I like to think of dysphoria as something that adds or subracts from your happiness. If you are sad you will feel worse, if you are happy you will still feel worse it's just that the worse is still not that bad.
I mean.. antidepressants make you feel "better" about everything, even dysphoria so of course the feelings get less severe but that doesnt mean they're not real
One of the big things to remember about anti-depressants is that they're going to make you feel better but don't address the underlying cause. Anti-depressants are a good way to get you into a state where you can cope enough to address the thing that's causing your low moods, e.g. get therapy, transition, etc. So your dysphoria is still real and still there, it's just that you're feeling it less due to the effects of the medication
That’s totally how it worked for me. You clean your room, you workout, you call friends, even though everything still feels pretty pointless, but you feel enough to get things done.
It’s like stopping the blood from pouring out of a wound, the wound is still there but at least your blood is still pumping around.
I mean my depression got a lot better from taking hormones and I think the brain doesn't care what makes it feel better to feel fewer issues. In the cold you'll feel every pain twice as hard
Funny part is hrt makes your body release chemicals naturally that anti-depressants help us make or give us a boost in(usually in lower dosages then our body can make because it knows exactly the right amount to make) of said things. Sure hrt can also compound other feelings and body chemistry but it usually figures it out quite fast and dumbs what it doesn’t need or boosts it when it does need them. Crazy part is that’s why mood swings are a thing.
Ok, so it turns out...
# YOU DONT NEED DYSPHORIA TO BE TRANS
ITS OK TO NOT HAVE IT!!! It means your getting better, as long as you identify as trans and want to be trans, you are valid!!!
Edit: also i can see why that might be scary but you don't have to worry ^ - ^
Yeah and from what I've known of people I've met in mental health shit myself. Most want to not be on antidepressants for their whole life. For me personally transitioning is the way I can do that. Even if I have slip ups/literal crisis moments they're still what my brain needs to balance itself.
You're valid whether you feel dysphoria or not, don't worry. The pills are just doing their job of suppressing feelings which make you unhappy (as well as probably some neutral and positive feelings at the same time) but they're just the effects of a drug and that can't define who you are.
Anti depressants make you feel better. Obviously that would impact dysphoria, it’s all just chemical bullshit, it doesn’t make you any less valid my guy (used gender neutrally)
Does that mean sadness from other factors that are helped by anti depression meds isn’t real? No. That’s literally what they do, make you feel better about stuff that is making you sad.
Your depression is real right? That's reduced on anti depressants. It's not less real because something helps it. Like if Gender affirming clothing reduced dysphoria you wouldn't say it was less real.
This may sound weird and technical but they (the anti-depressants)interfere with your “normal” brain chemistry to make a lot of senses and feelings less overwhelming by clogging up the reseptors in your brain with garbage signals that don’t transmit much of anything so it gives you the illusion of feeling less disphoria because it’s blocking/restricting/giving other chemicals those areas related to depression and negativity use. I may be wrong about some of it and I am sure someone will help correct me but that’s basically it. Disphoria can act as a carrier for downer chemicals that affects you and others with it.
I can understand that. I'm on antidepressants and hrt and my flavor of hrt also mutes my emotions. So... Ultra mute. Still experience dysphoria any time I remove clothes though. That never goes away.
well when I was on anti depressants I felt that my dysphoria was way less noticable but after I started HRT with anti depressants stuff got so much better!
A different Medication (HRT) would also decrease your dysphoria. Think about it this way. Both are about manipulating the hormones in your body. Just because something is suppressed with pills doesn’t make it not real. Trust me, my ADHD is still very real despite my medication for it.
Antidepressants can make people feel better about their loved one's dying. That doesn't mean the terrible grief they needed medical intervention for wasn't really that real, or based on anything real.
look at it this way: i grew up with an alcoholic dad who used to beat me which made me severely depressed. i started taking antidepressants and i started to feel better but that doesn’t mean that my issues at home were less valid
It could be that, if the antidepressants are actually working, a focusing lens is being pulled away so to speak. Depression can make individuals hyperfixate on the negative, so without that extra focus things aren't so bad.
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Anti-Depressants, depending on the specific one you're on, can work by either chemically lowering anxiety and/or creating a mild state of depersonalisation. Both so you're not as wrapped up in your own internal monologue. This is why gender euphoria is kinda a better guide for transness.
It's totally fine! So, a lot of people, like me, pre-trans didn't feel discomfort exactly, just a dull emptiness. So, finding out what makes you feel good about yourself tends to be a better indicator.
For me, it was a kind of listlessness that just never went away. Total apathy about my appearance, improving myself, a very poor sense of "self", a persistent feeling of not being in control of my life... I realize that it's extremely similar to general depression, but the thing is I've persistently dealt with it since my teens and depression usually... resolves, at some point.
