How do you handle your demi-sexuality?

First time poster.

I've thought I might be demi for a while but it never seemed to quite sit with most people's descriptions. I get that all sexuality is a spectrum, so thought maybe that's why?

I find that I can objectively find someone attractive but the "pants feelings" only come along after a period of getting to know them.

So for me, it kind of starts of with a "I want to get to know this person better" to "I want to spend more time with them" to "I would be quite happy if they didn't leave"... that's when the "pants feelings" start for me.

Even then, it's more about just wanting to be around them, cuddling them than sexual feelings.

Unfortunately, it seems that for most people, they get the "pants feelings" early on which then leads to the other stages. So they take my lack of advances as "just friends". So by the time I am starting to feel intimate with someone, they have usually written me off.

Do other people experience this? How do you handle it?