haha, well I went through a lot of stuff before getting to this point. At 7 my mom sent me to a councilor 'cause I kept telling her I wasn't a boy. Living in a small, religious town, and the though of the day was that if you caught a kid early enough you wouldn't grow up and be trans.
I had no idea what trans was. The councilor just taught me self-acceptance, and so on. I was also sent to a speech therapist 'cause I kept trying to speak high like women, so they tried to calm that down. I also had some pronunciation problems on top of that, so that was part of the speech therapy.
At 13, I tried to cut my penis off. o_0 I didn't get very far, and didn't make any perminate damage other than a scar. At that time, I had no idea what transgender was or that anything existed like that. I wasn't liking that I was turning into a boy. Again, councelling.
I was extremely depressed after that still.
Eventually I heard about transgender off some TV talk show. It was the first time I found out and something struck a cord with me. Uh, but when I told everyone else, not such a good idea.
At 15, after church telling me that being transsexual was a grave sin the sunday before. I went to the front of the church and slashed both my wrists and yelled out for god to talk me. Yes, I was a very fk'd up kid. I was taken to the hospital.
After that, I tried my hardest to pray to god to make me normal. After I graduated, the church put me through anti-gay/trans therpay. I saw their councellers, and they tested my psycholgoy with some three hour fill in the blank test. Came back as trans, but I also had a lot of issues and confusion.
I gave it a shot. But, in the end I just found I was more depressed, I couldn't be normal. I tried so hard. I felt so guilty for being trans. I felt so bad for having all of those issues. I felt like a failure. I felt as if i was the most evilist person alive.
I then committed suicide. There was no point. I was going to hell anyway, so why not OD.
Well, despite being dead for a few mins, I was revived. I had to face life. I also spent a lot of time in the psych wards after. I was really, really, really messed up.
Even after that, I tried other things. I just tried to be "normal." I had girlfriends. I tried going to school. I even tried being gay. It didn't shake things. More time in the psych ward, and a lot of working on myself.
Through working myself I resolved to transition. It was the best course of action for me. Over all, I'm much more happier and find life is better. I've also worked with a lot of my issues, too. Transition doesn't cure everything and make the world all rainbows. I'm still messed in the head, some what -- but not as bad as I was.
My case might be more extreme than others. I don't know. *shrugs* But, at least, I'm not finding myself in the psychwards anymore. LOL I'd say that I'm successful.
The difference between then and now: I'm more confident. I'm stronger. I'm able to take better care of myself. I've been able to make friends, and be more social. And so much more. Granted, all of that took work and I worked very hard on my psych issues before and while going through transition. Transition gave me the vehicle to do that. Transition wasn't taken on a whim or taken lightly. It was taken after a lot of thought and working with my doctors. It was right for me -- but that's my case.
Psych was, transition has made a huge difference, too. And, yeah, years of being confused and messed up in the head and getting different messages has its toll. All of that isn't gonna vanish over night. I still see my doctors. I still take pillz for my bipolar. Transition has helped over all, but it's only part of my life and part of the issues. yes, a lot of my issues come from that -- but I also have major issues from coming from an abusive home, as well. It's all steps towards becoming me.
I'm happy that I've transitioned, and it's really helped me to work on and unravel other issues in my life. It's opened doors. And, I finally feel like I'm living life, rather than constantly trying to escape life. I have a reason to live. I'm not just wandering around place to place, hospital to hospital, with no hope, direction, or desire. It's weird, 'cause I've never felt more alive than I do now. I feel as if I'm alive. I've never felt alive before transitioning. I never had a reason to live. I didn't care if I died. I chased death. I craved death. Hell never scared me, 'cause it was all I knew. But life, wow, this is different... now I wanna live. I wanna experience life.
If I lived in a world where transition wasn't possible. I'd probably be dead, for sure. No question about that.