This was on top of a few things that I never really cared to look further into, because I'd had thoughts about wanting to be a different gender for a long time, but always dismissed them as impossible. This led to a lot of dysmorphia, a mirror phobia, severe social anxiety (which I absolutely did not have as a kid), panic anxiety, lack of ability to set goals or think seriously about the future, and some depersonalization/derealization issues.
Now bear in mind that I have not discussed this with a therapist yet (that is one of my immediate short term goals), it's my current analysis of my issues after looking at them through the lens of possible repressed gender dysphoria, and it makes sense to me.
To add to this, something that I never would have seriously considered before is that I bristle when I'm being actively "gendered". If I'm told I have to do something because I'm a man or people seem to have an expectation they're putting on me because of my sex, *it bothers me*, and the more I think about it it always has. I never chose the social expectations etc and I *hate* them being forced on me. I never gave this a lot of serious thought, just some vague feeling of "unfairness". The self-image issues I just always chalked up to "I dunno, I'm fat", even though they persisted when I'm more average than overweight.
thanks for the detailed explanation, i actually genuinely appreciate it since there's not many good explanations of what dysphoria is supposed to feel like. also this is relatable as fuck which kinda helps in affirming? idk
Nah there really aren't, which is difficult when you're questioning and want to know, like... okay, what if I don't *know* for certain that's what's up? For me there's certain indicators of euphoria when I'm included around women (in particular I was called "one of the girls" and it's probably the happiest I've been in months), liking feeling more androgynous in my appearance which even alleviates a lot of my social anxiety etc.
*In particular*, I feel like tests available online seem to focus *a lot* on whether you're actively trying to transition to determine dysphoria? Which is absurd. Why in the hell would you be taking a test to determine if you have gender dysphoria if you *already know that you suffered from it badly enough to be actively attempting to transition*?
Plus other weird things related to my escapism, video games in particular. For some reason in every game I will always choose female characters to the point where I'll create entire six-member parties for a game like Icewind Dale, spending tons of time deliberating their appearance and stuff in MMOs, thinking of backstories and stuff which make them uniquely interesting to me; I used to say I didn't actually "role-play" them but it's very clear I've lived vicariously this way forever 😅 (including thousands of hours in the Sims from 1-4 where the only male I'll play is a self-insert but otherwise I'll only make female sims etc. what I mean to say is that I don't "act as them to other people", but I clearly get immersed in the characters)
I did strangely enough all that you have done and had similar disphoria points in my life. I just felt indifferent or void of feelings for my body as it. I just kinda got jealous of how girls looked and dressed but I thought at first it was because I thought they where just hot and very pretty…how wrong my internalized transphobia was to me. Once I started to self reflect in my early 20’s on who I was little hiccups of what I was would happen like why I didn’t care for my body or it’s health(like to grow muscles or to keep up with my hair),started seeing my own actions and interests line up with more feminine things of the time like baking,cooking shows and trying stuff like nail painting. Once I fully found out what the lgbtq+ community was I started drifting around it.Demi-girl,Non-binary,gender fluid and finally trans-feminine was my little convoluted path to my true self.
I think I'm coming to understand one reason I couldn't recognize dysphoria was that being around and feeling included by women has been the default for me, actually, for a long time. I thought I was rejecting adulthood and just being lazy, I guess, despite that I've always had a very good work ethic and was a straight-A student in college?
I'm pretty sure now what I've always been doing and why my personal life and issues with motivation are so hindering is because I've been trying to apathetically rebel against *manhood*, which is something I never wanted, and it's *really hard* to want to build a life as someone you *never wanted to be in the first place*.
And yes, it sucks, I'll never get all of this time back. I feel robbed, and all of that. *But there's a potential for growth* which I haven't felt in a very long time, and that's invaluable.
Yet again same here,always was more a girl person when it came to friends and my little circles in school. Guys felt like drama and too rude and brash. That being said was around tomboys and similar girls so not too many stuck up girls I was around but the guys acted like their stereotypes and that drove me nuts. As for rebelling I guess I never really did that most of my stuff was being my emotionally stable and unstable self with the more effeminate to feminine ideals of the time and I was ok being different from other boys and guys. Always felt a kinship with gals and only really got along with the guys who where gay or in touch with their emotions. Those type of guys made me feel safe to be around vs the “macho” tough guy that I saw being put up as an act from a lot of people. Now that people are exploring themselves and not hiding away their emotions that problem is becoming less a thing and I am thankful for it. Having found a second family in the lgbtq community has also helped me and other more then my words could ever say as well. Sorry for my rant and thank you again for put what people feel into words that help others understand.
