What's it like not being asexual?

Sexual attraction isn't strong or common for me. But I do get sexual feelings sometimes, especially when I fantasize. To my understanding, it's not common for people look at attractive people and immediately get turned on and want sex or whatever. For me, interest usually comes after I think about what I'd like to do to someone. Most of my feelings are romantic, anyhow. I think way more about romance than sex.
As far as what being turned on feels like, oh god, it's really weird.

 

I think Assasin'sKat described it great. You don't immediately want to have sex with any 'hot' person you see. That would probably be kind of awkward as well since you see so many good looking people throughout the day.

 

Being sexual for me is simply seeing an attractive body / face and going on like "That guy is cute/hot//Gimme that/Yessir, I want a spoonful of that, extra whip cream".

Jokes aside, seeing someone I feel attracted to makes me smile, act awkward. As I'm a pretty inexperienced guy, I can't give more details than that.

 

I had some denial/issues with sex, so I went from being practically asexual to sexual.

I don't want sex or affection from random hot people, only people I have some emotional attachment for. I might recognize they have a nice body or face, I might get a fluttering feeling inside, but that's it. When it comes to someone I'm crushing on though, it's different. There's a child-like delight of wanting to be close or touching. There's a nervousness or happiness when you are touching. Then you can never get enough of their touch. You can never feel close enough. You just want more and more of them. Maybe you just want to hold hands, then it's cuddling, then kisses, then something more. It's wanting to experience and share bliss. Being around them just feels good, happy, content, giddy, wonderful, euphoric, and even relaxed.

Moreover, you notice things you never noticed before. How their body curves, how pretty they smile is, how soft their hair is, how funny they are when they wiggle their eyebrows, etc. I never understood why people liked butts before, but now I do. When you notice these things it can be hard to look away, because it's entrancing or charming. I guess it's from the endorphins?

Because you notice their hair, you feel like running your fingers through it. Because you notice their curves, you want to hug or caress them. You just find yourself getting curious impulsive thoughts and feelings, like a small kid in a toy store wanting this and that because he sees it or it's from his favorite TV show. Or like and adult smelling coffee or cake and needing it.

 

The way I described it to my asexual friend was that having sexual attraction to a person is somewhat similar to looking at a cute animal and wanting to hug them, pet them etc. Of course, sexual attraction to a person is very different from wanting to pet an animal, but it's the closest thing to sexual attraction than an asexual person can experience, as far as I know.

If you like an animal, you don't want to hug every animal you see, but there are certain features that a SPECIFIC animal has that makes you think that one in particular is cute. As a result you want to approach that animal, you want to hug it, pet it, be with it etc. Likewise (but to a much greater extent) people get sexually attracted to a person due to certain features that they have which are attractive. It might be their appearance, heir movements or even their voice. As a result a person would want to have that other person's attention, please them, be with them etc. Then there are the actual sexual desires that you get with sexual attraction, and that's just our instincts calling for us to procreate, similar to any other instincts we have.

 

Gray ace here!
In my case, I'm one of those who has periods of not experiencing sexual attraction of any kind, and a few weeks/months a year where I do, usually faintly but I don't think I can't fight much with my female hormones, haha.

Well. Since I'm on both sides, I can tell you that it's a very disctintive sensation. Whenever I'm sexually attracted to somebody, as some others have said, I'll want to be with that person. That also means "wanting" to have sex with them, sort of. It's not an immediate urge, it's not like I NEED TO, but I think that it could be nice and cool and I do have interest in it (I think my sexual and romantic attractions are very differentiated); whereas on asexual periods when I want to be with somebody I like, sex is never present in my mind, everything is cheesy and romantic and whatnot.
However, I do know some very sexual people who yes, they sometimes see somebody hot and wanna do the do, (that doesn't mean they want to hump every single hot person that crosses their path but it can be really instantaneous) but that really depends on the person and probably their experience in sex.
As for what is it being turned on, I can only describe as... you know when you're very nervous and your stomach feels weird? It's kind of the same but down there.

 

It's more fantasizing than seeing someone and being like " they're so hot, I want to kiss them."

Wishing to get physically intimate with someone usually only comes if you've known them for a while...and ..it's....like a magnet. Like " You're really cute and you're close right now and I really just want to lean forward and kiss you because you're beautiful and I can't look away and I can't stop thinking about what would happen if I would kiss you." ( and then you don't do it because straight girls)...there are just these thoughts you can't get out of your head...( this is a shitty description..-.-...sorry)

 

I think the cute animal analogy is good.

I should probably add, there's an emotional element to attraction for me. Wanting to be close physically gives me a sensation of being emotionally close. A similar feeling of closeness I get from talking or spending time together, though it's greater for some reason. I don't know why, it doesn't seem logical, I guess it's just being that close/vulnerable with another. So while, yes, I do like the person's body for the sensation of touch/tactile... but there's also this feeling of being so emotionally close. They both bring good feelings.