Why Focusing on the Most Dysphoric Parts Early On is Important!
Dr. Z observes you tend to avoid confronting parts of yourself that cause the most dysphoria until later in transition—here's why you should start early.
You tend to put aside confronting and dealing with those parts that give you the most dysphoria until later. Why? Confronting from the beginning is challenging, difficult, overwhelming, very traumatic to deal with the most dysphoric parts of your body and yourself as a person. It can make you feel too overwhelmed, as if you can't go on.
What Dr. Z wants to share: why starting to focus on parts causing you the most dysphoria early on is actually really beneficial in the long run.
Everybody's different—severity of dysphoria, frequency (how often it pops up), duration all differ. What you feel dysphoric toward also differs: voice (too feminine/masculine), facial hair (or lack of), chest, genitals. There's often a particular part that feels the most dysphoric for you. In the beginning of transition, people tend to avoid it.
Example from recent voice therapy video comments: many avoid voice training because voice gives them the most dysphoria—can't hear themselves, hate their voice, feel very insecure practicing even in private because it's re-traumatizing.
Watch to find out why avoiding severe dysphoria until you build confidence is problematic (example: trans feminine person removes facial hair, grows out hair, has facial feminization surgery, feels confident and good, then works on voice last—goes out, says something, someone hears voice and misgenders them, really affects confidence and sense of self after all those transitionary steps), why you should start focusing on parts causing most dysphoria first in any capacity you can (if you can't do surgery yet, talk about it with therapist, find online support group, journal—let it out, the more you keep severe discomfort inside the more hold it has on you), and why confronting early builds tremendous confidence (you already know you battled the most severe distressed part holding you hostage—knowing you can combat it gives confidence you can combat other transition steps).
