How Can I Be Transgender? I'm Not Miserable and Depressed

[stephaniec]

How Can I Be Transgender? I'm Not Miserable and Depressed

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raina-bowe/how-can-i-be-transgender-_b_9134328.html

The Huffington Post/By Bethany Grace Howe   02/05/2016

"As you might expect, you get some varied responses when you tell people you're transgender. Affirmations, degradations and everything in between, save for perhaps indifference. I have yet to find anyone who doesn't care one way or the other.

One reaction, however, perplexes me more than any other, and it's one of the kinder ones: Sympathy. "I weep for you when I try to imagine the pain you've been in and how difficult this must have been and will continue to be," wrote one female friend of mine."

[Patti]

Good article, I haven't been plagued with severe crippling depression and have tons of empathy for those who have.

I've just kept myself repressed for a long time.


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[Deborah]

I have felt depression and wanted to die before but the last thing I want is sympathy.  Understanding would be nice though.


Sapere Aude

[suzifrommd]

I've had this discussion with various people. They assume I was very unhappy in order to transition. I've actually lived a pretty happy life, and people seem surprised when I tell them that.

[Peep]

See I get the reverse, people seem to think I'm fine and am only transitioning on a whim. :/

[DiamondBladee]

See I get the reverse, people seem to think I'm fine and am only transitioning on a whim. :/

Honestly my dysphoria is probably 70% of why I am transitioning, and 30% of it is euphoria.  Not only am I no longer sad, but I'm actually genuinely happier than just a neutral state of mind.  No harm in that.  I know some people who did it because it just really made them happy alone.

[stephaniec]

I did it to give me a reason to live and I've been really happy I did.

[Joelene9]

I have felt depression and wanted to die before but the last thing I want is sympathy.  Understanding would be nice though.


Sapere Aude

Yes.

Joelene

[Adchop]

I'm not unhappy, but I still feel an acute awareness of the fact that my mind and emotions don't match my body. I'm planning to transition, but I also understand that if for some reason I never get to, I won't feel that I have lived a wasted life.

[Violets]

I had chronic depression and anxiety due to dysphoria. HRT is the only antidepressant I've ever tried that works! Yes, I know it's technically not an antidepressant, but it had a profound effect on my depression within the first few weeks of being on it.

I was miserable before, but not so now. Now there is hope.

[Asche]

I guess I'm in that 22% that do suffer from depression.

But I don't think it is solely due to gender dysphoria, unless you count just about everything that makes me me (or used to) as my "gender."  I sometimes think it wasn't just my gender expression (my un-masculinity) that was anathema to the world I grew up in, it was my humanity.

"Save the humans."

[Mew]

I never suffered depression however it was my SO's therapist that actually asked me am I trans because they way I carry myself and dressed that made me realize maybe or maybe not. I never gave it much thought because I simple wanted to stay out and not get dragged into everything that's going on. Plus I only went as a support. Funny how you learn things through others

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[Adchop]

I think the primary problem is that many times people look at TG women and assume that their desire to transition must be related to some mental health disorder. The truth is I have dealt with depression since I was a child, but I never felt in any way that my depression & desire to transition were related. I know some on here have felt that, but not everyone does.

By the way, if anyone is dealing with depression I would suggest you read Lincoln's Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk, & the Noon Day Demon by Andrew Solomon.

[stephaniec]

I've been depressed since I was 4 and now I know why. The estrogen had definitely made me realize what the problem was , but everyone is unique.