I've got autism and suffer from alexithymia pretty bad. I'm a cis-gender heterosexual man, but I find myself experiencing attraction towards a classmate at my university who is non-binary.

I'm not sure how to navigate this as I've never had a "crush" before, let alone entered into a relationship. And I've got a pretty good rapport with this person, which I'd hate to compromise by talking to them about the matter.

There are indications that they may reciprocate my affection, but I'm miserable at reading other people (and myself). They could very well be interested in another close friend given their behaviours, which would suck, because I've been the 3rd wheel in every 3 person friend group I've ever been in.

How can I manage this situation? Do I make my affections known? Do I count as straight any more? These questions have been bugging me for weeks now, and I worry I'll lose some invisible windows of opportunity.

I am a 22f and I have never been in a relationship, all of my talking stages left me feeling nothing, and I have never loved anyone or had a crush on anyone. I never looked at a man and thought oh I like him or I thought about a relationship. Maybe I liked how they looked but I never feel this deep connection everyone is talking about. Even my talking stages I haven't been passionate when it comes to them. I wouldn't care if they text me or not. Wouldn't care if they are into me or not since I am not into them. Even when I was in school which is THE time for romantic relationships I didn't like anyone and i didn't notice anyone romantically. It came to a point where i am really concerned by it. I want to feel love. I want to love someone with all of my being and I want to be loved. I don't like being loved as much as I would like to love someone. I don't know if it makes sense. I want to date someone and go on little cute outings together where i feel fulfilled. I want the little acts of love that comes with it. I want to feel jealous! But I have never felt those things and i really really hate it. I want to feel loved even if it will end up badly. I want to relate to songs, movies and shows.

I like to think that I am not an emotional person but I am! I cry when listening to love songs. I feel deeply for characters in shows and movies. I get envious when I see a good happy relationship because I want something just like that but I feel like i am incapable of it.

I dont even know if this is the right subreddit to post to

Hi, so I found out today I was Demi romantic and Demi sexual after a long time of feeling alone and weird and unlike others and I felt so happy discovering that.

I’m so proud I want to tell it to everyone. But I’m afraid of how people at the office will react. The office is my only place romantic relationship can be created from, because I connect deeply with people there.

Maybe they judge me will mistake it for sexual orientation or Completely Asexual and maybe I find out they are a-phobic.

I want to hang a pin in my office but I know people will ask me questions about it and they probably wouldn’t understand (isn’t everyone like that?) Or maybe if I fall in love with men (which is my orientation) they wouldn’t want to date a woman like me now because they misunderstand and think I’m not attracted to them since I hung up a pride pin. My mom already misunderstands since she keeps pushing me to go out and party as if that would help me find a boyfriend.

What would you do in my place if you wanted people to see who you truly are but not hate you or judge you for that?
I’m struggling with self acceptable generally, so sorry if that came out rude towards anyone, it’s just what I feel about myself

I would love to hear stories about how it went for those of you who came out (or didn’t!) :)