Hey seddit! I've been a long time lurker and have gained a lot from reading the posts of this sub. I love approaching and am fairly comfortable with my abilities except for physical escalation. I've read a lot about how to do it and for some reason I absolutely am terrible at it. After a lot of inner searching and trying to figure out what could cause this, I think I figured it out. A few years ago I was in a really serious relationship with a girl I thought I was going to marry. We ended up breaking up because she told me she was afraid I was going to rape her. Of course I was extremely confused because I hadn't done anything for her to believe that I would do that. But now, I feel like I can't escalate with women cause I'll come off as rape-y and I know that I shouldn't feel that way, and the girl I was with was just a bad egg but I'm really struggling with this. I should add that I have been with girls since then, but I'm still fairly skidish when escalating. So if you guys have any input at all on this I'd love to hear it.