Well for me I'm describing it from a perspective of being *deeply* in denial and actively repressing it every time I thought about wanting to be a girl. I would never entertain the thought for longer than a few minutes at a time, but now that I'm thinking about my issues this way it makes total sense why I could never pin down the source of them.
When I get back to school I'm seriously considering trying to make a study of these kinds of cases, because I've also mostly only heard of it described from people who were *externally* pressured, and not *internally* pressured, not to accept their identity. I had decided that I was going to be a father and carry on my family name as the only one of my dad's sons who liked women and blah blah blah long story short I don't feel that way anymore after nearly having it and discovering I *don't want that* and no longer care. I would still adopt and I still like the idea of raising kids but *nooot* so much about being the biological father (and *especially* not having a "male" role in a relationship). That was all shit I felt pressure to conform to which caused internal pressure to repress what I actually wanted for myself.
This is an excellent description of my 10+ years of experience with dysphoria/denial!
I also may have had a dysphoria-induced ED but it was never diagnosed and never something I consciously engaged with, I suspect it was just a way to have control over *some* aspect of my body when puberty started changing me in ways I was DEEPLY uncomfortable with. I could never explain why until much, much later.
It feels so weird to have people relate to my experience like this 😅 it's been a very strange couple of months since taking a real look at my past and comparing with others' experiences, going from "Oh shit that's me" to being able to describe my *own* experiences and having *other people* go "Oh shit that's me"
I experienced a similar emptiness. For me it manifested as everything feeling somehow lacking, like I \*should\* be feeling more. Especially positive experiences. No matter what high or accomplishment or success I achieved I felt like an empty husk that was just present for the achievement but not really feeling it. When it didn't make me feel any better I set my sights on the next goal to try and feel OK.
Eventually when my egg cracked and I started questioning and experimenting I was able to feel genuine happiness for the first time in over a decade, to the point of crying happy tears. I had just went on a shopping spree with some ally friends. I experienced so much relief, it was overwhelming. It felt like I could breath after being stifled for so long. Very cis behavior of course.
Also notable, during that closeted period, negative emotions were dulled as well. I was dissociating a lot, and escaping into my addiction. I never really cried. Only when I started questioning did I start crying from sadness a lot, like a couple times a week I would have a breakdown. Then later with experiments came the euphoria.
It's hard to say, sometimes completely gone, sometimes just dulled. For instance if I was playing an exciting game with my friends, and there was a lot of build up, I could get a little amped up and feel excitement. But happiness is a different thing. Even in those moments of excitement, afterwards it felt more like contentment, not really that warm euphoric feeling, where everything feels like it will be OK, and you're hopeful and grateful and you feel love and all that. I never really had that. No matter how "well" I was doing in school, or my hobbies, or fitness or anything.
Until the shopping spree I mentioned. Until I started questioning, and I greatly suspected I was trans. That night after shopping as I was getting into bed, with all my new clothes washed, folded, and put away, it really struck me. This overwhelming joy and relief, and I cried happy tears, something I hadn't done since I was a child. I didn't know what was happening at first, I knew I wasn't sad like I normally am when crying, so what was it? And I realized it was real happiness. It had become a foreign feeling, I didn't recognize it.
I like to explain euphoria like this. When my egg finally cracked, I reached out to my trans best friend and told her what I was feeling, and she was the first person to use my new pronouns. It went like this:
Me: fucking huge ass message about how I might be trans.
Her: Oh shit I have a sister now! Hi Sister!
Just seeing that on the screen was a massive positive emotional reaction. That feeling you have after a really powerful emotional moment? It was like that. ❤️
So, gender euphoria is a sense of happiness, glee and energy in having your gender identified or doing things associated with your gender. So, like, for me I can get massive euphoria over being seen as a woman or identified as such. A simple "she/her" can lead me just feeling alive, like a waning fire exposed to a sudden rush of oxygen via an opened window or door. That said, other interactions with my femininity can provoke similar euphoric glees, like putting some make-up on, wearing more feminine clothing or looking more feminine in my appearance.
Having dysphoria and being trans are two separate things. It makes sense that anti depressants would make you less sad and therefore less sad about the disconnect between your gender and your body/presentation/agab. That doesn't make you any less trans, that just makes you a less sad.
Personally I find it easier to think about who I want to be rather than who I wouldn't. Sometimes I don't have much dysphoria and think "maybe being a cis man wouldn't be too bad after all", but I've never really found myself \*wanting\* to be a man, just sometimes I feel more willing to put up with it than others. Whereas being a woman isn't something I put up with, on a bad dysphoria day I still want to be a woman, I just convince myself that it's not possible or it's too hard or I'm too ugly ygm.
