'I'm sexually attracted to myself- I even get goosebumps looking in the mirror'

When Chris, 45, looks into the mirror, he doesn’t just see his reflection. He sees his lover. He sees his own reflection, which is completely besotted with.

The yoga instructor from California identifies as autosexual, meaning he's romantically and sexually attracted to himself. While it might sound unusual, for Chris, it’s the most natural thing in the .

Chris first noticed he was different around the age of 12. While his classmates were busy crushing on others, he began developing a deep curiosity and attraction to his own and presence, he told the

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“There wasn’t even a word to define [it],” he says. “'It was in my bedroom during summer that I was 13 when I got home from the beach one day. It had probably been about a year of sexual tension built up between me and myself. I was wearing a very small pair of yellow swim trunks, and I just looked across the room at the mirror, and what I saw staring back at me, who I saw staring back at me, just gave me goosebumps.

Locking eyes with himself in the mirror, Chris moved forward and kissed his reflection. He described the moment as “electricity.” He said: “'I remember stepping back and looking at him from maybe two feet away and just breathing heavily, kind of bewildered astonishment of how good it was.”

That moment marked the start of what Chris calls his “primary partnership” a passionate, evolving bond with himself that includes sex, romance, and emotional intimacy. He even has a term for it: mirroring. It’s when he makes love to himself in front of a mirror, something he describes as deeply sensual and spiritual.

“There’s no barrier between me and him [his reflection in the mirror]” he explains. Chris says he takes great care of his appearance not out of narcissism, but out of love. He said he pays close attention to 'taking care of myself', which he admitted only makes 'the drug [himself] stronger.'

Though he’s dated others in the past, and is currently in a long-distance relationship with a man who supports his lifestyle, Chris insists that he is still the love of his life.

“My boyfriend is fully supportive,” he says. Adding: "He's very open to sometimes just watching me and me together. He likes to get involved and sometimes he joins us and the sex can be great. It only makes the sex really great."

It wasn’t until Chris was an adult that he stumbled across the term ‘autosexuality’ and realised he wasn’t alone. In the past, Chris’s self-love caused friction with romantic partners. He’s been dumped via text by an old girlfriend who accused him of being more into himself than her.

Sex therapists define autosexuality as being primarily, sometimes exclusively, sexually attracted to oneself. It can exist on a spectrum, with some people attracted to themselves and others, while for some, the attraction to self is dominant.

He even recalls once visiting a department store changing room during a creative block, needing to reconnect with himself. After the changing room shenanigans, Chris’s block was gone.

Chris is quick to push back against the idea that autosexuality is just glorified narcissism. According to his own definition, he said narcissism describes someone who wants to inflate themselves, gloat, and get a lot of attention.

He added: "They want to feel superior to everyone else at the expense of everyone else. Autosexuality, in my case, especially when I was growing up, was something that I hid from the world. I revelled in it like a forbidden love affair."

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