i know this isn't an advice blog but idk who else to ask and i'd really appreciate anything you can say about this: can you be hypersexual if you don't have sex a lot / don't like having sex that much BUT you masturbate compulsively and can't stop thinking about sex and can't stop looking at / reading / watching porn? and is it really a symptom of bipolar disorder? b/c idk if i count as a trauma survivor but i have a bipolar diagnosis and idk.
first of all, masturbation is sex! with yourself! think about it like that if it helps you understand that part. masturbation is sex, porn is sexual, you’re feeling compulsions towards all these sexual things in your life which is absolutely hypersexuality manifesting itself
and yes, it is absolutely a symptom of bipolar. it’s incredibly common for people with bipolar to be hypersexual, it’s very heavily associated with mania, like, i dare say that bipolar is the disorder that hypersexuality most often occurs in (second to cluster b personality disorders).
you do not have to have trauma to be hypersexual (but i would say if you suspect that you have a sexual trauma in your life, you count as a trauma survivor, but that’s all up to you if you want to identify yourself as one)