Unmasking the Link: Social Pressure and Nonbinary Doubt!

Dr. Z discusses what causes individuals who identify as non-binary to experience increased self-doubt, where that increase originates, and what it reveals about gender identity. Non-binary today functions as an umbrella term—similar to transgender—encompassing numerous identities including agender, gender neutral, genderqueer, gender fluid, demigender, and androgyne, among others. Non-binary also exists as an identity in its own right, allowing people to identify simply as non-binary without necessarily specifying further categories.

The unifying factor across all non-binary identities involves not feeling exclusively masculine or feminine. The primary cause of increased self-doubt stems from exponentially increasing social dysphoria—distress between your gender and assigned gender at birth that revolves around social circumstances, environmental factors, politics, and most significantly, ongoing binary perceptions of gender.

When society lacks signifiers or markers for what non-binary identity looks like in terms of visual presentation, and when the world continues gendering you based on binary perceptions despite your assertions, you begin feeling invisible. This invisibility damages confidence, increases dysphoria, and breeds self-doubt that can lead to questioning whether you understand your own identity correctly.

Watch to understand how social dysphoria drives self-doubt and learn strategies for maintaining confidence in your non-binary identity.