Who have you told?

[~~~]

Yeah, it is quite amusing to tell people. I'm not even sure if anyone I know besides my family doesn't know. I find it amusing to have someone try and guess. They always come back hours later and i'll tell them and they'd say " How could you expect me to guess THAT?".

[ellwren]

Just the significant other.

[Trillium]

Tonight I told a friend. This was kind of a big deal for me, since I'd never told anyone in the world.

It was well-received. He was interested, said it didn't shock him or make him feel any differently about me. Then he had some other questions, and we talked and speculated about how the fetish developed in me, and how fetishes develop in people in general. He wanted to know how it felt to have told (I said great), and he said that he was honored to have been the first person I've told.

The last time I saw him I'd told him that I had a fetish, but I wasn't going to tell him what it was until I saw him again. Well, in the interim he did some web searching and reading about fetishes. He said that he'd guessed I had a leather fetish, because I like leather backpack purses. Or that maybe I had a tactile fetish, such as for fur or velvet. I thought it was cool that he was interested enough to do a little research.

[Guest sneezeguy]

I cant vote , but basically, ive told no one.

[Candy]

I told my last boyfriend, and got a so-so reaction at first, that turned into him being very uncomfortable with the whole thing and not wanting me to ever mention it. So I was really scared to tell my current boyfriend. I might not have, or not nearly as soon anyway, except that he was so open about his fetishes and just seemed so accepting. So I told him--I couldn't do it face to face, I told him I had a fetish and then I texted him what it was later--and it was great. He was wonderful and he uses it to his advantage all the time. He's really great about it and I am so glad I told him.

[Guest Raksu]

I've told my little brother, but I think he doesn't even remember it I wanted to tell one of my closest friends but.. I'm too shy

Edited August 10, 2007 by Raksu

[r]

I have a minor suggestion on the poll. Since the first question was phrased as a negative it was a bit confusing (at least to me).

You inserted "Nobody?" Yes, No

Nobody is wrong for me...So I voted "NO" since I have told four people in my life. But then looking at the last question results, it appear that 62 percent have told no one and that almost matches the "No" votes on the first question results. I suspect some people answered the first question as a positive rather than as a negative. It is quite possible I am the only one confused and amazingly dense this AM. But it might be useful to consider making the first question as a possitive for reaction.

maybe like

Told No one .... Box

Told Someone ..... Box

[arrowswift]

I told my boyfriend. He asked a lot of questions and laughed a bit, but he's totally okay with it (and even indulges me from time-to-time).

[Feta Sneeze]

I've told my Ex, and my current fiancee, and maybe 3 close friends...one of which didn't take it very well. And I regret telling my ex anything because as soon as we broke up, he plastered it all over his myspace...luckily no one I know reads that crap and anyone who saw it doesn't even know me. *whew*

But yeah, I was upset that he did that and asked him (nicely at first) to take it off (not so nicely after that didn't work )

[Hellsingfan]

I've never told anyone

[frozenfire]

oh jesus. the better question is who haven't i told? well, i know the answer to that. anyone male - my guy friends don't know, save one (he found me out in college in a way that i just had to explain it and get it over with) but the rest of them i try very hard to keep in the dark - though they probably all know anyway somehow, I just stick my fingers in my ears and sing and pretend that's not true.

and no one in my family knows (i hope - though again they probably do somehow with my luck)

but non-family women? every. single. one. every single non family woman in my life knows it and i only just very recently weirded out my first two. i'm talking, all my female friends, 3 former female teachers i still stay in touch with from high school, and just recently i've been doing female coworkers (*after* i leave the jobs - no current ones, thanks). and in all of that outing myself, only 2 people have been a lil skeeved. and they literally were told within the last month or so - i've learned a fascinating amount about the sneezes of the rest - but it's not like i catalog it or anything (cause that would be even creepier) so it kinda just floats through my brain in a stew, with certain bits about each person plus the most fresh info about the most recent inductee into aubin's hall of weird. I'm currently having an absolute blast with a coworker from the job I just left.

see the problem for me at this point is it's becoming somewhat of a compulsion to learn about and know anything and everything I can about the sneezes of all the females in my life. and yes, it is sexual for me as it is for all of us, and yes, that leads to some awkward shit sometimes, and yet I do it anyway. Because...it eats away at me when I don't. it's gotten to the point where, when I get it in my head that I should ask someone about their sneezes it builds and builds and takes over my brain until I just do it. It's really probably not healthy at all.

