What did you call yourself before discovering Asexuality?

[Norellia]

So I was watching a asexuality documentary the other day and one person said before discovering the word asexuality they called themselves a natural born celibate. So just for fun was their any terms that you called yourself to describe being an asexual before discovering it? Or maybe if you just want to list what you identified as before realizing your orientation it would be cool to see people's journeys before reaching asexuality. 

 

For me I questioned if I was a lesbian or bisexual but ruled that out due to never having attraction to women and cause I thought my aesthetic attraction for them might have been more.  After that I knew something was off but figured I had to be straight if I wasn't lesbian or bi, so I thought I was just a messed up straight person. Finally discovered asexuality and it cleared up so much confusion.

[Sage Raven Domino]

I thought I was just a nerd 

 

I knew the term 'asexual' way before I started identifying with it, but I mistakenly thought that it only referred to nonlibidoists until I ran into a colleague who was id-ing as a libidoist ace (since then, he's confessed a sexual attraction to a girl, but we can't unlearn our knowledge of the ace discourse anyway).

[Bri is Me]

Until ninth grade I figured I was straight.  Tried dating a boy but hated when he touched me (even just holding hands).  Tenth, I realized I didn't like guys but was afraid to imagine being gay, I guess due to a homophobia I didn't realize I had.  I tried a long-distance relationship with a girl, but when that failed I just decided I was gonna be "single and happy."  Maybe a year or two later a friend suggested I was ace and I decided that was the label that best suited me.  Glad, too.  Saved me from future complications and embarrassment probably lol

[Alejandrogynous]

Broken.

 

Or I'd say asexual, but like a self-deprecating joke because I didn't know asexuality was actually a thing.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I thought I was gay. Not because I actually felt anything, but because I thought it had to be "the answer" since I didn't feel anything towards members of the opposite sex. Finding out about asexuality was a huge, huge relief for me. I finally got closure.

[anonymiles]

Straight ("but not into the D, really?")

Then lesbian ("but I don't want them to go down on me, ew.")

Crazy cat lady ("but you only have 3 cats!")

[Epitaph]

Didn't call myself anything. And really, I still don't call myself anything. After thought and examination, I always figured it wasn't worth caring about. I'm whatever I am, good enough for me.

[Silk Bones]

In middle school, I learned what asexual meant in biology class and would just call myself a plant. Then before that, I used to tell people that I'd want to become a certain kind of Nun to really get a point across.  

 

As for my romantic attraction, I've always described myself as just gay. For the laughs, I'd call myself a flaming homosexual. (this was during the early 2000's, I never meant any offense.) When I thought I was possibly pansexual, I'd joke around by saying I'm attracted to cooking and silverware. 

 

Edit: Needed to clarify what exactly I was talking about.

[Claire1983]

Straight with social anxiety and intimacy issues.  Now I just have social anxiety.

[Duke Memphis]

Straight prude. Funnily enough, I had no problem with being known as a prude.

[daveb]

Heterosexual (never questioned that I might be gay, since I am romantically and aesthetically attracted to women). Other than, I just thought I was shy, awkward, inexperienced, unlucky, and socially inept.

 

Oh, yeah, also, picky and looking for the right person.

[StreetlightDawn]

A bisexual who couldn't get any D or P.

[Tapioca]

'not interested' 

[SilentRose]

Oh boy, here we go

 

First I called myself a heterosexual, because aesthetically I'm attracted to men, and also I considered myself a pretty sexual person funny enough! I had traded dirty pictures with boys online during my teen years and masturbated a lot as a chance to rebel and stave off boredom, and all that led me to thinking I was a very sexual heterosexual, which I can now laugh about  ...but in the years before people around me started having sex, it was easy to just equate my high libido and enjoyment of looking at attractive celebrity men as being hetero. So confusing! 

 

Then as I started getting older and people around me became sexually active, I started thinking about how frightening and non-sexy I considered a certain part of the male anatomy to be in real life. And around that time I also started to realize I sometimes notice girls butts and there's this one female celebrity I find incredibly beautiful. And so bam! Bisexual

 

After that I went through demisexual, then romantic ace, then finally as I am now, a probable grayromantic asexual. I have experienced romantic feelings, but they come and go and I have a hard time holding on to them, and they are very very very rare. 

 

So yeah, it's been quite a journey

But I feel like afterwards I know myself better than I ever have

 

[Ytterbium]

"heterosexual minus sexual"

[Guest]

I didn't think about my orientation very much but I assumed I was heterosexual.

[AussieIsAce]

i was 9 years old so i called myself "a non sex haver" and yet everyone my age was a "non sex haver" aswell. 

also i said i was a "bloke liker but not toucher" i loved my er sounds i guess. 

 

came out at 11 as ace. 

so now i just call myself ace or unattainable

 

but lets just say i call myself Mietta cause thats my bloody name aye  

[smittyw]

It's funny to think how little I really understood how I felt, because I used to assume I was straight but with such a disconnected feeling to the whole idea. I wanted to be a mom but never thought about dating or getting married. Then I thought harder about it and considered if I might be bi or lesbian, because I thought girls were pretty. 

 

Mostly I assumed it would take a long time for me to "find someone", as they say, but I wasn't ever interested, so I didn't bother looking; I called myself a "crazy cat lady in training".

 

Glad I know the right term to use now, because being a cat lady has nothing to do with asexuality anyway. I plan on being both!!

[Skycaptain]

I assumed an "unlucky" heterosexual, but without wanting to do anything 

[Celyn: The Lutening]

Picky.

[neecee]

I identified as bi because I found both guys and girls aesthetically attractive, and I never realized for years and years that sexual attraction was a thing, and that’s what everyone’s been talking about. lol

[[abandoned]]

.

[Sarinai]

Thought that maybe I was bisexual because I found both woman and men aesthetically appealing (didn't know the term aesthetically at the time though). But a weird nerdy bisexual, who didn't find sex appealing.

People joked about (and I as a result😊) that I would end up as a crazy spinster cat-lady 😂

[hward]

A "not-interested" straight person.  Put it this way, when I was fourteen the boy I thought I liked asked if he could kiss me.  I hit him and ran away.

 

Then more recently I thought I was just plain "broken", until I discovered asexuality.

[ôÿē èîęēú ïė ēôēįîûôø]

I didn't call myself anything. I thought maybe I was straight. I am, however, very grateful to have been blessed with being ace/aro.

[AiUdin]

I thought I was bi, because I felt the same towards both guys and girls (ie totally disinterested in sleeping with them), but then ended up in a very LGBT+-centric friendship group and realised I still felt differently, so now I'm here

[historique]

I thought I was heterosexual. 

[Tainted]

Heterosexual then bisexual then back to heterosexual.

 

But with a deep underlining sense of being broken, and lied to. The media has a lot to answer for...

[Laplace]

I just assumed I was boring and picky or that I was a plant 🌱. I joked that I’d reproduce asexually somehow, and I didn’t even know that asexuality was an orientation.

 

I also just thought my disinterest stemmed from my extremely cynical mindset in middle/high school.

[Bronztrooper]

I thought I was straight but I also questioned where I was bi because I would experience aesthetic attraction (which I didn't realize wasn't the same as sexual attraction) towards men from time to time- and my aesthetic/romantic attraction to women was only somewhat more common-, but when I thought about it I also thought that I could've been bi with a preference for women.  I also thought that something was wrong with me because I wasn't interested in sex at all.

 

Then I found out about asexuality a year after I graduated high school.