The GID virus…Did you catch it from the worldwide web ?

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

Ah the internet don't you just love it...What would we do without it...Information at ones finger tips...

One can read coming out 'detailed' stories online, [often resembling ones own life]...One can also self diagnoses using similar experiences online,,, One can have therapy online...Real life Experience online[I guess technical this is also happening online-people being referred to as their preferred gender, and talking about how their lives are going]...

About the only thing one can't do is have surgery online, but due to the drastic increase in 'rush-job' diagnoses and surgeries, I wonder with all the info exchanges online is the internet the 'catalyst' ?..

Is the internet spreading the GID virus, causing GID to become a worldwide pandemic ?

Did you catch GID from the worldwide wed ? 

Is it one of the main causes for the increase in 'rush-job' diagnoses and surgeries ?

Or have you been immunised ? [Your decision to "transition and or" have surgery, has not been influenced by 'peer-pressure' info on the web-so to speak]...

BTW I just added in the bold so 'non ops' wouldn't feel left out of the discussion....

Metta Zenda

[Padma]

The internet didn't even exist when I first acknowledged my desire to transition.

More recently, it's been other people transitioning that have awakened my sense that I can too, mostly face to face, though online too (and in films).

Nowadays, the internet is a great mutual support and information network (peppered with crapola, of course...) for trans people, and I'm very grateful for it.

[Hikari]

lol, I didn't even have a computer, or be on the internet before I understood I didn't feel male. If anything, I think more people have found out that there are others like them and treatment is available, information may be an enabler, but certainly not a bad thing.

[BunnyBee]

Um no.  When I first felt the effects of GID there was no such thing as the internet, also, being 2 years old, I didn't know how to read lol.  I used the internet when it first came into being to help convince myself I wasn't TS because I was scared to death that it might be true (mostly because it was lol.)  There was enough misinformation out there to do so, so if anything, the internet may have delayed my transition by a decade or more.  Really hard to say that for sure, but it was definitely something I read on the early internets that helped me dig my heels in.

It later worked as a good tool for support when I realized I could not go on as a male.  And now, I dunno, I don't even think about gender stuff unless I come to Susan's, and I think it's a good idea for me to stay plugged in, at least until the bickering starts poisoning me and I take a break.

I think the real answer is the information that is available now is helping a lot more people realize what's going on, so that is the one way the internet is probably facilitating there being more diagnosed cases.  I think there are a lot of outside factors behind it that aren't the internet though.

[cynthialee]

Nope, it was Donahue and Rene Richards.

[Janet_Girl]

I took info, Old School.  A.K.A the library.  Now i use the net to research things I need/want in order to further my own journey.

[amybenedict]

I knew I had GID when I was about 4 or 5yrs old, even though I didn't know what it was, i knew I was supposed to be a girl. That was in the late 70's. My first 'coming out' was in about 1990 when I was 16, still no internet... my second attempt at rectifying my situation was in 1998, not much internet apart from dial up porn and email. The internet now is a great resource, and if there had been this much info around then, maybe I wouldn't be transitioning at 37 but would already be 15 yrs post op. But hindsight is a wonderful thing...

[JungianZoe]

Before I could come out to myself about what I'd been experiencing my entire life, I thought that everyone in the entire world had the same thoughts I had about wanting to be the opposite of their birth sex.  Transsexuals were simply people who, because of mental illness, took action upon the thoughts that the rest of the world kept repressed.  But over the years, I caught glimpses of things that baffled me:

John Bobbitt actually wanted his penis put back on?!  Was he crazy?  He was halfway there!

Gardening or explosive accidents resulting in severed members, resulting in depression?  Are they nuts?  I'd be ecstatic!

And on and on and on.  Though I never actually tried to cut off what I was born with, I used to tie rubber bands around it so that the blood flow would be cut off and maybe a doctor would have to amputate.  My child brain thought I could fool a doc into thinking it happened naturally.  I'd get what I wanted, and I wouldn't be one of those people on the television.

You know what I got from the internet?  I learned that the natural state of things is to be content with one's birth sex!  Sure didn't match my lifelong experience.  And then I stumbled upon a YouTube video of a woman who had undergone transition and my mind was officially blown away.  It was like she'd lived in my head, walked in my shoes, and knew all my thoughts.  So I checked out more videos.  The only conclusion I could come to was that I was one of them, not because I was hooked by some propaganda, but because I finally understood what transsexualism was by seeing the human side of the condition as opposed the ACTUAL propaganda I saw growing up.  Early '90s cable TV impressed upon my prepubescent mind the notion that I would do everything not to become the girl I felt I was inside, the girl I'd called Zoë since the age of 7.

The internet empowered me to do what I wanted to for as long as I can remember: turning my internal reality into my external reality.  I respond best to emotions and eloquent speech.  If it weren't for the the internet and the videos I saw, I may never have learned the truth about transsexualism and I'd have lived a short miserable life as a result.

