Now 26, he is keen to raise awareness for what he believes to be a misunderstood and potentially life-ruining anxiety disorder. I don't want that happening to anybody else." "I was fobbed off by therapists who just thought that I must be gay. "Oh my God, I've just noticed a guy and thought he was good looking. Does that mean…"Īvy Joseph is an accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist and lecturer with 25 years experience treating anxiety disorders.
While he asserts that 'HOCD', an acronym coined by sufferers sharing their stories online, isn't officially classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), he says that the irrational fear of being or becoming gay falls firmly within the umbrella of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. #Gay porn straight men gay for pay manual
"Someone will tell me that they were walking down the street and saw a guy, and thought: 'Oh, he's really good looking.' But then they think: 'oh my God, I've just noticed a guy and thought he was good looking. Does that mean…'"Īccording to Joseph, it's at such innocuous beginnings that a self-perpetuating and all-consuming obsession with sexual identity can begin. "The more you insist that you mustn't have a particular thought, guess what happens? You're going to have hundreds of them," he tells me. "That causes anxiety, and then you start to think more unrealistically.