Idk if I'm allowed to put this here but am I too young to know? I'm pretty sure I'm greyromantic but I'm still in middle school and there are a couple friends of mine who are obviously allo (crushes galore) but then there are other people who I have no idea how many they've had and others who've had only 1 or 2. I've had 3 so far and haven't had one in the past 2 years. So I may or may not be greyromantic? Am I just a late bloomer or something? Is it normal? I'm a girl btw if that's relevant.

Not sure how that even happens but whatever. God my friend's girlfriend is annoying the fuck out of me. I just don't usually like when my friends get into relationships because I feel like they're gonna replace me, obviously also because I'm just naturally annoyed and repulsed by romance in general. My friend said he wouldn't replace me for his girlfriend but it's hard. I wish I had friends that weren't interested in romance. I also wish bros before hoes was more prioritized 💔

edit: got* fuck i'm dumb lmao

I am genuinely so bored of living this way and I just wish I could feel SOMETHING, whether that is romantic or sexual. I simply can’t develop romantic feelings for anyone and stuff that’s supposed to generate sexual desire simply don’t work on me. Like I’m not even disgusted by it, I just don’t have any kind of reaction to it. The only thing close to these kinds of feeling is reading and even then I don’t feel desire but dissatisfied with my own life. Usually these things don’t bother me but recently it’s becoming unbearable. I don’t really need advice, just a vent😛

Edit: Requesting thoughts/advice (so long as it is constructive. Please if you’re just gonna say “learn to love and accept yourself” just please don’t, I appreciate it really but I already do that and it’s really not what I need right now just please. Thank you!

little clarifications: Fem, AuDHD, minor I'm still in a questioning stage about myself kind of (and I'm not all that into labels) but this one just felt like it fits and something about that upsets me like. A lot. I day dream about doing cute girlfriend type stuff (cuddles, dates, just being cute together) or even maybe boyfriend stuff (guys are kind of iffy where I live) but l've never had a crush on another person. I've read and looked at stuff like Cupioromantic but I don't want that to be true? Because I want a relationship so badly but all of these scenarios are all in my head either with a fictional character or with one Very specific "dream girl" I have in my head. I so so badly want to be in a relationship and all of my friends talk about there crushes and relationships (they don't make me feel bad and they're all pretty certain I'm on the Ark Spec anyways jtbc). But I'm also autistic and that has an effect on my relationships with other people and so I don't know. I'm technically still questioning but l'm like 90% sure I'm on the Aro spec somewhere. And I know that things like QPRs exist but I don't want platonic. I want to experience romance. I want to experience the awkward crushes and the feeling of knowing the other person also has romantic feelings for you but it just isn't happening and Beni think about sometimes I think i just won't ever have one at all?? Not in like an insecure worry way in like a logical way?? And so it's this weird thing of like "Maybe I'm just to young, maybe I'm a late bloomer maybe maybe maybe" but also there's this part of my brain that thinks about actually feeling romantic feelings no matter how much I want a relationship like that that just goes "' mean... eeehhh..." And I feel bad for saying this v because l've only recently become so secure in iy gender identity (deciding not to use labels and being okav with that is surprisingly difficult) and being okay with wondering if I'm ace or not. Because what if I'm wrong? What if I'm wrong and the people who tell me I'm too young to know and I just haven't met the right person yet are right?? Because I do want this. It just makes me sad to think that I'll never be able to experience romance in the way I daydream about I guess.

Any thoughts are welcomed and very very greatly appreciated Please! And thank you!!

I keep getting posts taken down from the usual aromantic subreddit due to internalised arophobia, especially ones with a rant tag, which doesn’t help my feelings of isolation and alienation due to the way that I am.

Since coming to terms with being aromantic five years ago it’s been getting worse and worse to deal with. The feeling of pure loneliness being stuck on the outside looking in at the world being able to experience what I can’t have due to not being able to feel romantic attraction is destroying my mental health and is going to get worse over time when all of my friends get into serious relationships, or even married, and I’m going to be left behind.

I feel like the kind of love I have to offer is just as valuable as romantic love but it never seems to be enough, romance wins people over and it’s the be all and end all of human relationships, I can never win. I’m never anyone’s first choice or main priority. I’ll never be as special to someone as a romantic partner is. I find it so fickle and cruel when no matter how long or how much you’ve known and loved a friend, someone they met five minutes ago comes in to have you put on the back burner.

