Do squishes and crushes feel different?

[arofox]

I always thought that experiencing romantic attraction is the same feeling as being platonically attracted to someone. Like, your goal is diffrent but the feeling in general is the same. The happyness, the tingling, ect is what I mean.

Now I read a post from an allo on instagram, talking about how platonic love feels like a warm washclothe and romantic love is like burning from the heart.

I really like this defintion and it made me wonder, is there maybe a diffrence between squishes and crushes? I never had a crush so I can't tell but I'm really curious about it now.

Those of you who had crushes and squishes at some point: is there a diffrence in the feeling for you? Would you say platonic love feels different from romantic love?

Edited October 21, 2021 by arofox

[Arsenic]

Well, I guess that when u have a crush you want to do romantic things with them... I don't know, going on dates, walking on the beach at sunset, something like that. When you have a squish you want to do the typical best friend things with them and have that kind of emotional closeness. The feeling might be similar but I don't think it is the same one, I mean, it is said that you think about your crushes 24/7, and I don't think about my squishes all the time, so...

[Collie]

I think crushes or squishes can both come with different types of attraction that may be different for each person. My first crush involved a sudden onset of heavy aesthetic attraction, and I don't get that with squishes. With romantic crushes I also tend to have small amounts of sensual attraction, ie desire to kiss, cuddle, etc. But some people may get aesthetic or sensual attraction apart from romantic attraction.

But overall? I'd say squishes and crushes can definitely feel about the same emotionally. A romantic crush isn't necessarily more intense than a squish (though it might be for some people). From what I understand, I think you can be intensely platonically attracted to someone, they are your favorite person in the whole wide world and all that, and still not want to date them.

[Themathlover]

As a quoiromantic person, I personally don't get the difference, but the question is : Do alloromantics feel a difference ? I think that yes, it's not the same for them. I'm also idemromantic and have based myself my entire life on external actions to distinguish people being platonically attracted to and those being "romantically" attracted to, although I feel like people who say to love each other "romantically" act like good friends who have sex. This is my quoiromantic perspective, but they don't experience it this way. Whenever I ask them about this, they're not able to clearly put words on their feelings, they can just tell me what happens physically, such as tingles and blush, which sounds rather sexual to me. It's confusing... Anyways, squishes were invented for aro-spec people to better identify their sentiments, crushes are for alloromantics. 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Themathlover