puberty caused my depression

[anibioman]

today i finally came to the conclusion that puberty cause my depression either the traumatic event called puberty or all the hormones. i dont think its a coincidence that when i went from tanner stage 2 to stage 4 i became extremely depressed. i dont really know how to fix it. treat the depression or what caused the depression? anti depressants or HRT?

[xxUltraModLadyxx]

when i was first going through puberty, it was about the same with me. i was becoming depressed and losing will to live. i was on anti depressants which only helped somewhat. it helped me to actually be able to be happy in some parts of the day, but i still was living by "whatever, there's no point in trying." anti depressants can help do a fraction of work that will at least allow you to cope and not feel like committing suicide, but in the end, transition was the thing i really needed. anti depressants can be a good tool in helping you become more productive which is good, because then you would have more energy for transition. you just have to make do with what you have at the moment.

[Natkat]

been there.
was very depreesing under my puberty and teens.

I think puberty is the hardest time for any transgender people unless they are in threatment.
and I been used to lock myself in my own world feel very lonely and away from sociaty, just cutting school and sleep myself away with tons of depression.

I must say even today when I moved forward I still somehow feel these urges once in a while its like 2 times at the mounth I just get depressed and stay inside my room for the whole day or more.. for no reason at all. I guess its because back then but I dont know.

[Vincent E.S.]

I know that that's when I started being suicidal. I had had depression for a long time before that, though, because chronic depression runs in my family (my mom's had it since she was a toddler).
I'd been to therapy off and on. Nothing.
I've been on about 3 different antidepressants. Nothing but side effects. Some even made me more suicidal.
I've been institutionalized. Nothing.

I came out to my family, friends, and school. I have a goal worth working towards.
I began binding full time and having everyone call me by my real name: Vincent. I can look in mirrors without crying.

Antidepressants won't help unless your depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. The only help is yourself, your will power, progress, and friends/pets. (other things may help you, but that's my list)

[Sharky]

Puberty definitely made everything worse. In my experience anti depressants didn't help that much, it did take some of the edge off. They also gave me really bad headaches. I tried tons of brands and doses. 

[mm]

Very bad time for me, getting breasts and periods conformed that I was not going to grow into a boy's body someday as I was hoping for at this time.  Took me about 1 and half to 2 years to be able to do things again, still not really accepting my body for what I had turn into.

[Julian]

This is interesting. I've had problems with depression and anxiety for a really long time, and it occurs to me now that the problems started around the same time puberty did.

[dmx]

Treat the source of the depression, and thereby the depression itself, through HRT. Anti-depressants just mask the problem.

[insideontheoutside]

When things start happening to your body that you have no control over, are uncomfortable and push you even further from who you are inside, it certainly can be depressing. I don't know too many people who make it through puberty unscathed - even if they didn't have gender issues.

For me, I most certainly got depressed. And that was an all new thing for me because up until around that time I led a pretty carefree and happy childhood for the most part. The doctor my mom was taking me to (which happened to be the same doctor who delivered me as a baby and knew about my physical "issues") put me on some form of estrogen because apparently (as I found out decades later) they all thought it was in my best interests to "develop stronger female secondary sex characteristics". Well, the only thing that happened is a grew tits (which I hate of course). I have atrophied female internal parts which never did really do anything, much to their dismay. So a surge of female hormones was injected into me and I literally wanted to die. When I actually said that to my mom, she never took me back to that doctor. But initially they didn't even tell me what they were doing. Like I didn't even have a choice in the matter.

So I definitely struggled with depression and anxiety a little later (I was in my mid 20's the first panic attack I ever had) but I'll tell you what did not work at all: antidepressents and antianxiety drugs.

Drugs (of any sort - legal or illegal) do not really change reality. I know HRT is hormones, but that really is a drug as well. Yes they're powerful enough to change your physical appearance, but they don't change the inside, don't get rid of female parts, etc. Surgery can get rid of female parts but that's another whole topic. And the antidepressants don't do anything to "cure" an underlying issue - they just mask symptoms until they stop working (by the way, doctors never usually tell you that part). I think there isn't a single "magic bullet" out there that's a fix-it-all. You'll probably have to do a combo of things to get to a point where you're simply comfortable. But my advice would be to look for alternatives to the psychiatric drugs.

We can't go back and change or erase puberty from our lives, but we can find ways to better deal with left over feelings and our present day bodies.