Tonight, I was the closest I’ve ever been to “coming clean” and just flat-out telling everyone about the fetish. My Facebook account has been fetish-free. It’s my real name, my real-life friends, etc. But there’s part of me that just wants to no longer hide. I want to stress that I have *not yet* gone through with telling everyone. My question is, what would you do, have you done it, how did people react, etc. If this makes any difference in terms of potential reaction, the overwhelming majority of my friends are conservative Christians.
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
My opinion is that people, in general and in pretty much ALL things, are best kept on a "need to know" basis. Maybe in 20 years you want to run for Congress or something, thanks to the internet all the information you ever volunteered about your life is going to end up plastered all over Fox News. That's also why I don't have a facebook account. -
Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
Well revealing my fetish in front of people didn't go well with me sadly. I once had a good female friend who loved to blow balloons. She said that she always kept a balloon in her pocket to enjoy blowing. I thought she might be a looner or she might not be knowing about this term. I happened to explain balloon fetish and ultimately revealed mine. Instead of taking it in a healthy way she weirded out and never talked to me again��
There was another female friend whom I made to blow a balloon as a part of a dare. But she became curious and started to ask why do u I keep asking her about balloons and enjoyment. I spilled the beans in front of her too. She too didn't take this in a casual way but she advised me to consult a psychiatrist! As if it is a mental disorder wtf. To my surprise she is my friend till today but can't ask more about balloons.
My 3rd female friend just exclaimed "eww" and i was like what's eww in this?
Hence, my dear looner friends, life isn't sparkles for us people. Asking nudes from someone or having a one night stand with a girl is considered ok but asking some girl to blow a balloon is considered a shameful act. I just don't know what's fuckin wrong with these people. I have heard lot of hate comments on looners and i feel extremely sad knowing them. What's the point of all this sordidness?? We are also human beings. Not a subhuman uncivilized shit. We too have souls. We too have empathy.
I consider balloon fetish as the most safest and cutest fetish amongst all. It's just balloons!! Gives u a festive feeling. U can be a child once again! There's nothing invasive. Nobody gets hurt. No nudity. No damage at all. Just balloons!
Face the fact: we are hated. So it's better not to reveal anyone about this fetish unless and until u r pretty damn sure tht that person will never leave ur side.
Sorry for such a long message.
Happy looning everyone!NECKING IS AWESOME!Comment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
Holy crap, Hans. I’m sorry it went like that for you. The time isn’t right yet to tell everyone all at once, but I do still hope to maybe do reveals on a person-by-person basis if I feel like they won’t break the friendship off. I told two friends individually this morning, both of whom were very inclusive of it.Comment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
That's a grt news buddy! Not all of them have such awesome luck. I hope everything goes fine in the process of revealing ur fetish!!
Regards
HansNECKING IS AWESOME!Comment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
This. Oh so very much this.
Not only for future references, but also the fact that sexual preferences are kinda private. Heck, even with the lessening stigma in the world lots of people still keep their orientation to themselves - and that's the most basic sexual characteristic. Specializations, no matter if it's something relatively harmless as balloons or, say, seeing people wear baseball caps, is a VERY private thing. People might not want to know such intimate details.
Everyone goes to the bathroom, yet you don't tell others about the frequency and quality of your visits. It's something that matters a lot to YOU, of course, but unless you are in a sexual relation with a person it's NOT a good idea to reveal your personal tastes. Just a basic tenet of human interaction.
I know the need for validation can be strong, but you're just as likely - if not more - to recieve the exact opposite. And people might consider you a freak not so much for WHAT you happen to like, but for the fact THAT you chose to talk about it.
Internet anonymity and forums for like-minded like this one is a great place to vent. My long-time-partner (wife in all but ring, 18 years and counting) knows about my fetish and approves/indulges - but NO ONE else. (Under my real name, ofc. Ol' Harley MIGHT have given away his interests here and there on the net over the past two decades, but that's under a moniker taken from a B-movie I happened to watch the night before finding myself in need of a new nick...)
