may sound silly but it helps

[Larisa]

I just started to play this tennis game on my xbox. It helps my dysphoria a bunch. I dont know why I started to even play tennis as I was never a fan. So anyways, it lets you create your person in career mode so I created a girl ofcourse.

When you are playing tennis, the announcer actually refers to you in female pronouns as to the person you created. Hearing that feels like they are calling me a she, her and all. It may sound silly but it does help relieve the dysphoria when it comes up bad. It's not even the tennis I like as much as just hearing someone call me the right pronouns.

[Natalia]

Indeed games can help relieving disphoria... and sometimes can help even beyond that.

Almost 10 years ago I started playing Second Life... and, of course, I created a female avatar there.

I spent a lot of time there... and living my "second life" as a woman helped me find out who I was. It was like if my real me could finally get out and live. It was an amazing experience that made me realize that I wanted my "first life" to become more like my "second life".

So... yep, games can be really helpful.

[Dayta]

Almost 10 years ago I started playing Second Life... and, of course, I created a female avatar there.

I did the same, almost to the day!  Yes, it was through gaming that I developed my own sense of my gender. I found that every character I created in every game was female.  Second Life did give me an opportunity to try things out, to express myself in ways that seemed hard to do in RL.  In a way it makes things better, but there's also a sort of "coming down" from it that happens when you have to go back to RL. 

Eventually, I discovered I can have it all in RL, too. 

One of the dangers of those worlds is that you never know whether people are playing themselves or creating something different just for fun, so there tends to be a lot of unevenness in friendships/relationships.  And there is a LOT of misogyny in that world (Second Life) in particular. 

I guess like any other sort of self-medication, using that escape can be good, and it can be bad.  Part of the problem with self-medication is the lack of objectivity and tendency to lose control.  But in small doses I know it feels pretty good.  Keep practicing, maybe you can take it to the real court someday! 

Erin

[Alex81]

It helps to some extent, but mostly i play games to relax after a stressful day. My days of hardcore competitive gaming are far over. I've also been a secondlife user for several years and I have actually met my girlfriend on secondlife. We have been together in-person for 3 years, and a year on sl. The trans groups on sl suck though.

[Natalia]

I did the same, almost to the day!  Yes, it was through gaming that I developed my own sense of my gender. I found that every character I created in every game was female.  Second Life did give me an opportunity to try things out, to express myself in ways that seemed hard to do in RL.  In a way it makes things better, but there's also a sort of "coming down" from it that happens when you have to go back to RL. 

Eventually, I discovered I can have it all in RL, too.

We share almost the same story here! Nice!    Good to see that I was not alone with the SL thing helping me find about myself. When I told my therapist about it she looked at me with a very funny face, like "NEEERD!"

[doctorinkwell]

Video games seem to be an oasis where we can have total control over our appearance. You make a character and it just... is. No one questions you in singleplayer. Multiplayer games can be a gamble with randoms rubbing you the wrong way, but there's still the possibility for a great time.

Either way, it's a completely liberating experience and I'm glad it's helping!

- Sunny

[josie76]

Second Life, wow that brings back memories. I and a female character got to be 11 years ago. Then I started spending real money on imaginary clothes and skin. I never socialized with anyone there. Just spent too much in empty virtual shopping malls. Lol