Age 18 - 28 Can Your Mind Make Up That You Are Transgender?
Can your mind convince you that you have gender dysphoria and are transgender when in reality you're not? Dr. Z breaks down by age groups—today's video is age 18-28, next week's is 28+.
Age matters very much in this equation. When we're 18-28 (even before 18), our brain still continues to develop. There's a particular function right here in front of our brain called prefrontal cortex—part of frontal lobe very connected to executive function. This part doesn't fully develop until we're about 25 years old (Dr. Z makes this video past 25 to age 28 to give legroom).
Prefrontal cortex is part of executive function of cognition responsible for impulse control, short-term decision making, and especially being able to see how your behavior and actions are going to have consequences and what kind they might have. It's very dynamic and important part of mental functioning.
Example: When you see someone age 21-23 drink at a party then get behind the wheel and drive, you wonder "how can somebody make such a stupid mistake as driving while intoxicated?" That's why—because this part of brain responsible for thinking "how will me driving drunk have consequences, get somebody killed, get pulled over, get in car accident, affect my life" is not fully developed.
Answer: Is it possible for age 18-28 to convince your mind you have gender dysphoria and are transgender? Yes, absolutely. The mind is capable of convincing us of numerous things, not just gender dysphoria.
Big difference: There's a group who fall into this age category who are certain, who know at their core they're transgender (may be fearful and worried about transitioning or taking first steps, but at core they know). Then there's the group Dr. Z is speaking to today who are not sure, constantly questioning, really uncertain, think it may be gender dysphoria but not quite convinced yet. That's the group much more susceptible to convincing themselves/their mind that they may be transgender when in reality they may be dealing with issues of gender expression and gender expression conflict, gender role confusion, even issues such as sexuality (though sexuality isn't directly connected to gender identity, it is part of it).
Watch to find out why when you're that young you lack relationship experiences, intimacy experiences, life experiences (you don't have much time navigating the world in your biological sex and gender assigned, making it more difficult), why you're of generation of internet/social media/computers (you immediately google, start listening to narratives, the more you listen and get obsessed the more possibility of confusing how you hear somebody else's account with parallels to your current life, distorting it and believing you may be transgender), why being so confused is a telling sign (can mean a lot of things—something to investigate), and why confusion is a yellow light (not green saying "go forward," not red "stop sign"—it's a pause sign to investigate because transition is such a big endeavor, costly, psychologically stressful, financially costly—everybody contemplating transition owes it to themselves to investigate and make sure that's really truly what they want).