[eli77]

I thought that everyone in the entire world had the same thoughts I had about wanting to be the opposite of their birth sex.  Transsexuals were simply people who, because of mental illness, took action upon the thoughts that the rest of the world kept repressed. 

Wow that's almost exactly how I thought when I was little. I used to imagine it was like everyone flipped a coin when they were born and those that guessed right got to be girls and those that guessed wrong were stuck being boys. Sort of like how someone has to take the black pieces in chess - it sucks, but you have to do it. I was totally shocked when I discovered that other boys actually LIKED being boys.

I didn't live under the illusion quite as long as you did. But then most of my friends were boys, and the differences became rather obvious when we all hit puberty.

[Anatta]

Kia Ora

I guess for some of the young ones [and I'm guessing old ones too], if they happen to live out in the wild, isolated from the real world 'big towns or cities', the invent of the net could be seen as a blessing..."Hey there's folks like me out there !"...So yes, there's no denying the fact  the net has been a valuable tool for some GID sufferers...

I, like others here too no doubt, transitioned long before having access to the net. I was introduced to it's power[emailing researching non trans topics of interest] shortly before having my surgery in 2005, by this time I was already around four and half years living full-time...I didn't actually connect with any trans-group online till 2007 and now use it to stay in touch with what's going on with the worldwide "Trans-Community"...

However the question remains, would you[the internet user] say it has also contributed to the influx of GID cases now being diagnosed ?

Mental health professionals being confronted with more and more copy cat cases of patients with the same[almost identical] GID experience...

Coincidence or what ?

Metta Zenda

[Jen61]

Sorry but not; it is a mutation that runs in my family. I have MTF uncle, and 2 gay cusins. My children are unaffected.

Jen61

[AmySmiles]

Wow, 2 very similar stories to mine...  I didn't know how I felt until I was about 11.  At least, I didn't consciously realize the reason I felt the way I did.  From some of my earliest memories I have always hated the thing between my legs.  I tried to hide it because I was embarrassed to have it.  Still am, to be quite honest.  In elementary school I never wanted to play with the competitive boys, but didn't mind playing fun things with the others.  I couldn't understand the obsession with football and baseball at all, so I got into soccer so I wouldn't have to use my arms.  I also prided myself on trying to be as flexible as the girls at recess and played hopscotch and jump rope.  On a conscious level I knew I was a boy, but on a subconscious level something wasn't clicking.

My first realization came at a friend's house watching Ranma 1/2.  Before this, I had always assumed boys just pretended to like being boys.  But Ranma wanted to change back to a boy every time he was turned into a girl.  So I started actually paying attention to those around me and it became obvious that other boys did indeed like being boys.  Why it took me until I was 11 to realize this, I have no idea.  But at this point I didn't know it was possible to do anything about it.  My parents were pretty much nazis regarding anything to do with sex, and I didn't even know girls had different parts until I was maybe 8.  (On a related note, I didn't know what masturbation was until I was 19.  Yeah, I was sheltered)  I eventually was able to use the internet to figure out what I thought I was - a crossdresser.  But none of them wanted to be a girl, so I kept searching and years later found the website of a girl around 18 years old that was on hormones.  I finally found the word for what I was.  I didn't read about Richards and Jorgensen until I was in college, where I was finally free to do research away from my parents' prying eyes.

The internet didn't convert me, it just helped me find what I'd be looking for my whole life.  Without it, who knows where I'd be right now?  Probably dead.

[LordKAT]

You know what I got from the internet?  I learned that the natural state of things is to be content with one's birth sex!  Sure didn't match my lifelong experience.


Ditto

[Sunnynight]

Of course I got GID from the internet. I read all the awesome things that trans people get to do and go through, and how great their lives are just by being trans. Being trans is like the funnest coolest thing evar.

[BunnyBee]

Lol

[MarinaM]

I'm sure GID is more frequently diagnosed due to internet info.

Me, I started getting completely stressed around 1996,but had no Internet connection.

[VeryGnawty]

I had dysphoria long before I was using the internet.

However, I have complete confidence that it is possible to infect someone with GID via a forum member's Custom Status.

[BunnyBee]

Oh noes, I think I've been infected by your signature!  Mmm cake...

So, I think the internet of the 90s had a lot of misinformation and bad examples that may have discouraged transition more that it encouraged.  The internet of today probably helps people that should be diagnosed get diagnosed and treated, making it part of the reason for more diagnoses.

I really wish all the YouTube channels that exist today were there when I was younger.

[Sandy]

I got it from a dirty toilet seat...

-Sandy

[Lisbeth]

When I was growing up, the other kids always said if you touched a girl, you would get her kooties. Guess that's what happened to me. But that was more than ten years before DARPAnet came into existence.