TL : DR - be careful who and why you tell about intensely personal stuff. It can come across as creepy and intrusive no matter how harmless the content is.Comment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
I am in a work who depends a lot of my public image, so if I reveal something so private as my fetish it could ruin my image or affect very seriously my amount of clients. Also I have some problems with other people in my work, if I reveal something like that the could use it as a perfect chance to affect my public image and ruin my work. I am not considering my fetish as something bad, but I can’t say the same about the culture where I live (Mexico) here every kind of sexual variation is considered as a taboo, so as my work (and incomes) depends a lot on my public image I can’t say anything about this.A looner looking for fun, against violence or people with hightened moral idealism…. I just care about loons, so don’t ruin the fun.Comment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
I wouldn’t want to come out on FB. It’s not just your friends n family that can see, but your employer, future employer too if they go looking. I kept my FB profile clean from all of that, but I did use to have an account over on VK just for my fetish lifestyle.Comment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
Alrighty then, I think we've reached our consensus here. Good advice, everyone!
I've felt the same way from time to time. Not just about my fetish (well, this one at least), but about other sensitive topics including my experience with drugs and alcohol. It's generally best to keep sexual, personal, self-incriminating, any information that if released to those people could have consequences, to yourself when possible.
For your specific case, if you absolutely decide to say something, leave the helium part out. I enjoy the same stuff as you do, but I know that it introduces even more elements to an already troublesome topic.
I'm not that conservative nor a Christian. But I know many of each. I would advise you not to do this if only for that reason. They are more liable to take it the wrong way than most of the population.the overwhelming majority of my friends are conservative Christians.
Some good points here. The take home message is to keep your private life private and inaccessible to "outsiders" aka the general public. It's OK to join looner groups on Facebook (these days, that's where most of us are), but you absolutely need to create a separate account with high level privacy settings.
The "need-to-know basis" raises a good point. I've always said that I would only tell of my interest in balloons to protect myself from having to reveal something even worse like my drug use. Only tell certain people certain things.
I know a couple folks who have done this. Close family likely means parent(s), or siblings similar in age that you have a good relationship with. Same with friends, only the few that you can truly trust. Keep it to that short list (IRL at least), barring any discussion with an intimate partner.
I won't get into the rest of the post, but I somewhat agree with this point that he made. It is certainly one of the safest, all kinds of harm considered.
Is it one of the "cutest?" Hard to say. When the first results on porn sites when you type "balloons" are hairy overweight guys jacking off onto balloons or "fucking" them, I don't think the public thinks that when they first see it.
At the end of the day, though, he is right. Just be mindful of the negative stereotypes that you might encounter.
Once again, separate accounts, everyone! Keep that stuff private.
Here's a relevant story that may help. It wasn't by choice, but it worked out for the better.
I have many "uncommon" interests. Aside from the balloon fetish, I also have some weird hobbies, passions, and interests. One of the most prevalent is how I enjoy the sound of a heartbeat. Well not just sound, actually just about anything related to them. The idea of someone resting their head on their partner's chest comes to mind when I think of my interest from an outsider's perspective. It's entirely non-sexual, although for many people I know, it is a full-blown fetish that is very similar in magnitude to what goes on here.
For all intents and purposes, aside from participating in some discussion groups online where members can livestream their heartbeat with special equipment, I only listen to/feel for my own at the moment. For that reason exactly, I own several stethoscopes of various brands and grades of acoustic quality (currently using a 3M Littmann Classic III in Caribbean Blue!) which I often take out of their storage place and use at night while in bed. I find the sound to be very relaxing and enjoyable to listen to, just something about it. I think it has the quality of being a good grounding mechanism in this hectic world. In fact, I find it so pleasurable to listen to that I often fall asleep while doing so and find my steth under a blanket the next day. Not a problem at all.
..yet
I also like to break it out to use while I'm high (weed) since the THC increases both heart rate and sensory perception. Another thing weed does is make me fall asleep very quickly if I have all of the lights turned off to "hide" while under the influence. Maybe not a good combo in this case.
About 4 months ago, I smoked some and then got in bed with the intent of listening for a few minutes and then playing some video games on my cell phone. Minutes seem like hours, and I was just laying there with all my stuff on top of the bed right next to where I was. As usually happens, I pretty much just knocked the fuck out almost immediately, without either using or putting away my steth where I keep it. Somehow it ended up on the floor.
