QuoteI'd have to speak with my psychatrist. But as I've said before, he seems to be uneducated about transsexuaism. maybe I may have to go to the big city to find someone and get out of my conservative town.
Gina, I realize that a lot of focus goes on in forums about how qualified a therapyst is about Gender problems, specifically with Gender Dysphoria, but I'm gonna have to say this right out front:
Most any qualified, licenced therapyst can help you to a great degree, and find and identify specific problems. When they get into an area they know little about (there are many such areas) they can recommend someone with more experience, or familiarize themselves with the subject.
You seem to be to focused on someone clinically identifying you as having G.I.D. rather then wanting to explore other issues which in fact Have to be explored and ruled out in order to make a G.I.D. diagnosis that has any credibility at all.
I see and hear it all the time, if a therapyst isn't in agreement with your own feelings well, just ditch the S.O.B. and find another one. in other words, find a rubber stamp that will give you a rubber stamp rather then persue your best interest.
You would do much better then you presently are to just allow the therapyst to work through your personality and see what help they can be to you, and if they find problems that they do not feel comfortable with addressing, then and only then go looking for another.
I can tell you by personal experience that GID may only be the tip of the iceburg regarding your emotional and mental health and other problems must be addressed seperate and aside from the GID issue if you are to make it through as a confident, healthy individual once you have seen the GID issue through. After all, GID can be diagnosed, but there is little a therapyst can do for it but help you to face the truth about yourself and how it affects your relations and your feelings about yourself. Other problems though can worked out directly and most do in fact need to be addressed if you are to live a healthy, happy life.
Just see a therapyst, keep the GID issue to yourself and let them work to make their own determinations and suggestions. You have mentioned many times about seeing different therapysts and doctors and that each and every one of them has been uncomfortable with you and you always attribute it to thier lack of understanding and education about Transsexualism. Has it ever occurred to you that your own over compensation and defensiveness/insistance about GID might be part of the equasion in their relatoinships to you?
Simply let a therapyst do thier job rather then demanding they simply take your word for it and you will get a lot further a lot faster, Sometimes what some think of as a "gatekeeper" is simply an ethical and responsible Professional working for your best interest as a person, and when you don't cooperate and work with them, they can't obtain the information they need, or you don't have it in yourself to give. Be less pushy and more cooperative.
Understand that getting a psychiatrist to perscribe HRT for you is not actually all that hard these days, as perscribing such is viewed as a diagnostic tool to help determine GID rather then a conviction that you actually are. Under the latest definitions of DSM and HBSOC it is simply a tool used to find out if the actual experience and acceptance of hormone influence, and living as a female in the female invironment, is in agreement with previous desires and expectations. If the subject actually improves in a relational way with the world and themselves, then surgery can be recommended with more confidence, but if doubts persist or if no relatoinal improvement is noted, then a recommendatoin for surgery is probably not warrented. A professional who has at least familiarised themselves with the HBSOC, could easily recommend HRT and reference you to an Endo and give you what you want, even without having in depth knowledge of Transsexual issues. The therapyst could then monitor your emotional health issues while on HRT just as easily as they could anyone else with other issues, though they may not ever feel comfortable enough to recommend surgery, in which case you would then need to find a professional who has more indepth experience and education.
I've said it before, but different people in identical circumstances will get different results, and I at least would have no doubt of obtaining goals of HRT in your very same invironment, given my very different mentality, it is just a matter of knowing yourself and the way you approach situations.
Terri
