Someday, I'm going to have to come out to my parents. Recently, a few of my activities may have, in hindsight, put me at risk of discovery by my mother; so I'd rather prepare myself now for the inevitable mess that will come of it.
What I'm looking for, specifically, is resources that make transsexualism (specifically Female to Male, but anything that's generic will do if it's well-written) easier to understand. A basic run down of transpeople in general, associated vocabulary, myth debunking, and some information about what it's like to live as a TS.
I've found quite a few things, but what I'm having difficulty with is stuff that's on respectable looking websites. No stupid flashing gif images, nothing plastered with in-your-face pro-glbtq material and symbols, no eye-wrenching colours or backgrounds.
Recommendations for books would also be nice, but that's a second priority, and for much farther down the road. The thing that'd be most valuable to me is a fiction or non-fiction novel where a character is TS, but in which the story doesn't pivot around the fact that they are.
My mother is a very avid reader, and I think that reading a book in which a character that she can relate to or understand in some way is trans, will help normalize it for her and make it less of this bizarre and alien concept. Such a book may not exist, but I figure it's worth an ask in case it does. (maybe one of you writing types would like to take a crack at that?)
The last thing, and the entire reason I've been motivated to post a thread looking for help, is any websites, blogs, journals, anything at all that shows links between transsexualism and self-damaging behavior (specifically self-injury and eating disorders).
I know that the hardest part of having my mother understand is going to be showing her that my being trans isn't just another way of expressing that I'm not happy with myself, like my previous "odd behaviors" (in her mind) have been. Some way to present to her that it's plausable that my previous (intense and persistent) self-injury, lack of self-respect or self-esteem, and eating disorders that sprung up around the start of puberty and persist until today were CAUSED BY my gender identity discrepancy, rather than me 'wanting to be a boy' just being another form of escapism. Because I showed poor behavior and decision making in highschool, I consider it already a given that she won't take my word on it, and likely won't even take me seriously.
And, since I imagine it'll come up as a suggestion, seeing a therapist and then having said therapist talk with her about me isn't going to work; she wouldn't take me seriously last time I saw a therapist (paid for it, but refused to have anything else to do with it - different problem at that time). So that's out of the question.
Thanks in advance for any sort of advice (especially links!) anybody can provide.