The next day, I wake up to my mom standing in the doorway because she wanted to borrow my rewards card for a local store to get me some free stuff that we earned. As I get out of bed to hand it to her, She looks down at the floor and sees this random fucking medical instrument on the floor and ask what it's for. I instinctively resort to "don't worry about it" followed by "it's a long story." BAD! As I'm gearing up to go work a job for the day, she comes back in and keeps bombarding me with questions. Asks if it's for fixing the car (good excuse, but no, it's not set up for engines. only people). And then asks about it's intended purpose (auscultation of the heart). I say no to both, and buy enough time to run out the door and work for 6 hours! I said that I would tell her in 2 days when my dad was at work.
I come back home, having though all day about how to put out this fire. As I'm working on the computer, she comes in and I have to answer all these fucking questions to get her off my back for those 2 days. It works, but she is extremely suspicious of me, assuming the worst about my intentions (what the fuck?!?! What could I possibly be doing with such a piece of equipment?) and the next 2 days were very awkward. I tried to avoid her.
What I did do was watch the security tape (dashcam) with audio from my dad's car that day. They were driving around and literally the first thing on tape after the engine started was him guessing what it was for (cars again). He seemed to not give a fuck about the actual stethoscope itself and my intentions, but was more pissed about me being "secretive." Something set him off and he started attacking me from every direction (saying I'll do poorly in/drop out of college, my friends are idiots, I might be on drugs, I work at a shitty job, etc) which was all 100% reactionary and not based in logic.
I was scared (drugs accusation) and mad at the same time, but I used what I heard as ammunition to build a defense for after the raw explanation.
Two days later, I sat down with her and awkwardly explained my heartbeat intesrest and why I had all that stuff, not mentioning why she saw it in the first place (admitting to getting high/passing out). That went well, I got no pushback for that side of things. We then discussed the contents of the tape (I said I came across it while testing the [defective] memory card [legit excuse] and had to watch more for my own sake). She apologized to me, and apparently she fixed things with my dad too and he did the same thing.
It all worked out well, and I'm just more cautious now (even though I don't have to be).
I know this is a long-winded story, but the point is simple. Don't tell people things that are deeply personal or somewhat unordinary unless they absolutely need to know or if doing so will save you from worse trouble.
PeaceComment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
Well, as I’ve said, I’ve decided against a mass reveal at this time. But I did tell my life coach tonight. Her response? I’m paraphrasing, “Eh, I don’t even think it’s that weird.”Comment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
I have had exactly the same thoughts before. Almost everyone on my Facebook knows and pretty much everyone I work with. Most of those I work with have been supportive, even buying me balloons and getting me them from other places. I have had several people react badly, a couple people have said I'm a kid, another literally said have you tried councelling to stop? I was like I'm not quitting smoking.
I have had others whom I'm friends with and also mutual friends with my wife who don't know or guess and they make comments but I tend to laugh it off or explain it as it is- a bad experience as a kid. They soon get bored and love off. Obviously my best friend knows and understands and doesn't judge.
I understand the future employer bit but I'm just open with most stuff and people can either take me or leave me. I do understand however the point made on "normal" peoples first exposure to the fetish especially on YouTube or porn sites. They find stuff we would never dream of or don't find " our" particular way of doing stuff of course. The worst phrase I've heard is oh I looked into the fetish and didn't expect that.
Well no Sandra you won't because I'm not a 7 foot cigar smoking balloon buster who wears pink. (Nothing wrong with that obviously) but rather a 6 foot average dude who loves to cuddle balloons and likes the Mrs to pop a few. Sometimes the internet is our friend other times it's our enemy. Also a lot of people show us as idiots with some kind of mental issue and not the normal, professional, gay, straight, lesbian, human, alien, looners we are.
I guess it's up to you ultimately if, who and how you tell but I've had bad experiences with highly religious people to the point of verbal and Physical abuse from those who have no understanding of anything they perceive abnormal. So choose wisely pleaseComment
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
Good thinking and a very acceptable compromise! Professionals in that field do work with listening to such things and may - as in this case - be an excellent option when you feel you just have to tell someone. As everyone here could attest, there's nothing inherently weird with being a looner - it's just less common than some other fetishes, but certainly more common than you might think.
What may be considered weird is, as I said, discussing it in public!
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Re: I want to do a raw, honest Facebook status where I tell everyone.
Blowandinhale
It was actually my parents and not anyone in a church for exampleComment
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