The Truth About Gender Dysphoria!
Dr. Z discusses one scary truth about gender dysphoria in adults—a more subtle, invisible handicap element of struggling with dysphoria. Talking about this is important not only for other people to understand the complexity and nuances of gender dysphoria, but for a lot of you, hearing a more nuanced understanding of how it's affecting you can help you.
One of the things about gender dysphoria in our culture today is that we're so accustomed to carrying an old dogmatic narrative: gender dysphoria is excruciating, so excruciating that individuals just want to mutilate themselves to get rid of the body part not aligned with them. While that's undoubtedly true for some individuals, Dr. Z finds that gender dysphoria that is less extreme in severity is much more prevalent. One reason it's much more prevalent is not because people are feeling a lesser form of it, but because we live in a world where it becomes much easier to distract ourselves to avoid confronting the feelings of gender dysphoria.
It's easier to avoid acknowledging how one feels. This is why for a lot of you, the times when you actually feel a very strong presence of gender dysphoria are during times when you have to confront your physicality: coming out of the shower and looking at yourself, intimacy with your partner where you have to be naked and vulnerable, changing clothes in front of a mirror, getting ready for work and looking at yourself. The minute you are confronted by acknowledging the body container is often the minute when one feels an increase in gender dysphoria.
Watch this video as Dr. Z addresses why the actual capacity of how one feels tends to be perceived as much more decreased than it actually is, why this leads to avoiding doing anything about it (not because you don't want to, but because you're not in touch with the stronger element of discomfort), why male-assigned-at-birth individuals have extra difficulty (cultural component of not connecting to feelings from "suck it up" upbringing), and why the mentality of "I'll wait until I can't handle it anymore" is the ugliest and scariest truth that strips you of opportunity and prolongs suffering.
