Adexsexual

**Adexsexual** is an ace-spec microlabel that describes one who does not experience sexual attraction towards real or specific people at all but experiences what is described by some as phantom partial sexual attraction and by others as arousability and sexual desire through imagination of experiencing specific sexual acts and sensations from or with partially specific but not fully specific or real people or through witnessing high-intensity sexual content with unspecific people.

The presence of real people in general or overly specific people in imagination disrupts the imagination, resulting in losing the sexual desire unless one dissociates and somehow manages to ignore the presence of the real person.

Adexsexuality is a self-centric other-suppressed counterpart to self-suppressed other-centric aegosexuality where the experience of sexual arousal or desire revolves heavily around imagining sexual sensations, experiences or intensity that happen to one and wanes with specificity of other people. Common adexsexual experiences:

* Finding some sexual content arousing and desirable but only when not focusing on any whole person in it too much. Still not experiencing urges to actually have sex with the person but experiencing desire to feel the sensations and intensity present in the content.
* Having high desire for experiencing sexual acts and sensations in imagination in general but finding no one to be sexually attractive i. e. no one to cause any directed urges to have sex with them specifically even if some people can cause one to be physically aroused.
* Finding someone arousing but only in the concept of them that is only tangential to their reality, still not having urges to have sex with them specifically but having high desire for disembodied sexual acts when imagining them happening to one in relation to that person, focusing too much on what the person really is makes the desire disappear or weaken.
* Being aroused by parts of someone's body without experiencing sexual attraction towards that person and letting imagination wander, causing one to experience sexual desire in general but once refocusing on that person as a whole: losing the sexual desire again and never experiencing sexual attraction i. e. never experiencing urges to have sex with that person. If talking to the person, maintaining sexual desire is almost impossible without dissociation.
* Being consumed with the idea of experiencing specific sensations from sexual experiences and the value of sex instead of having urges to have sex with anyone specific. If actually trying to experience those sensations, the presence of real people disrupts that sexual desire and the motivation to have sex drops down to zero or even becomes negative even if the body is physically still aroused.
* Thinking that one feels sexual attraction and even maybe being obsessed with trying sex out with someone specific but finding out that real sex for one always feels like nothing mentally and that one only has desire for sex in general as something that seems to be amazing and pleasurable in one's head but in reality no one gives one the urges to have sex with them.
* Choosing to engage in sex for purely pleasure-related purposes in case of sex-favorability is still mentally difficult due to no real motivation and is nothing compared to what one imagined and feels like hard work even if one is easily physically aroused by whatever partner one has.
* Diminished ability to experience sexual desire while witnessing sexual content if one has witnessed anyone in that content in real life or outside of that content.
* Being confused if one is aegosexual, cupiosexual, cogitarisexual, aremsexual or lithosexual.

Adexsexuals usually experience the loss of sexual desire without simultaneous loss of sexual arousal. The loss of sexual arousal is usually delayed. Adexsexuals do not experience true sexual attraction, but instead something that can be described as phantom partial sexual attraction. Adexsexuals can have different levels of libido, sex-related-addictions or sex-favorability.

The romantic/aesthetic/sensual/platonic equvalents are adexromantic/adexaesthetic/adexsensual/adexplatonic.

## History

The term was coined by Reddit user throwaceornotaceblob on November 9th, 2021.

Edited heavily on February 15th, 2022, to reflect the differences between sexual attraction, sexual desire and sexual arousal and specify the complete lack of sexual attraction and changing sexual desire.

## Flag

The adexsexual flag was designed by Reddit user throwaceornotaceblob on November 9, 2021. The internal crimson rhombus represents internal sexual desire that dissipates the more external it gets. The outer purple boundaries represent the lack of sexual attraction. The dark rose remaining color represents phantom sexuality or partially specific sexual desire.

An alternate adexsexual flag was designed by Reddit user u/Fireballcatcher .

## Etymology

The prefix combines *ad*, meaning almost, and *ex*, meaning externally. With the suffix, it means "approaching external sexuality."