The fetish starting young

[sneezybreezy]

When I was little I was turned off by sneezing, I wouldn't watch shows on tv because a character sneezed in an episode. If people at school sneezed around me I wouldn't ever talk to them again. Did anyone else act the same way when they were younger or am I just weird? I think by 5th grade I started to enjoy hearing people sneeze but not family/older people. As for now, I love sneezing and hearing/watching others sneeze (still not my family though).

[Candy]

I had a similar reaction....unless I was completely alone, I hated anything relating to sneezing. More to the point, I didn't like anyone to know that I was reacting to it at all. I loved reading stories about sneezing, but hated it in movies.

[The Mute Poet]

I can trace the origins of my sneezing fetish back as early as three or four, and can remember distinct episodes of being fascinated by sneezing and experiencing that "pre-sexual feeling" that accompanies it. My other two fetishes, however, I can't trace back as precisely, and they appear to have manifested themselves at the age of eight or nine at the earliest.

I think I felt a similar kind of distaste as you did in my early years, sneezybreezy, except that for me it was limited to male sneezing. I basically never watched any show in which there was even a chance of male sneezing occuring.

Another thing that I've always found a bit intriguing is the question as to whether or not the fetish could actually be hereditary in some part. I mean, our parents could have it almost to the same degree, and I don't think it'd be unacceptable to assume that they could hide it from us even better than we attempt to do so from them. The taboo could make it so that generations inherited the fetish, but never spoke a word of it to their parents. How many of us have actually worked up the courage to talk to our mothers or fathers about it? And for the few who have, how exactly did they react?

[count tiszula]

This heredity question keeps on coming up and so far the orthodox answer is always that it cannot possibly be hereditary; the contrary view is always dismissed as heretical. I am certain that it is hereditary in my case. But then I also believe that not only being good at games and beauty , but also, controversially, mental facilitites and indeed even intelligence; nay, even homosexual tendencies are inborn.

It is odd, isn't it, that most people say they acquired the fetish at between three and five, not having had it before. But in fact these ages are the first time, if you then start school, that you are exposed to large numbers of non-family people. In any case, we are not supposed to remmeber what happened before we are three, though many of us do. No one ever remmebers a time when they were three and DIDN'T have the fetish. Shouldn't we assume that we've had it since birth? It would be very unscientific not to.

[Vetinari]

With regard to heredity and learning it seems likely to me that in various ways it is possible for it to be a combination of both. For example if a tendency towards addiction can be hereditary (which seems to be generally accepted) then a tendency towards some kind of fetishism seems likely to be something that could be passed on as well. I would imagine in those terms though the fetish chosen might be random.

However for those of us who find their own sneezing arousing I think it is quite possible that there may be a physical reason for this: sneezing does for example increase abdominal pressure which can have a direct effect on various other organs including some which are sexually stimulating. If one found ones own arousing from an early age it doesn't seem a particularly large step to learn to love other's sneezes as well.

[chui]

i've commented on this before, in other threads, but the neural centers responsible for both sneezing and sexual arousal are the same. it would be very "easy" on a physiological level for the neurons to become connected, really, all it would take is a certain narrowing of the connective and insulating tissues for them to allow for a dual stimulation. i, personally, dont know whether it is hereditary, but i tend to think not, or it would be much more common than it is. either way, i would venture to say, unless conditioned into a person by choice, or psychological experimentations, it is present from birth.

and practically, as to why it seems to "surface" around 3-5, most people do not carry vivid memories of extended time periods or events from younger than 3. not to say they don't have any, but generally, they are not as easily recalled times as later in the early childhood.

as to myself, most of you know, i was not born with the fetish. but chose to adopt it later in life. so, i can honestly say, mine developed when i was 24.

[Feta Sneeze]

I do agree that it starts young. And it can get "developed" not just "oh i'm born with it". When I was young, I would watch shows and stuff just to hear the sneezing in it. I wasn't aroused by it at all. It was just more fun when there was sneezing in it. In the way a show is more fun with a fight scene than with a "oh let's talk it out and be friends" scene. Then when I hit puberty, it developed into something more sexual, because I myself became more sexually aware.

Maybe it could've stayed the same. Maybe it was supposed to progress. I don't know, and I don't know how it could've been affected by my life or my lifestyle. It would be interesting to think about though.

[Vetinari]

i, personally, dont know whether it is hereditary, but i tend to think not, or it would be much more common than it is.

Genetically heritable traits can be common or rare. If a genetic trait is desirable given the environment the person is raised in it might become more common, a classic example being the increased prevalence of sickle cell anaemia in areas where malaria is a problem. Sickle cell anaemia sufferers are more likely to survive malaria and thus have a higher chance of breeding and passing on their genes than in other areas where the anaemia itself would be a disadvantage.

Equally something which has no obvious genetic advantage or disadvantage can continue to exist quite randomly. Having a sneeze fetish probably doesn't render one more or less likely to breed so it could easily continue at a low level in the population unless it somehow became linked to something which gave an advantage or disadvantage (for example if a mutation occurred nearby on the DNA whach had that effect) then the prevalence would probably change.

All the answers in here are of course speculation. No-one actually knows. Does it really matter?

[Candy]

I can not remember a time when I didn't have this fetish, although of course I didn't know that's what it was. But also for as long as I remember, I knew I could never talk about it to anyone, that no one else would understand. I hated it...it was my guilty pleasure. And I know it started very young...and there has never been a time when the two weren't somehow linked in my mind. I'd keep books with sneezing scenes nest to my bed and read them over and over again. Once I was on an airplane with my Grandfather... I was reading a book with an extended sneezing scene...I loved it so much I read it over and over, then, confused but desperate, I had to go into the airport bathroom to take care of myself. But I never truly understood it, or knew what to call it, or even made the conscious mental leap that sneezing turned me on, until I found this forum.

I find it strange though, that I don't remember ever talking to anyone about it, even when I was very young...I instinctively knew that no one else would understand.

[chui]

vetinari: i just love it when someone responds with a nice scientific answer!!!

[Vetinari]

Haha! Just demonstrating my Darwinian Dorkiness!

(It beats putting a Winnebago on auto-pilot)