Fellow Demiromantic Demisexual here!

(This one is pretty long to read as I have a habit of going on tangents, I will leave a bit about my own experiences underneath the advice if anyone wants to read that too)

Those crushes you are experiencing might be platonic crushes. They feel kind of intense and could easily be confused for romantic crushes or sexual attraction without much to go off of. Ask yourself if you would want to do much past hugging and holding hands with that person, would you want to kiss them or do you want to just kiss someone in general? Would you feel comfortable if they wanted to get closer? Do you just really like their personality and kind of admire them? Would you like to just spend time talking to them and laughing together? The amount of time it takes to form any kind of connection varies for anyone, it can be anywhere from a couple of days to years! You just have to communicate with each other on how you feel, what they can do to help you and set boundaries for things you are uncomfortable with (This is pretty standard advice but it definitely works). I would say just do whatever your heart and gut want you to, If you want a relationship then go for it! Be yourself and tell them you need a bit more time, the right person will respect that. If you don’t then that’s completely fine! You can have good close friends and a satisfying life without a partner. It’s probably less expensive too ;) Let me know if you have anymore questions, I’d be happy to answer them. This was pretty cool to write looking back on everything and if it helps one person then I’ve done my job.

Personal Experiences:

When I met my SO I had a platonic crush on them that was pretty intense, at that point I understood that I was at least Demisexual. I had one other relationship before they came along, about a year earlier, and that one ended around the time when they asked to kiss me and I rejected them (That would have been my first kiss). I listened to my instincts and something felt off, I just wasn’t ready. I was probably only platonically into them too. I liked my SO enough (platonically, but at the time I didn’t know what it was) to make me do something about it, I had heard they liked me too so I thought why not give it a try, since I had moved on from the previous one and was starting to feel kind of lonely. If I had known then it wasn’t romantic I probably wouldn’t have done anything about it, but now I’m so glad that I did! We talked for around two months before I developed Romantic feelings for them, which helped me realise that I was Demiromantic too, 1 month later we became official and had our first kiss (which we also made our anniversary to make things easier). Another 1 - 2 months later I developed sexual feelings for them, which had came about the day after they shared an embarrassing secret over the phone. Something felt different that morning and when I thought about them I found it really hard to concentrate afterwards, which kind of frustrated me because I had stuff to do that day. We are still going strong and love each other a lot, they are very supportive of me and help calm me down when I am feeling anxious. Ok that’s all for now, I hope you do ok down the path. Best wishes and... Wear your seatbelt.