How do I do it? IM/email. the anonymity of the internet gives me plenty of room to hide, even with people I know in real life. I lost the inhibitions necessary for not telling people on the net when I was much younger on AOL. I used to search profiles for the word sneeze or sneezing and send the person an IM and ask sneezing questions. and the first one i did I was white knuckled and shaking so hard i thought I would die. but it became a game - if it went well, i'd learn about someone's sneezes (these were all strangers from AOL at the time so they were usually very far away geographically) and maybe even make a new friend, and if it didn't i'd move on. I was never going to meet these people face to face, what did I care what they thought of me?

so, by the time i was ready to try it on female friends (late high school/early college) I was already well past feeling afraid or bad about it when discussed over IM - so the only hurdle was the fact that it was on IM with someone i knew in real life, too. that hurdle didn't last long at all, and then I got to former teachers (well, we were still in touch via email since I have special relationships with a few of them already anyway, so it seemed a natural extension of the friend thing for me) and lately former coworkers (i just think cutrrent ones is way too risky, but given past trends at this rate i'll get there, too.

I'm fucked up and probably need massive amounts of professional help. Ironically, all this outing myself to half the world (literally - females) and i'm not one iota more comfortable with having this damn fetish in the first place.

sorry, it felt good to write all that, and this seemed the most appropriate place given the poll topic

[Vetinari]

I've told my father and my best friend, that's it so far.

~DreamShadow, who is working on that whole confidence thing.

Well that's one more person than I've told so you're twice as confident as me already.

Edited as DS has told a whole room full of people since that first post..........

Damn.......

Edited September 6, 2007 by Vetinari

[Guest Xylaphone]

I told one friend eons ago, as well as mom who surprisingly already knew!

[Chris]

I've actually had great luck every time I've told anyone! To list them I've told 3 (now ex) gfs, all of them took it very well. In fact, one of them did a jokingly "achoo?" after I told her while at Universal Studios Hollywood at the time. I've only told one of my guy friends...but since he smokes a hefty amount of marijuana...I just assumed he forgot it, since he's never brought it up ever since. The hardest person to tell was my mom, and I have NOOO CLUE why I did that...I guess I was just inclined to, but all of the times I've told ANYONE it has gone very well! I guess I'm just very lucky, at least so far!

[Niceguy]

Only my wife. And unless I ever have another (not likely) that's all I ever plan to tell.

Edited September 9, 2007 by Niceguy

[Natto]

Sorry to necro old threads, but I wanted to have my say here.

I've told a grand total of three people, only one of which I feel is a significant accomplishment.

The first one was a girl I met online. She was going on about how she was a masochist, and I was thinking 'gosh, my sexuality is so vanilla compared to here, I don't do anything weird like that--oh wait. I have that fetish. At the time I explained is as a 'medical fetish', since that is part of it--I wasn't yet able to pinpoint the fact that colds and sneezing and sniffling and allergies were what really did it for me. Medicine and disease in general are fascinating, but the parts that are sexual are more specific. Anyway, I told this girl, and she tried to help me admit it and figure it out--she got it wrong, she thought it was a nurturing kind of thing, but she got me thinking about it, anyway. She was totally cool with it. It was extremely cathartic, until she started talking about how her mother was poisoning her, and a bunch of really paranoid, psychotic-sounding stuff. The fact that the only person I'd ever told seemed CRAZY wasn't exactly encouraging.

I thought about telling my best friend--I tell her almost everything--but the subject of fetishizing tuberculosis came up, and she asked me if I had an illness fetish. All my friends know I'm obsessed with disease, I don't hide that. Last week my sister helped me cart home a bunch of medical textbooks we found on the street, and didn't bat an eye when I squealed fangirlishly over them. I said no because I wasn't really prepared, and then she said 'oh, that's good, because if you did I couldn't know you anymore'. So yeah, never telling her.

My boyfriend and my therapist came next--this was all in the last month, actually. My boyfriend was rather open about some of his fetishes, and I wound up telling him about mine--it made me cry, but it's brought us closer together. And my therapist apparently find it interesting, though that could very well be a lie. So yeah, I'm trying to decide whether I ought to tell anyone else. I don't know if I can. Most people would think I was an insane freak and hate me forever, I think.

[Glowie]

I haven't exactly told anyone (and I never intend to; as someone else said, I love having this little secret that's all my own!), but what I have said to my mum and my two cousins on different occasions is: "I have a secret that I'm never going to tell anyone. All I'll say is that it's about what turns me on. It's kind of like a fetish, but it's not at all perverted and it's something that's unrelated to sex". That's all I've said, and they've all been interested but not enough to push me to tell them specifics, which is good.

I've also told them that I've had this fetish my whole life, I was born with it, and that I was so relieved to find people on the 'net who were the same as me.

So basically I'm happy telling people I'm close to that I have something unusual that turns me on, but I will never ever tell them what that something is. The only time I can possibly imagine myself doing so is if I'm ever lucky enough to meet my soulmate. I've never even hinted to any of my ex boyfriends.

