How to deal with groinal responses and tell them apart from actual arousal?
Good morning!
I wanted to ask how to deal with groinal responses and tell them apart from actual arousal in the context of sexual-themed obsessive anxieties?
After being exposed to a trigger I got an unwanted groinal response and I got very anxious and distressed, apart from the urge to monitor and analyse. I know the context of that groinal response is completely against my values and egodystonic. In an attempt to actually feel better, have some joy, cope and relieve myself, later on I decided to masturbated to content I actually liked a bit later after I calmed down.
Nevertheless now the anxiety is telling me that since I later performed in sexual things, even from contents totally unrelated to the ones that caused me distress, then also the first groinal response must have been sexual, so I am a bit caught in a loop.
My goal would be toactually be able to set apart arousal and anxiety-driven groinal response effectively! Thanks very much :)