#1 Tip to Help You Manage Dysphoria!
Dr. Z shares her number one tip for managing dysphoria when it hits hard—whether debilitating, affecting your focus and productivity, or triggering in different ways (gender envy, intimacy with partner, doctor's visits, looking in the mirror, waking up in the morning).
What happens when dysphoria gets triggered: It expands and takes up space inside your head. You can't help but start thinking about it, devoting more mental energy to dysphoria. It triggers physical responses. You're trying to ease the distress with your mental faculties—but sadly, the opposite happens. The more you think about it, the more it expands. The more it occupies your mental energies, the less capacity you have to think about anything else. This is why you can be productive at work, then dysphoria gets triggered, and suddenly you can't focus.
In this video, Dr. Z addresses:
Why physical activity (running, exercise) helps (you're no longer in your head expanding the pain point). How grounding techniques interrupt the cyclical thinking loop. Why mindless tasks (dishes, laundry, organizing) break down the loop. Why staying in your head (scrolling trans timelines, looking at transition stories) actually keeps you in the pain point instead of disrupting it.