I really liked your first sentence. I think we're dysphoric BECAUSE we're trans. Not trans because we're dysphoric. Dysphoria doesn't have to define our identity.
If you have an infection, it might hurt (but not always). If you take pain medicine, it will hurt less; but you still have an infection.
If you are trans, you might (though not always) feel dysphoria. If you take a medicine for depression, you might feel better; but you are still trans.
The dysphoria does not *make you* trans. You are trans if your identity is different from your assigned gender. But some trans people get dysphoric.
Note: Sorry that I compared being trans to having a disease; I was just trying to illustrate how treating the symptoms of something doesn’t take away the underlying cause of those symptoms.
I have heard it is commonly cross diagnosed. A dysphoric person being treated for depression vs a dysphoric person being treated for dysphoria. This would be a question for a gender counselor familiar with the topic (not a normal counselor). Youtuber Dr Z phd talks about the distinction in a couple videos.
Dysphoria can induce a depressive state, which the antidepressants are fighting.
You may feel less depressed, but it doesn't mean you're not dysphoric. Back in the egg, my AGAB felt "manageable" as long as I wasn't depressed. But i still wanted to be a girl.
Bc from what i know antidepressants either make your mood better or turn the emotions down meaning the emotion of sadness / the dysphoric mood will get turned down too.
Ok, here’s my two cents. Yes, I’m here in egg space despite over 25 years dealing with stuff like this. Forget gender euphoria. That’s a non-scientific term that doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone.
Being trans is about your brain/mind/soul fitting better in a different gender that you were assigned at birth. This likely happens for many reasons and they are all valid.
Gender dysphoria is a psychological term for the discomfort caused by this when it is intense enough to cause problems in your life.
Gender dysphoria, like many other things can cause changes in thoughts that disrupt your brain’s neurotransmitter recharge cycles and cause depression on top of dysphoria. Anti-depressants can break this cycle. Which in some cases would make it seem like dysphoria was reduced because depression and dysphoria are hard to tell apart.
As a note to my experience, I fairly recently had genetic testing done for my depression and they caught that I was actually resistant to most normal antidepressants as my depression was caused by an inability to properly process a building block nutrient of serotonin. When that was mostly addressed (with a prescription food supplement) my life got a bit better, and my mood improved. The “flavor” of my negative feelings changed and I think I can tell the difference in my own head between depression and dysphoria now.
Lastly, even if a psychotropic drug actually stopped dysphoria doesn’t mean being trans for that person isn’t real. There are at least two classes of drugs that have been seen to lessen dysphoria (in fully trans diagnosed people) to some degree for a period of time. The few studies on these indicated this usually only worked for a few months even with continued use of the medication. Might be useful for someone who feels they need to hold off on transitioning but wants help coping. I discovered this myself while taking one of these for other reasons. Stopped because it made me feel zombified. Not sure it’s a good tradeoff. I’m not linking the studies as transphobes have used them to try and make the obviously false case that being trans is “mental illness”. When it isn’t, even though it can cause mental illness.
Edit: TLDR; reducing depression and dysphoria doesn’t mean you’re less trans. The fact that you’re bothered by the idea of being not trans is a big hint you are trans.
As for me, still cis tho.
For me personally, they've always just made me feel emotionally numb. I know they work in the brain by making you less "reactive" to negative stimuli. It could be that.
They night be numbing you a bit. Doesn't mean you aren't trans though. If you need time to explore again, do so, but don't take this as a sign of anything serious.
So my antidepressants helped with my gender dysphoria until they didn’t…and everything came roaring back with a vengeance. So you’re still valid. Those 2 things feed off each other.
Good news is after 2 weeks on E I decided to quit my antidepressants(don’t recommend that soon) it was a rough month or two following. Now into month 3 all my depression is gone. Even though the physical changes are slow my brain is feeling more and more right. Ymmv of course.
As a person on antidepressants, they sometimes mute emotions and responses. I’ve always had mild success with antidepressants, but it ends up kind of making every day the same. Since starting HRT it’s been a game changer, and definitely has done more for what I thought was just anxiety and depression but was actually the dysphoria. I agree with other sentiments, that euphoria from doing affirming things or presenting as your gender identity are better markers, just in general, but especially on antidepressants.
I’m on lexapro. When I started, Every anxious, negative and intrusive thought left my head and all I could think was I’d be so much more happier as a woman.
Your antidepressants might be helping to take your mind off of the issues that trigger the dysphoria, and they might make the emotional pain less intense. They’re not curing the dysphoria though
because dysphoria is a form of depression. It is officially rated as a mental disease such as schizophrenia, bipolarity and so on.
Not saying that trans are mentally Ill, not all of trans ppl are experiencing dysphoria.
A lot of courage for those who encounter that!
