Discovering your sexuality (With Videos)

Discovering your sexuality

• Are you noticing changes within yourself that are making you feel like a sexual person all of a sudden?
• Do you feel like the changes in your body have changed the way you are feeling emotionally?

Discovering your sexuality means "getting in touch" with who you are sexually. You may start to want and desire things or people that you didn't before. For example, when you were a young girl you might have hated all the boys at school, just because they were boys. But now you are feeling an attraction to boys.

You may be experiencing different sensations in your body that make you want to be intimate with another person. This is all related to your developing sexuality.

Because developing sexual feelings and attractions happen at a different rate for everybody, it is important to explore your sexuality at a rate that you feel comfortable with. Don't let anyone pressure you into anything that you do not want to do. (See our topicPressure to have sex). If you are worried talk to someone you trust about it.

If somebody contemplates their sexuality and identifies that they may be same-sex attracted (or GLBTIQ) then understanding and developing their sexuality can be especially difficult.

Although the challenge of coming out (see our topic Coming out) about your sexual identity may be frightening, having to mask your real feelings can also be very difficult. Many people have positive experiences of disclosing to loved ones that they are GLBTIQ. If you can identify with these issues in your life at the moment, try and talk to someone who can support you and listen to you – check out the resources section below.

Some of the questions you might be asking yourself about your sexuality could include:

• What is happening to me?
• Why is this happening to me?
• Am I GLBTIQ?
• Is there anyone I can tell?

Accepting yourself may take some time. It may take weeks, months or years to move from those initial feelings/thoughts to identifying as GLBTIQ.