paraphiles aren't the problem

everyone loves to preach about mental health awareness until it actually gets disturbing. no one wants to talk about paraphilic disorders. no one wants to talk about people who live with persistent, unwanted fixations. the kind that makes even the person experiencing them uncomfortable. the comfort zone stops at depression and anxiety. maybe ocd, if it's about hand washing compulsions and not intrusive thoughts. everything else? treated like a crime. 

the second people hear "paraphile", they jump straight to "predator". no room for nuance. no room for context. no room for acknowledging that there are people actively working not to hurt anyone. people who are self-aware and in control. there's no compassion extended to them. no curiosity. no willingness to understand what management, impulse control, and harm reduction actually look like. 

because it was never about safety. it's about comfort, moral image, and keeping everything neat and palatable, no matter who gets thrown under the bus for it.

the reality is: some people live with fixations they didn't ask for. most of them manage those fixations. most of them don't act on them. and a lot of them are more ethical, more self-critical, and more responsible than the people calling for them to be burned at the stake.

you don't have to like that. but pretending it's not true doesn't make you right. it just makes you loud and wrong.