Turned On By Yourself? You're Not Alone

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Do You Ever Get Turned On By Yourself? You're Not Alone

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Confession: Sometimes when I'm getting dressed in front of my bedroom mirror, perhaps slipping tights over brand-new black lingerie, I'll get turned on. So what exactly is going on? Am I a total narcissist? According to Michael Aaron, PhD, a kink-friendly therapist in New York City and author of Modern Sexuality: The Truth about Sex and Relationships, my self-induced arousal is actually quite common.

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"Some experience it more like an orientation, in that they feel more aroused by themselves than by others, and they are called autosexuals," Dr. Aaron says.

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Autosexuality, also known as autoeroticism, is a fuzzy concept sex scientists have struggled to define and research, according to Leon F. Seltzer, PhD, in an article for Psychology Today. Whether it's seen as one-off experiences or an orientation, the term "autosexual" refers to individuals who are attracted to themselves (and btw, it's totally different from having narcissistic personality disorder). Like most things sexual, those who relate to the concept fall on a spectrum. "It is very common for people to be aroused by themselves [to varying degrees]," Dr. Aaron says.

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The easiest way to tell if you fall on this spectrum, as Dr. Seltzer explained in his article, is to think about your masturbation habits. If you picture yourself while masturbating, you may be autosexual.
Of course, masturbation is inherently autoerotic (there's just you, after all), but unless you're fantasizing about having sex with yourself, you're not considered a full-blown autosexual by most experts.

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While vanity gets a bad rap, there's absolutely nothing wrong with turning yourself on. In fact, if you bring a mirror into your sex life, you can transition those feelings of arousal into an experience that you can enjoy with partners.

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Refinery29

This is apparently normal as far as science is concerned. In case you were wondering.

As someone who spends a lot of time standing naked in front of a mirror and wondering what it would be like to be on top of me, this article was reassuring.