but it would involve going to a support group and picking the least bats*** bonkers
Yeah, I've been to some of those meetings also, seems like the only reason I was there was so I could feel somewhat better about myself, you know the old "gee, I'm only a little crazy and everyone else is all the way there already." But I've been that other person at other meetings.
I think its important to have people in your life who can tell you the truth from time to time (no one needs it all the time, its too relentless, and often scary) who can kick your ass from time to time (again, not all the time, both your ass and their leg gets real tired) or who will just sit and nod as you proceed to bitch out the world (again, not all the time, or you life become a huge pity party).
Support is well rounded I would hope. All of it can not come from one source, but its good to have a few that you can count on, and lean on. They need not be trans, or gay, or whatever - they just need to be humans (hence, your cat, computer games, fantasy lives and the rest do not count).
A very old friend of mine (since High School 69-73, the dark ages) took a very different path than I did in some ways. He became a Roman Catholic priest. Which is funny, I became the least religious person in our class. Yet, there were parts of our lives that were common. We we're both living in the same world. We both did long-term advanced studies in school. We both liked beer, the Giants and the 9ers - even when they lose, which is all the time.
So both of us have used the other as places to vent, about church politics, about university politics and about real world politics. We also vented a lot about how stupid parts of grad school were, how the 9ers need an offensive coordinator and how the Giants should have tossed Barry Bonds under the bus years ago.
And, oddly enough, some of it works out. Church politics are very much like academic politics, in that some very petty people have managed to work their way into positions of power and are not inflicting that on other people in largely meaningless ways. Petty, vindictive and silly stuff are always that, no matter where they are found. Grad school is grad school regardless of the subject to some degree. And if you love to complain, being a Giants and 9ers fan has been for, the most part, the motherload.
But despite the huge differences between us. We find a way to help each other. Sometimes its just listening and buying the next round. Sometimes its actually that very rare thing in life 'constructive criticism' that can help you, and sometimes its just some weird remark that resonates in some way, if it does not seem like it would, the old line about once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
There is also a huge 'prime the pump' deal in real life - at least mine. In that, there have been countless people that I began to help, support, offer something too, whatever - who, in turn, gave back to me something much greater than I had done for them, or at least as good. So, if you're not finding people who support you, turn the tables and find someone you can support and that may open doors for you.
The reason (iffin' you're one of those persons or people into 'reasons' for things happening) you're at that support group, at that moment, might not be for you to be the one getting support, but your supposed to find that person who needs your support. Your help. Your advice. Your time, your truth, your skills, your wisdom and outlook can help others from time to time, if you're willing to let it.
I know talking things over with other people, even if we're not talking about my life, my problems, my world - has helped in mine.
At some point, because we are so much what others have put into us, or pulled out of us - for good and bad - we are but a reflection of other people. Thus, other people are but a reflection, to some degree, of us.