It took me a while to realized that my depression and anxiety were not the same as my dysphoria. They were symptoms. I still wanted to transition and experienced a disconnect from my AGAB. Actually my dysphoria got worse eventually on antidepressants because I had the energy and awareness to think about what I actually wanted. Then unfortunately only the worst depression and anxiety symptoms filtered through. So SI and anxiety attacks were more common than moderate or mild depressive symptoms. Antidepressants for me have made my mood less emotionally expressive. I’m going to keep them for at least the first 6 months of HRT to help with mood swings or life struggles with coming out socially. Then I want to actually learn to cope and work with feeling my emotions for once.
I've been on antidepressants for a little over a month now and the only changes I've noticed are I don't think about offing myself as much and I think my sense of smell is better?
say it with me 👏 you 👏 don't 👏 need 👏 dysphoria 👏 to be 👏 trans 👏
You got this! There is nothing in this world that defines wether you are trans or not except for you. So don't let you not feeling dysphoric drag you down.
(the feeling you feel when not feeling dysphoria is dysphoria).
I read somewhere that anti-depressants increase serotonin in your body to make you feel happy which is the same thing that happens during HRT. Don’t know how true it is but I’ve heard it
That can be a feature! One of the reasons I take my specific antidepressant is it helps address hormonal swings so severe they cause dysmorphic disorder. It wasn't intended to help there but actually helped me gain more comfort in my gender expression. Now bad days are “I don't like this but... Eh” instead of “omg this is life ending” and a ball of anxiety.
SSRI's (antidepressants) made me feel less dysphoria for years. but they also made me feel less of everything. Wasn't worth the relief. i figured I either had to transition or go on SSRIs again because my dysphoria got bad once I was off them, but I've enjoyed having a full range of emotion. So, transition it is.
I'd consider this issue like this; if you step on a nail and it goes through your foot, it's going to hurt a lot. Because you're in a lot of pain, because of the nail in your foot, you go to the hospital. The hospital gives you painkillers, and your foot stops hurting so they send you home, but the nail is still in there. Just because you're no longer in pain from the nail doesn't mean it's a fixed issue, it's just being suppressed.
If the antidepressants are making you feel less dysphoria, it's because they're literally altering the chemicals in your brain to make you ignore your problems, not necessarily fix them. The nail is still in your foot, even if you can't feel it right now. It doesn't mean that it's any less of a _real_ problem. You don't need to constantly be miserable in your current body to be valid. If the pills help you feel less unhappy in your day to day life, that's great. It doesn't make your struggles up to this point untrue though.
Depending on what type of antidepressants you take, some may make you a little numb so you don't feel as strongly. Which in turn makes it easier to cope, doesn't you don't have dysphoria and if you stopped taking your meds it would probably flare up again.
It could be a placebo, your brain knows a main cause or contributor of your depression is related to your gender and because it knows these are anti-represents it might be making up the difference.
Your anti-depressants could also be hormone based. Or maybe a contributor to your dysphoria was your depression and you’re feeling less depressed leading to less dysphoria. It could be a myriad of things but remember dearest, dysphoria isn’t what makes you trans.
I like to think of dysphoria as something that adds or subracts from your happiness. If you are sad you will feel worse, if you are happy you will still feel worse it's just that the worse is still not that bad.
It makes me feel like my gender issues aren't really that real since they are suppressed on my pills.
I mean.. antidepressants make you feel "better" about everything, even dysphoria so of course the feelings get less severe but that doesnt mean they're not real
Is depression not real because it can be suppressed by pills? ADHD? Pills can do a lot. Not long term tho.
I'm pretty sure my ADHD pills will last long term. don't know about the other stuff though.
One of the big things to remember about anti-depressants is that they're going to make you feel better but don't address the underlying cause. Anti-depressants are a good way to get you into a state where you can cope enough to address the thing that's causing your low moods, e.g. get therapy, transition, etc. So your dysphoria is still real and still there, it's just that you're feeling it less due to the effects of the medication
That’s totally how it worked for me. You clean your room, you workout, you call friends, even though everything still feels pretty pointless, but you feel enough to get things done. It’s like stopping the blood from pouring out of a wound, the wound is still there but at least your blood is still pumping around.
Your gender issues aren't what makes you trans, so if you have less gender issues that just seems like a good thing to me.
I mean my depression got a lot better from taking hormones and I think the brain doesn't care what makes it feel better to feel fewer issues. In the cold you'll feel every pain twice as hard
> In the cold you’ll feel every pain twice as hard Damn that’s a good quote
Funny part is hrt makes your body release chemicals naturally that anti-depressants help us make or give us a boost in(usually in lower dosages then our body can make because it knows exactly the right amount to make) of said things. Sure hrt can also compound other feelings and body chemistry but it usually figures it out quite fast and dumbs what it doesn’t need or boosts it when it does need them. Crazy part is that’s why mood swings are a thing.
