Hypersexuality?

Hey, this might be a little tmi.

Background info that you can skip - I posted on here a little while ago talking about potential hypomania/mixed episodes, long underlying moods underneath BPD mood swings, and whether I might have a combination of BPD and Bipolar... I became incredibly suicidal and had to go and meet with the crisis team. I spoke with a social worker who reviewed me and I was once again discharged from adult mental health services with the recommendation of youth (18-25) counselling (I'm 20), so I am not diagnosed with BP and I don't know whether I have it, but this seems like the right forum to ask about something I'm currently struggling with.

Anyway, I'm not sexually active in terms of having an SO or anything, and I've never had 'full sex', but I seem to have periods where I have a ridiculously high libido/insatiable sex drive. In my 'normal' state I have an average libido and only masturbate occasionally, but when these episodes happen I feel turned on constantly, I can't stop thinking about sex, I feel like I should go out and sleep with anyone who would have me, I masturbate several times a day, I'm horny all the time, and in the past it has affected my work because I've felt so turned on for no reason that I'd have to go and masturbate in the bathroom etc. (I don't currently work, I'm too ill). I also recently started fooling around with a friend and we've started some kind of 'friends with benefits' arrangement which is out of character for me, since I have a lot of trust and intimacy issues linked to BPD. I've been fairly high functioning, seeing friends a lot, feeling compelled to talk incessantly, restless, irritable, giddy and easily amused lately, not being able to get to sleep until around 4-5am, but also very low, tired, sleeping in late, feeling upset and angry a lot.

Does this sound like hypersexuality? It's driving me crazy, I can't even sit down and relax without feeling like plaiting my legs together to try and suppress the urge to masturbate.

I certainly recognise things that you are saying in my experiences. I get quite bad hypersexualilty when I am high and it has got me into trouble in the past. I am always a fairly sexual person but my sex drive goes into orbit when I am hypo/manic. I think that recognising it is a good thing as then you can be aware and try to keep things safe for yourself. When all is said and done, frequent masturbation is not going to do you harm, whereas dashing off with strangers might well - so it might be a case of trying to balance risk. Does your Dr/team know that this is such an issue for you as it is one of the things that they look for when making a diagnosis of BP so it might be useful for them to know tho I appreciate it is not the easiest thing to talk about.

Cracked

I haven't really wanted to discuss it with anyone before because it's so embarrassing, but it's become such a problem this last few days that I think I'm going to have to bring it up with my gp I didn't know it was a thing they looked for when diagnosing bp though, perhaps letting my dr know would be wise. I know masturbation isn't harmful which is why it seems sort of stupid to complain about lol but it has led to other things is the past, luckily with friends and not strangers, and I'm a bit concerned about it escalating. Thanks for replying

No problem. Certainly when being diagnosed and when I was being assessed in a large research project a lot of questions were about hypersexuality and my psych thinks that my behaviour in that regard is related to BP for sure. I think the key is that it is changing. It is not like you always have a very high sex drive - it seems to vary with mood, am I right? For sure masturbation can lead to other things too and when one thing leads to another it can be best to nip it in the bud. I think that telling your Dr would be a good idea - I would think that they would want to know. Take good care of yourself.

Cracked

Yeah it definitely varies with mood, it's like my libido has sky rocketed lol. I've never been asked questions about sex/sexuality etc I don't think :s I'll definitely mention it. Thanks again for being so helpful

No worries - I hope it goes OK for you

Cracked

Question: are you on lamictal? What kind of meds are you taking, if any? They can have these side effects.

No, I've been on 100mg trazodone for a while (since August/September), and this has happened before a few times, so I don't think it's meds.