The Biggest Challenges Adults 40+ Face in Transition vs Younger Folks!
What's the biggest challenge older adults (40+) face when transitioning? Dr. Z addresses adults who've spent decades (from age 20 to 40+) accumulating and building an ecosystem—your life up to this point, built around your gender assigned at birth. This ecosystem has relationships, long-term marriage, children, friendships, career, ways of navigating and understanding life—all woven into the fabric.
This is bigger than: (1) Effects of natal hormone on your body over prolonged time making it harder to attain physical results you want, and (2) Growing up in an era with no language to define or explain your experience, no awareness of gender dysphoria or transition options—living in a sleepwalking state knowing something was off but couldn't name it.
The ecosystem challenge: You're terrified to disrupt or destroy the life you've built. Even though you know it wasn't built on authenticity, it still functions. You have sweat equity invested—decades of energy creating this environment. Two responses: (1) "What's the point? I'll just keep coping" (aversion to losing ecosystem), or (2) "Life's too short, time to finally show up for myself" (aversion to not actualizing potential).
Watch to find out why this separates older adults from younger people and what "abandoning yourself" really means.