I also just went through my first ever queerplatonic friendship breakup (they’re alloromantic) and it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced the pain of what I assume an alloromantic relationship breakup would feel like. Me and that person are still going to be friends and our friendship isn’t going to change, but that one extremely special part of our friendship having a line now drawn under it really has completely devastated me. I can’t expect all of my friends to stay single so I can be happy, that’s completely unfair. But at the same time, even though romance completely repulses me, it must be nice to be loved like that, which I never will be platonically. It’s a lonely life I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

I’m also part of the LGBTQ+ community as a bisexual trans man, which means I’m always surrounded by conversations about dating, dating apps, hookups etc. . Those are conversations that make me feel very uncomfortable and sad because I don’t belong in those spaces, and from experience as well. But I can’t escape it, it’s all anybody ever talks about and no matter what, people forget about what I tell them about how it makes me feel and those conversations continue. I can’t relate, I can’t contribute, I feel uncomfortable but there’s no way out of it.

My mental health is completely ruined by this because I don’t know how to cope. There’s no local support groups for aromantic people. Asexual people, yes, but I’m not one of those. There’s nothing locally for people like me, I feel like I’m the only aromantic person here, nobody understands. There’s no therapists either that have spoken to any aromantic people before or are aromantic themselves, any counsellor I’ve talked to in the last five years doesn’t know what to do with me. I’m lost.

If anybody could help me I would really appreciate it, my dms are open. I need to know how to cope in a world where everything revolves around romance and everyone gets the love, affection and intimacy they need but me. I’m a lonely, touch starved person with abandonment issues which doesn’t help and seeing everyone else get what they need and talk about it constantly is devastating. I can’t baby proof the world and I can’t censor everybody, that’s not how reality works. I wish romance never existed so nobody would talk about it but again, that’s not how the world works. But I wish it was. I’m worried this is going to jeopardise friendships in the future since I don’t want anything to do with my friends’ love lives. I wish I could, I would give anything to hear about these exciting things happening in my friends lives that clearly make them happy but I just can’t. The void is there and it stings, it really stings.

Now it could be just because of cultural differences in English speaking countries there might be more peer pressure to have A relationship and they might not end up doing as good as intended. But here, Even approaching a girl out of the blue can be considered harassment, so it might be just different communities but I don't think romance is overrated.

But, ever since I have joined this sub or just started getting more online I have seen a lot of increase in Platonormatovity around me And people saying that friendships are superior to Romance.

I personally don't think that I think both relationships are fine at there respective places and don't need to be compared or praised to be better than one or another.

Now let me be clear, I've never had any proper lasting friendships or any relationship at all, as a matter of fact I'm completely alone, I'm Asexual, Aromantic, Aplatonic and Afamilial and still figuring. So It could just be I don't be able to make a preference between the two or just see the two as another relationship besides family.

But I have seen a lot of romance bashing which I just don't like and I wanted to let it out my system.

i feel like im probs aro and ppl say that you can just ahve qpr but i dont want a qpr i want a traditional one. makes me feel depressed tbh i wish converison therpay was real and legal but its probs unscientific (in the area i live tho its legal i think atleast for gyas and gender minorities) btw im 16AFAB

I‘ve been Cupio before and pretty unaware so for the LONGEST time, I either thought I had crushes (I didn’t LMAO) or I’d find someone eventually. I then realized I’d probably never experience romantic feelings and I was heartbroken (I’m cool with it now)

I didn’t feel broken either. I just thought it allos could get crushes less frequently than others, go many MANY years without them, or not have one until later in life

How is it that I've not met a single person who is also aromantic but I've met a few asexual people and they're all alloace? This sucks. I often wear an aro pride pin or white ring and I have a backpack with a handmade no romo patch on it.

I thought one person was aromantic because they wore a pin with the flag on it but when I asked them they said they weren't really. I get sick of people talking about romance all the time and need someone who gets it. Especially when people are like "oh no don't say that" when I tell them I can't fall in love. There has to be at least someone else that doesn't experience romantic attraction.

Is there anything you need to be here or something you'd wish of this community going forward?

I used to find romantic feelings fascinating but amatonormativity makes it so people are hilariously uncritical towards them, and they behave like total asshats as a result.

Romantic relationships can disappear because a feeling mysteriously changed… isn't it awfully immoral on every other dimension than romance? Or how allos can start being super nice to someone they fancy and then give them the cold shoulder when oh noes they don't fit criteria #4929 of a test no one asked them to perform. I could go on. Some of those norms are rooted in the reality of romantic love I guess, it can't be coerced into following this and that rule, okay. Nonetheless, I really hate how the negative aspects are barely acknowledged, besides overly dramatic speeches about how love is pain and so on.

To be honest, a lot of this applies to other forms of attraction. I could have written something similar about squishes, but this isn't the aplatonic venting sub.

Hi, I (23 FTM) have a platonic crush (24 NB) with someone been talking to through discord for about a year, we talk mostly about superficial stuff mostly but for some reason I feel platonicly attached to them, I don't know if telling them because I know they are in a hard time right now.

