What's The Difference Between Physical vs Social Dysphoria?
Social dysphoria and physical dysphoria are fundamentally different—Dr. Z breaks down what each means, how they overlap, and the demographic shift happening in younger adults.
Physical dysphoria: discomfort with your body, your physicality, your body parts—chest, genitals, voice, facial hair. Common in binary transgender individuals who strongly identify with the opposite end of the gender spectrum. If you have physical dysphoria, social dysphoria is inevitable because you exist in proximity to other humans who gender you based on your body.
Social dysphoria: discomfort with how society sees you, genders you, and interacts with you. Here's the pattern: younger adults (18-28) increasingly report feeling neutral about their bodies but uncomfortable with how the world genders them. More common in non-binary, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming individuals. The challenge? Social dysphoria can lead to developing physical dysphoria when you realize society genders you based on specific body parts.
Watch to understand why physical and social dysphoria are married together, the million-dollar question about surgery for social dysphoria alone, and why younger generations have different relationships with gender than older adults.