[Jemmabean]

Any time it comes up in the conversation, close friends, acquantainces, perfect strangers... anyone. I admit as well that I do steer it in that direction when it's possible without being too overt. I love telling people and seeing what kind of reactions I get from them, though. I've NEVER had someone be disgusted by it... only one that even came close was my roommate and good friend A, who doesn't really care, but since she has allergies and sneezes a lot, she just doesn't like it to be discussed 'cause it makes her a little uncomfortable.

As for family, my mom found SF websites in her browser history and asked me, while driving to school one day,

"Jeremy, do you have a sneezing fetish?"

*moment to pause... lie, or tell?*

*fuck it.*

"Yup."

*pregnant pause*

"Oh. Well. Um... I uh, thought you'd just gone to those sites to see them, or as a joke, or something."

"Mom, that'd be the lamest lie ever."

"I kind of expected you to lie, if you really did have one!"

"Oh. Well, nope."

"You're far too free with your personal information!"

"More like completely incapable of lying to you."

*laughter, drive continues*

My dad was actually the only time the fetish being discovered has been really embarassing for me. Dad walks into my room, blushing a little and talking too fast:

"Uh, Jeremy. There's, uh... something of yours on the computer. Go, uh... go turn it off."

I went downstairs (he left) and discovered the computer gaily playing a .wav at full bloody volume. It was "ragweed.wav" from that red_nosed_allergic_girl from yahoo groups... I recall she had a website briefly as well. Very intense-sounding and rapid sneezes (yum ). So THAT was a little awkward.

Otherwise I find telling people to be an exciting, informative and overall neat experience. I recommend it to everyone who lives in a fairly liberal social climate.

Edited October 19, 2007 by thousand-yard-stare

[David]

I told two of my good female friends back in HS, and they took it pretty well...they liked to tease me and do stuff like obviously point out when they were about to sneeze, but it was fun all the same :-D

I also told my mom...but most moms have this good understanding of their kids and she told me she already knew

Edited January 24, 2008 by David

[Dawnie]

I found this website in July of 2005. That's when I figured out that this thing I had for sneezing was an actual fetish and I actually wasn't alone. I told my best friend that August 2005. Then I didn't tell anyone else for almost a year and then it was my husband. That's it.

[Jess]

I had apparently forgotten to clear my history one day. My husband questioned me about it. I looked at him seriously. I gulped a few times.

"Well, uh, I guess"

"Yeah"

*gulp again*

Then he cracked up laughing. I mean hysterics. Hahaha. No one else knows though

[Guest WalterDESneeze]

I dont mind most people knowing, but Id leave the country if my mom found out.

I had apparently forgotten to clear my history one day. My husband questioned me about it. I looked at him seriously. I gulped a few times.

"Well, uh, I guess"

"Yeah"

*gulp again*

Then he cracked up laughing. I mean hysterics. Hahaha. No one else knows though

[sneezealot]

OMG I THINK I WOULD DIE IF ANYONE EVER FOUND OUT ...I KNOW IM TAKING A BIG RISK BECAUSE I MAKE VIDEOS ALL THE TIME, BUT I FIGURE WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF SOMEONE I KNOW FINDING OUT ABOUT THAT SITE AND THEN EVEN IF THEY DID, FINDING OUT ABOUT ME...I TOLD MY BEST FRIEND I MAKE THE VIDEOS, BUT THATS IT....WOW READING ALL THESE REPLIES, I WISH I COULD BE AS OPEN AS SOME OF YOU, THATS GREAT...OH WELL MAYBE ONE DAY

[justmistme]

nobody.. ever. haha.

just you guys.

[Guest rezeensy]

I have only told one person in my life (15years ago) and that was before I recognized this as a fetish. I told my then BF that I used sneezing when I fantasized and he thought it was all about him, way wrong as I have love sneezes since I was very young. I have never told anyone else as I was unable to fully share with that person to the point of understanding. I would never share with family because for me the fetish is very sexual and I don't share any other sexual preferences w/ them. Have not shared with my best friend even though we share everything including things about sex and have even had a few conversations about sneezing during sex which I was saying would not be happening for me that particular day becuz my then BF said sex didn't happen when he had a cold becuz things didn't work right (bumber for a sneezes fetishist ugh). My best friend said having a cold was the best time sneezing and spraying him and him screaming---maybe she has a fetish too??? Oh yeah she has a great sneeze I share on obs soon. My current BF does not know about my fetish. I have considered sharing he is such an open free spirit he would probably think it was cool esp. since he has allergies and is sneezy when he catches a cold ( and his parts still work unlike my ex. bonus for me) how ever I fear he would share with other suchs as sister he is close to. Never would here the end of that as family functions from her. High point I have great obs of him as well and his best friend. Okay this is my first post stop me now so I can get to obs.