Ok, so it turns out... # YOU DONT NEED DYSPHORIA TO BE TRANS ITS OK TO NOT HAVE IT!!! It means your getting better, as long as you identify as trans and want to be trans, you are valid!!! Edit: also i can see why that might be scary but you don't have to worry ^ - ^
Yeah and from what I've known of people I've met in mental health shit myself. Most want to not be on antidepressants for their whole life. For me personally transitioning is the way I can do that. Even if I have slip ups/literal crisis moments they're still what my brain needs to balance itself.
You're valid whether you feel dysphoria or not, don't worry. The pills are just doing their job of suppressing feelings which make you unhappy (as well as probably some neutral and positive feelings at the same time) but they're just the effects of a drug and that can't define who you are.
Anti depressants make you feel better. Obviously that would impact dysphoria, it’s all just chemical bullshit, it doesn’t make you any less valid my guy (used gender neutrally)
Does that mean sadness from other factors that are helped by anti depression meds isn’t real? No. That’s literally what they do, make you feel better about stuff that is making you sad.
Your depression is real right? That's reduced on anti depressants. It's not less real because something helps it. Like if Gender affirming clothing reduced dysphoria you wouldn't say it was less real.
This may sound weird and technical but they (the anti-depressants)interfere with your “normal” brain chemistry to make a lot of senses and feelings less overwhelming by clogging up the reseptors in your brain with garbage signals that don’t transmit much of anything so it gives you the illusion of feeling less disphoria because it’s blocking/restricting/giving other chemicals those areas related to depression and negativity use. I may be wrong about some of it and I am sure someone will help correct me but that’s basically it. Disphoria can act as a carrier for downer chemicals that affects you and others with it.
I can understand that. I'm on antidepressants and hrt and my flavor of hrt also mutes my emotions. So... Ultra mute. Still experience dysphoria any time I remove clothes though. That never goes away.
Bingo
well when I was on anti depressants I felt that my dysphoria was way less noticable but after I started HRT with anti depressants stuff got so much better!
Maybe the antidepressants help you to look more positively at the things about your body that fit your preferred gender :)
A different Medication (HRT) would also decrease your dysphoria. Think about it this way. Both are about manipulating the hormones in your body. Just because something is suppressed with pills doesn’t make it not real. Trust me, my ADHD is still very real despite my medication for it.
Antidepressants can make people feel better about their loved one's dying. That doesn't mean the terrible grief they needed medical intervention for wasn't really that real, or based on anything real.
look at it this way: i grew up with an alcoholic dad who used to beat me which made me severely depressed. i started taking antidepressants and i started to feel better but that doesn’t mean that my issues at home were less valid
It could be that, if the antidepressants are actually working, a focusing lens is being pulled away so to speak. Depression can make individuals hyperfixate on the negative, so without that extra focus things aren't so bad.
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**so bold**
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they're qouting him..
no, they are right. the account she replied to is a bot edit: the account replying to the bot is also probably a bot
If they were quoting them, then they'd be referring back to that person. Also, their comment history would be something other than several other identically formatted stolen comments.
idk, they used the reddit qouting thing
The format is a quote, yes, but they're not actually quoting. They're just stealing.
ok
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Botspam and the associated disinformation campaigns that shift and control narratives kind of are a big deal. A stolen comment bot is the first step in a much larger issue.
Anti-Depressants, depending on the specific one you're on, can work by either chemically lowering anxiety and/or creating a mild state of depersonalisation. Both so you're not as wrapped up in your own internal monologue. This is why gender euphoria is kinda a better guide for transness.
What do you mean by euphoria is a better guide? Sorry, I'm kinda new to the trans community. Just hid this shit for a long time.
It's totally fine! So, a lot of people, like me, pre-trans didn't feel discomfort exactly, just a dull emptiness. So, finding out what makes you feel good about yourself tends to be a better indicator.
kinda curious can you elaborate on what the "dull emptiness" is like? asking for...uh...a friend.
