The Groinal Response and OCD

What is a groinal response?

Groinal response is the term used to describe any changes or reactions in the groin or genital region.

Examples of groinal response:

• Tingling
• Swelling
• Moisture
• Sensations of warmth or heat
• Tumescence
• Small movements
• Partial erection
• Full erection

Why am I having a groinal response?

Our genitals often react to stimuli that are sexually relevant, but not necessarily things that we want or even that align with our beliefs. The actual term for this is non-arousal concordance: the disconnect between your mental and emotional experience of pleasure and how your body physically experiences and responds to these external stimuli.

The reverse can happen when you are trying to be intimate with a partner and are emotionally aroused but are unable to achieve physical arousal. Anxiety can interfere with normal sexual functioning, but can also contribute to an unwanted groinal response in people with OCD.

Where the groinal response becomes a symptom of OCD is when a person with OCD experiences an intrusive thought or image followed by a groinal response. This groinal response will cause a great deal of distress as sufferers fixate on the possible meaning of the sensations. Groinal responses occur in both men and women.

Intrusive Thoughts

Intrusive thoughts can look like:

• Sexual thoughts about a child (common in pedophile OCD)
• Sexual thoughts about a person of your same gender (Common in sexual orientation OCD)
• Sexual thoughts about an object
• Sexual thoughts about someone who is not your spouse (common in Relationship OCD)

Everybody experiences intrusive thoughts and images. They are in fact very common. People with OCD and people without OCD will often experience the same type of intrusive thoughts and images.

The difference in intrusive thoughts and images for someone with OCD and someone without OCD is that someone without OCD will shrug it off and think “that was a weird thought” and they will move on with their day.

Someone with OCD will become fixated on their intrusive thoughts and images and want to know if it had meaning, or if there was some truth to the experience.

Intrusive thoughts become a problem when people with OCD are unable to shrug them off and move forward with their day.

A person with OCD may question the thoughts and have anxiety over whether they are true or not:

“Is it possible that I am attracted to that child? Am I a pedophile?” “Am I gay?”

Someone with OCD experiencing groinal responses may even have a heightened fear that because they can’t control the way their body responds, they cannot control their actions. This can lead to social isolation to prevent bad stuff from happening. Ironically someone with OCD is most likely the last person to commit some sort of heinous act based on these obsessions. They are repulsed by their intrusive thoughts and feel a great deal of anxiety over them. People with POCD) (pedophile or pedophilia obsessions), SOCD (sexual obsessions), also sometimes referred to as HOCD, will not act out their intrusive thoughts and images and experience a great deal of anxiety from these thoughts they are so against their moral beliefs and values or identity.

Many individuals with POCD do not receive any treatment at all and suffer silently for fear of what others will think, say, and do if they seek treatment.

Examples of Groinal Response Compulsions

• Seeking reassurance from friends and family
• Searching online to see if groinal responses are normal
• Testing/Checking their groin response by picturing intrusive images and thoughts, watching videos of people of the same gender kissing/hugging/holding hands to see if they experience arousal
• Adjusting the way they sit
• Walking a certain way
• Adjusting the way their clothes fit or wearing baggier clothes

Treatment for Groinal Responses in OCD

People with OCD seek out reassurance because they want certainty. OCD thrives on trying to find certainty and clarity.

The way to combat that is to embrace uncertainty. Uncertainty is always the best route in treating OCD compulsions. OCD does not respond to logic.

This means not checking for groin responses. This means not testing for groin responses. This means not relying on the internet to dig up more information.

What it does mean is accepting intrusive thoughts as they come and go and responding with indifference.

OCD is a bully and you can fight back.

Respond to intrusive thoughts with responses like:

• “You know what? Totally. I am gay.”
• “Yep, I am a pedophile, and this proves it. So, what?”
• “Yep, maybe I do experience arousal when I look at that object.”
• “Yep, I am experiencing arousal. Who cares?”
• “I love this feeling. I hope I feel this feeling all day. I hope I get this feeling at work. I hope I get this feeling at school. I hope I get this feeling at my son’s football practice.”
• “This sensation is simply wonderful.”
• “Maybe I experienced arousal... Maybe I didn't. I guess I’ll never know.”

There is hope!

To a person struggling with groinal responses, it may seem hopeless. But there are treatments that can give people relief. ERP, the gold standard treatment for OCD, is the most effective way to combat obsessions, intrusive thoughts, and compulsions.

Are you struggling with groinal responses? Contact us today to find a therapist to help you.

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