Greetings All,

I want to thank Dena for bringing up a term new to me, Social Dysphoria. She brought it up in her response to Gabi yesterday. To quote, "It possible you are like me and have social dysphoria instead of body dysphoria. With social dysphoria it's not as noticeable because you never escape it but you just feel a bit off from day to day. When social dysphoria finally ends, the off feeling ends and everything just sees right."

A google search suggests that the phenomenon shows up less as dysphoric of a condition or situation and more as a euphoric experience usually in social situations. Combine this with Dena's comment about "everything just seems right". This nails it for me.

Does this concept resonate with any of you? If so, you would, please share your experiences?

Thanks, Anne

Yes.  I thought mine was all body dysphoria.  I guess I had it buried so long and so deeply that I didn't know what was going on.

I am finding now though that I feel that euphoria whenever somebody genders me correctly.  It just feels good.  Whenever they don't it feels like a wound.

I'm still unscrewing the soup sandwich of my mind though, so take my experience FWIW.  LOL

I can also identify with this. So much of my discomfort and anxiety comes
from social situations where I am very insecure. When I am seen correctly
and identified as a woman I just beam and the feelings of image mismatch
that can be so intense begin to fade away. When I went out to dinner last
night with my wife and was completely dressed up she said to me before
we left that I needed to quit hiding behind her (something I've also been
working on with my counselor). I was able to be strong and confident at the
restaurant - gendered right and then experience those wonderful feelings of euphoria

I present solely as male at the moment (however much I wish it were not the case) but getting referred to as "he" "him" etc. makes my teeth itch, same goes for my birth name, albeit to a lesser extent.
Also,
I always amused myself by trying to guess/anticipate what people were thinking about. Inevitably the conversation gets to the point where they start thinking about you and you start putting yourself in their mind, referring to yourself as your apparent gender through what you suppose their thoughts are. I always find that one particularly nasty, the sort that makes you stop for just a minute and take a few deep breaths.
But yes, being seen as female, seeing yourself as female, is a truly lovely experience.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/625875
100% true! laughing so hard.

Hi Sadie

I think in many cases and especially in mine, I have spent so much of my life suppressing and fighting with who I am that much of the detail is lost to me. By that I mean I am having to learn about myself all over again but with a new frame of reference. So the Dysphoria I feel is not just related to one thing like I thought. For me it seems there are various aspects to it.

For example if you had asked me in September about surgery, I would have laughed and said, no I don't think that will be necessary to quell my Dysphoria. At that stage I was certain HRT would do that... However as I have slowly started to push Liz out into the world I have discovered that I do very much want to be complete...For me, that means SRS is now very much at the top of my list. I know what Liz/Me needs and there was no great fanfare about this, it just feels right and sits really well with me now. But it is only one part of a complex puzzle with the Social Dysphoria also playing big part.

I got out about 10 days ago fully presenting as Liz and although the outing turned out to be a bust...I was in such a great frame of mind which carried through to all of the following day...I remember thinking a few days later that what I really wanted in life, was what I had experienced, over the 24-48 hrs previously. Feelings of happiness, contentment, calm, exuberance, playfulness and of things simply feeling "Right"...I want more of that..Simple Huh!! Not so easy to get...

Liz