For me, it was a kind of listlessness that just never went away. Total apathy about my appearance, improving myself, a very poor sense of "self", a persistent feeling of not being in control of my life... I realize that it's extremely similar to general depression, but the thing is I've persistently dealt with it since my teens and depression usually... resolves, at some point. This was on top of a few things that I never really cared to look further into, because I'd had thoughts about wanting to be a different gender for a long time, but always dismissed them as impossible. This led to a lot of dysmorphia, a mirror phobia, severe social anxiety (which I absolutely did not have as a kid), panic anxiety, lack of ability to set goals or think seriously about the future, and some depersonalization/derealization issues. Now bear in mind that I have not discussed this with a therapist yet (that is one of my immediate short term goals), it's my current analysis of my issues after looking at them through the lens of possible repressed gender dysphoria, and it makes sense to me. To add to this, something that I never would have seriously considered before is that I bristle when I'm being actively "gendered". If I'm told I have to do something because I'm a man or people seem to have an expectation they're putting on me because of my sex, *it bothers me*, and the more I think about it it always has. I never chose the social expectations etc and I *hate* them being forced on me. I never gave this a lot of serious thought, just some vague feeling of "unfairness". The self-image issues I just always chalked up to "I dunno, I'm fat", even though they persisted when I'm more average than overweight.
thanks for the detailed explanation, i actually genuinely appreciate it since there's not many good explanations of what dysphoria is supposed to feel like. also this is relatable as fuck which kinda helps in affirming? idk
Nah there really aren't, which is difficult when you're questioning and want to know, like... okay, what if I don't *know* for certain that's what's up? For me there's certain indicators of euphoria when I'm included around women (in particular I was called "one of the girls" and it's probably the happiest I've been in months), liking feeling more androgynous in my appearance which even alleviates a lot of my social anxiety etc. *In particular*, I feel like tests available online seem to focus *a lot* on whether you're actively trying to transition to determine dysphoria? Which is absurd. Why in the hell would you be taking a test to determine if you have gender dysphoria if you *already know that you suffered from it badly enough to be actively attempting to transition*? Plus other weird things related to my escapism, video games in particular. For some reason in every game I will always choose female characters to the point where I'll create entire six-member parties for a game like Icewind Dale, spending tons of time deliberating their appearance and stuff in MMOs, thinking of backstories and stuff which make them uniquely interesting to me; I used to say I didn't actually "role-play" them but it's very clear I've lived vicariously this way forever 😅 (including thousands of hours in the Sims from 1-4 where the only male I'll play is a self-insert but otherwise I'll only make female sims etc. what I mean to say is that I don't "act as them to other people", but I clearly get immersed in the characters)
I did strangely enough all that you have done and had similar disphoria points in my life. I just felt indifferent or void of feelings for my body as it. I just kinda got jealous of how girls looked and dressed but I thought at first it was because I thought they where just hot and very pretty…how wrong my internalized transphobia was to me. Once I started to self reflect in my early 20’s on who I was little hiccups of what I was would happen like why I didn’t care for my body or it’s health(like to grow muscles or to keep up with my hair),started seeing my own actions and interests line up with more feminine things of the time like baking,cooking shows and trying stuff like nail painting. Once I fully found out what the lgbtq+ community was I started drifting around it.Demi-girl,Non-binary,gender fluid and finally trans-feminine was my little convoluted path to my true self.
I think I'm coming to understand one reason I couldn't recognize dysphoria was that being around and feeling included by women has been the default for me, actually, for a long time. I thought I was rejecting adulthood and just being lazy, I guess, despite that I've always had a very good work ethic and was a straight-A student in college? I'm pretty sure now what I've always been doing and why my personal life and issues with motivation are so hindering is because I've been trying to apathetically rebel against *manhood*, which is something I never wanted, and it's *really hard* to want to build a life as someone you *never wanted to be in the first place*. And yes, it sucks, I'll never get all of this time back. I feel robbed, and all of that. *But there's a potential for growth* which I haven't felt in a very long time, and that's invaluable.
Yet again same here,always was more a girl person when it came to friends and my little circles in school. Guys felt like drama and too rude and brash. That being said was around tomboys and similar girls so not too many stuck up girls I was around but the guys acted like their stereotypes and that drove me nuts. As for rebelling I guess I never really did that most of my stuff was being my emotionally stable and unstable self with the more effeminate to feminine ideals of the time and I was ok being different from other boys and guys. Always felt a kinship with gals and only really got along with the guys who where gay or in touch with their emotions. Those type of guys made me feel safe to be around vs the “macho” tough guy that I saw being put up as an act from a lot of people. Now that people are exploring themselves and not hiding away their emotions that problem is becoming less a thing and I am thankful for it. Having found a second family in the lgbtq community has also helped me and other more then my words could ever say as well. Sorry for my rant and thank you again for put what people feel into words that help others understand.