Also, I'm greyromantic, and i find difficult distinguishing between platonic and romantic love.

originally posted on r/aromantic but was directed here instead.

i am cupioromantic, and i've kind of had an inkling of that since i was literally 13. i'm somewhere on the ace spectrum as well. i'm struggling to accept this about myself and have only recently fully realised that this is an actual part of me and not just something that i can ignore.

i'm scared. i just wish i could feel romantic love the way it's always talked about in books, even just for a moment. everyone i've wanted a QPR or long term relationship with isn't aro, it's not fair to either of us. it's not that i think i'm broken, necessarily, but i'm just sacred i'll never be able to feel love the way other people talk about it. i love my parents, and my friends, but it doesn't feel like * love *.

i'll read books, or look at fanart, and i'll just feel this gut-wrenching, unexplainable emotion, because i'm looking at something (even fictional) that i know i'll never be able to experience. and god, do i want it. i don't even want a sexual relationship (although it would be nice to try it, just once, to see what all the fuss is about). but god, the romance. i just wish i knew what it was like to love someone so wholly and completely. i wish i knew what romance felt like, even if it was just unrequited crushing/pining.

So im aroace and im out to all my class all my friends but STILL im siting in art and my friend who LITERALY watches and reads heart stopper and knows what fuckin aroace is is still like ik who u like and says my firend THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME and the funny thing is the friends they say are all fuckin les and stuff how do i tell people to just fuck off omg its just fuckin annoying also with like end of years and shit and then people are like u cant be emo or u cant listen to my chem cuase you have blond *deep exhale* just need to vent after a annyoing day

Listen, first off, I don't think aro people are unnatural at all, ok? And I'm 15, I'm probably overreacting about something. So, I've been questioning about whether I can or not feel romantic attraction for some months now and I'm honestly so confused. I think I'm probably on the arospec, but even though I feel like that is the most adequate label for me right now I can't feel like my thoughts are valid, as I am quite young. I try to brush off those thoughts really, even the ones about my questioning, but when I see my best friends head over heels in love with their crushes/partners I can't help but wonder why don't i feel that. I always thought that me being trans was an incovenience (bc of transphobia, not that being trans is bad at all) but to cover up that thought I used to say I would be the most hopeless romantic, THE good old fashioned lover boy, but now I can't feel anything towards anyone. It just frustration followed by frustration and it makes me feel bad about myself, that not that being aro is wrong, but that I shouldn't be aro, because romance was keeping me on my feet, my waiting until the day I would find my romantic soulmate. Now I don't know what to do with myself.

TW: arophobia

I’ve been having a conversation with the mod team of an “alloromantic” queer subreddit on why they should include r/aromantic in their community sidebar, including providing evidence of people on Reddit creating posts / having user flairs acknowledging their intersectionality between being a queer-romantic identity + an arospec identity that experiences romantic attraction. Also, aromantic is still a valid romantic orientation, just like all the queer-romantic orientations are valid romantic orientations.

It’s so dehumanizing for these alloromantic asexuals (or probably not even asexuals) to say to me “we’ll see if it’s worth it” or “we need to screen any potential subreddits before adding them” or some other bullshit excuse to continue to be less-than-welcoming of arospec people.

This is one of the problems with Reddit; it’s so easy to find yourself in unsafe spaces.

Also, some of the asexual moderators are terrible. It really sucks how the asexual community has turned into this place no one can take seriously because of all the garlic bread, cake, and dragon stuff. Not being able to have serious “discourse” discussions within the ace community is going to be a tragic flaw and have poor, detrimental long term results.

Why did I have to be aro I hate it I just want whatever anyone else is having I don’t care the pain and heartbreak it can cause anything just to feel the butterflies everyone talks about I don’t care what gender I’m attracted to I just want to be attracted to someone please I don’t want to be like this I can’t change my sexuality but with all of my might I wish I could why can’t I just be like everyone else I’m sorry. I needed to vent

I’m active in the comment section on r/aromantic’s pinned “Am I aromantic?” post. There was someone today who was questioning if they were arospec. I thought they were frayro, and suggested that, but they stopped talked to me after I suggested that. They must have been unsatisfied or something because they posted their experiences in a bunch of subreddits, aspec to just general, alloromantic queer subreddits.

I think they were just getting a boatload of invalidation from pretty much everyone, because they ended up deleting all their comments as well as their account today. I actually tried to modmail this person because it seemed like a lowkey traumatizing experience for a questioning arospec who experienced primary, involuntary, romantic attraction to be invalided by so many people to just an extent.

I can’t imagine how much self-loathing and self-hatred they are going to develop now due to internalizing all the invalidating things they read today.

