What Does Gender Dysphoria FEEL Like? Explained From Severe to Mild!

Dr. Z tries to describe what dysphoria feels like. A lot of people ask her this question because she thinks a lot of people want to pinpoint whether what they're experiencing is truly gender dysphoria. But in reality, it's not that black and white. In reality, it's not a matter of just checking off boxes—a lot of things go into figuring out if you do have gender dysphoria.

She's going to try her best to share with you over the years how she came to understand the presentation of gender dysphoria, and what it feels like. She's going to tap into the feeling specifically from her 20 years working with individuals and people describing and sharing that with her. She's going to break it down into severe gender dysphoria, moderate gender dysphoria, and very mild (almost non-existent) gender dysphoria—because all of those also carry a set of feelings.

To start off, let's talk about severe gender dysphoria. What does it feel like if an individual feels severe gender dysphoria? This one is by far perhaps the easiest one to describe, to pinpoint, and probably the one where if some of the things resonate, there is a very high probability that you do have gender dysphoria. The reason why it's the easiest one to pinpoint is that the severity is so high.

Watch this video as Dr. Z addresses what each type of dysphoria feels like and how to recognize the patterns.