Hi Karit. I think it was brave and strong of you to open up and post about your concerns. Seems like a healthy step. With regard to your attraction to "young girls" I have a question. How young do you mean? Do you mean adult women who are a lot younger than you (I don't know how old you are) or 16/17 year old girls on the beach in bikinis or infants/toddlers. I think the age is significant. While 16/17 yr olds are not emotionally mature adults (and age of consent varies by country)...physically they really don't present much differently than legally consenting 20 year olds. Whereas attraction to babies or toddlers...well that's pedophilia. You don't have to answer that Q if you don't want. Something to think about.

I understand why you'd be worried about a therapist reacting the wrong way. But I would sincerely hope that experienced psychologists with a background in pedophilia treatment (if that is what you think you need) could offer you support and coping strategies. Particularly given that, if I understood your post correctly, you have not committed any crime.

Just so you know, I'm a woman and I work in healthcare. Several of my patients have had criminal sexual histories. I've also worked with adult male patients with a history of sexual molestation. Some acted on impulses (a crime of course) and some were desperate for help to prevent acts. I knew of one man who presented himself to a local police department because he was scared about the sexual thoughts he had about minors (he had not acted on them) and was hoping to be locked up in order to prevent a crime...he felt it was increasingly difficult to ignore the attraction. The police of course did not lock him up because he had not committed a crime and referred him to psych services.

Heads up for you, I think it might be against the rules here for folks living with pedophilia to post on PC. I could be wrong. I'm new here. But I just wanted to mention because there are folks on PC who experienced childhood sexual abuse and...you can see the conflict. If I misunderstood you and you're just talking about feeling uncomfortable with being attracted to good looking young women on the beach then feel free to correct me. Of course with adolescents, and anyone else, they need to be old enough for the age of consent etc. That age seems to vary a lot by country etc. But that's a very different thing from being attracted to infants. Feeling attracted is also different from sexual predatory behaviors or coercion.

Does this help at all? I apologize in advance if I misunderstood you. I think therapy is a great idea for you. I just recommend research and screens first...check the therapist's background...have they dealt with concerns like yours etc

Peace to you