Another thing I might as well vent about—so many people are making posts questioning if they are on the aromantic spectrum, but no one is really, actually going to the pinned post and commenting their experiences? Some people are, but it can just be a little bit anxiety inducing Incase it’s not clear where they need to go to share their experiences. There were like almost 20 people today only who all had their posts to the subreddit automatically removed and were directed to go to the pinned post, but only the one person managed to comment their experiences. Idk. Stressful stuff I guess

I am abrosexual and aromantic, and I find myself feeling depressed and lonely without the comfort of a queer-platonic relationship. I've attempted to have qpr's before, some with other arospec people, some not, but my partners have never taken anything seriously. I know what I need in a relationship, and have put so much effort into the ones I have had, only to be told that the others were never actually serious and thought it was silly. I need a friend that I can spend my life with, and express my love for them as I feel it! I may not experience romantic love, but the platonic love I have for some people is so overwhelming, I don't know what to do with myself. I want to kiss and hug and be close to someone, someone I can appreciate, and they appreciate me back. I don't care if they date other people, I don't care if they fuck other people. I just want to find my other half.

(side note; for anyone doubting my aromanticism, fuck off. It is a spectrum, and I know exactly where I sit. All love is love, platonic or romantic, and both are just as valid in a relationship. I just so happen to feel one in the place of the other.)

It also feels so much worse when you are trying, or feel the need, to educate someone who is choosing to remain close-minded and is unwilling to listen to you.

You really can’t “force” someone to understand something, no matter how much it would make life better for both of you. The other person has to actually want to understand, to want to educate themself, to choose to be open minded, and ultimately, to choose to care.

It sounds disappointing, and it is disappointing to find myself in situations like this, especially when I know the best way I can move on from this is to radical accept that I can do nothing. 🪦

I see this sub seems to be dead again. So thought I might do a somewhat vague, highly relatable vent to try to resurrect it again. :P

Do any of you get that feeling of wanting someone, someone to love you, someone to bond with, someone to be with you. For me I can't get that it's a living nightmare knowing that I'll never have that watching others around me loving hugging and kissing always fills me with dread & discomfort wanting that moment but never getting it. I barley remember having a real crush it was all fake and confronted about it I would get terrified and leave. looking at attractive & beautiful people and in my thoughts i call them Lucky wishing I could be like that having the same moments in life but insted am here typing this on my android wondering when will it be the day it all ends for me. To the people who read this (if this even gets approved) be grateful and and cherish the ones you love especially in this time of year. Just be grateful and Merry Xmas.

Note: Am not in any way trying to bash or hate anyone in a relationship the purpose of this post is to rant & vent about my emotions and hopefully connect With someone with the ssomeone who might feel the same.

Lately i’ve been watching many romantic movies and series, though it is very euphoric, and essential for me, because movies are my lalaland, and help me to stay positive about this shitty life. All these is making me feel so sad, just realizing that i’ll never experience anything like that. I hate being aroace. I’m having one of these moments. Just the thought of experiencing a tiniest bit of the full range of attraction people experience daily from their earliest childhood. i would rather be on the "no attraction" part than little to no. I do find people attractive, but it’s so insignificant amount. I feel very lonely. I don’t even have friends, which makes it million times worse.

The reason I'm so scared isn't because they wont be accepting or anything it's just that I dated one of them and they were how I found out and I don't want them to think it's their fault I'm aro since I've also had multiple relationships before them (I often dont know the difference between romantic and sexual feelings) i think they'd understand cause they're ace but I don't know and it's scary to think, I also don't want people asking questions about how I feel being aro cause I'm still kinda confused about exactly how I feel.

Honestly, seeing couples holding hands on the streets, madly in love, I dont get it. Are people not able to feel comfort in themselves? I feel this whole world is under some programming.

You must find someone, must get attracted to them, must marry them and then have kids. Only then you will find happiness.

If you stay single you will be alone You need companion...

Honestly? I'm already fulfilled and happy. Is there something wrong with me???

Sometimes it can so hard to be accepting of your identity when you are surrounded by so much amatonormativity (internalized or not), and/or listening to the experiences of people who do not accept themselves/>!hate their arospec identity!<. It doesn’t really help when you don’t have a support system to fall back on. It doesn’t help when you don’t have anyone to confide your arospec identity in, or if you do they most likely are not immediately proud of you for working thro your internalized amatonormativity and accepting an arospec label (or a few) that fit. (Because they are most likely uneducated, or need to work thro their own internalized amatonormativity.) It can be so challenging when you are the only one supporting yourself and advocating for yourself and advocating for people like you.

My BPD symptom of emptiness has been noticeable recently, so that doesn’t really help either. It can be so exhausting when you try to save everyone except yourself.

Hello, can someone help me? I have started my first relationship with a boy and I like him and I love him but... physical contact is very difficult for me. It makes me somewhat anxious, I can't help but clench my fists, make repetitive movements like little taps or shake as if I were very cold. Has something similar happened to you? What I can do? :(

This sub could have specific tag options like “advice please” or “no advice” or “need validation” or “need support” or idk. This just seems like a great and safe resource aros could use instead of venting in larger subs where the posts get downvoted and ignored.