I didn’t want it anymore but there was some invisible force pushing me to do it over and over again. It’s definitely worth to look into and consult with professionals, maybe not only psychiatrist but also sexuologist would help. It’s our safe space, this topic was already discussed here, so you are not the only and not the first one having such issue. When it comes to me dealing with this problem… I must admit my way to cope with it could have been not the best one, but it’s working. I just let myself do the little bit shameful things as much as I need and after some time I got tired and bored of it and stopped. Now I’m additionally take meds, (prescribed by a psychiatrist) which give side effect that affects my libido, so now I’m very much inactive.