12-11-2017, 08:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-11-2017, 09:03 PM by battlecrops.)
I'm prone to depression anyway and have been living with it since middle school, but for a good while for me not being able to tell close friends about my orientation and partner contributed a lot to it. I wouldn't want to tell anyone but close friends I've known for years, but my partner is such a major part of my life it's upsetting to not be able to tell anyone about her and have to keep how much she means to me a secret. These days it's not so much depression and it's not as much about having to hide, but it causes anxiety because I'm worried about slipping up and saying something that accidentally reveals how I feel or my attraction to animals. I do get sad because my one best friend doesn't know and I can't tell her, but I'm more paranoid about accidentally saying something too much. Anyway I guess my point is from personal experience with being prone to depression and experiencing having to keep my attraction a secret I can understand how others would feel that way too. I don't like comparing LGBT issues to zoo issues but there is a similar cause/effect in being LGBT and closeted, it often leads to lots of anxiety and depression. I think having to keep any big secret about something so fundamental about who you are can easily affect your mood. But of course it varies depending on the person and how they personally would feel about being "out."
If I did this survey again I would definitely try to restrict answers to just zoophiles/zoosexuals and no fetish crowd. I've been thinking about editing the results spreadsheet and removing fetish responses and just leaving the orientation/attraction ones, but I haven't had the time. I do think fetish/kink folks who have actually acted on it can give interesting insight to sexual activity with animals in general.