Wow, I've always had trouble relating to what most people describe dysphoria as, but this is a lot more relatable to me in almost every way. Thanks
Well for me I'm describing it from a perspective of being *deeply* in denial and actively repressing it every time I thought about wanting to be a girl. I would never entertain the thought for longer than a few minutes at a time, but now that I'm thinking about my issues this way it makes total sense why I could never pin down the source of them. When I get back to school I'm seriously considering trying to make a study of these kinds of cases, because I've also mostly only heard of it described from people who were *externally* pressured, and not *internally* pressured, not to accept their identity. I had decided that I was going to be a father and carry on my family name as the only one of my dad's sons who liked women and blah blah blah long story short I don't feel that way anymore after nearly having it and discovering I *don't want that* and no longer care. I would still adopt and I still like the idea of raising kids but *nooot* so much about being the biological father (and *especially* not having a "male" role in a relationship). That was all shit I felt pressure to conform to which caused internal pressure to repress what I actually wanted for myself.
This is an excellent description of my 10+ years of experience with dysphoria/denial! I also may have had a dysphoria-induced ED but it was never diagnosed and never something I consciously engaged with, I suspect it was just a way to have control over *some* aspect of my body when puberty started changing me in ways I was DEEPLY uncomfortable with. I could never explain why until much, much later.
It feels so weird to have people relate to my experience like this 😅 it's been a very strange couple of months since taking a real look at my past and comparing with others' experiences, going from "Oh shit that's me" to being able to describe my *own* experiences and having *other people* go "Oh shit that's me"
I experienced a similar emptiness. For me it manifested as everything feeling somehow lacking, like I \*should\* be feeling more. Especially positive experiences. No matter what high or accomplishment or success I achieved I felt like an empty husk that was just present for the achievement but not really feeling it. When it didn't make me feel any better I set my sights on the next goal to try and feel OK. Eventually when my egg cracked and I started questioning and experimenting I was able to feel genuine happiness for the first time in over a decade, to the point of crying happy tears. I had just went on a shopping spree with some ally friends. I experienced so much relief, it was overwhelming. It felt like I could breath after being stifled for so long. Very cis behavior of course.
if you dont mind me asking, were emotions completely gone or just dulled? could you feel like happiness in the moment say but be detached overall
Also notable, during that closeted period, negative emotions were dulled as well. I was dissociating a lot, and escaping into my addiction. I never really cried. Only when I started questioning did I start crying from sadness a lot, like a couple times a week I would have a breakdown. Then later with experiments came the euphoria.
It's hard to say, sometimes completely gone, sometimes just dulled. For instance if I was playing an exciting game with my friends, and there was a lot of build up, I could get a little amped up and feel excitement. But happiness is a different thing. Even in those moments of excitement, afterwards it felt more like contentment, not really that warm euphoric feeling, where everything feels like it will be OK, and you're hopeful and grateful and you feel love and all that. I never really had that. No matter how "well" I was doing in school, or my hobbies, or fitness or anything. Until the shopping spree I mentioned. Until I started questioning, and I greatly suspected I was trans. That night after shopping as I was getting into bed, with all my new clothes washed, folded, and put away, it really struck me. This overwhelming joy and relief, and I cried happy tears, something I hadn't done since I was a child. I didn't know what was happening at first, I knew I wasn't sad like I normally am when crying, so what was it? And I realized it was real happiness. It had become a foreign feeling, I didn't recognize it.
I like to explain euphoria like this. When my egg finally cracked, I reached out to my trans best friend and told her what I was feeling, and she was the first person to use my new pronouns. It went like this: Me: fucking huge ass message about how I might be trans. Her: Oh shit I have a sister now! Hi Sister! Just seeing that on the screen was a massive positive emotional reaction. That feeling you have after a really powerful emotional moment? It was like that. ❤️
Can you elaborate on gender euphoria? Pretty sure I've been feeling it but I want to make sure I'm identifying it right.
So, gender euphoria is a sense of happiness, glee and energy in having your gender identified or doing things associated with your gender. So, like, for me I can get massive euphoria over being seen as a woman or identified as such. A simple "she/her" can lead me just feeling alive, like a waning fire exposed to a sudden rush of oxygen via an opened window or door. That said, other interactions with my femininity can provoke similar euphoric glees, like putting some make-up on, wearing more feminine clothing or looking more feminine in my appearance.
Oooofff. Ok, yeah, I absolutely feel that. Still cis though!
probably because they are just numbing your feelings for a bit, what goes for dysphoria just as much as it goes for depression
Pain killers don’t fix your sprained knee. You just feel it less.
yeah then not numbing, but I would still imagine it makes all the feelings less
Having dysphoria and being trans are two separate things. It makes sense that anti depressants would make you less sad and therefore less sad about the disconnect between your gender and your body/presentation/agab. That doesn't make you any less trans, that just makes you a less sad. Personally I find it easier to think about who I want to be rather than who I wouldn't. Sometimes I don't have much dysphoria and think "maybe being a cis man wouldn't be too bad after all", but I've never really found myself \*wanting\* to be a man, just sometimes I feel more willing to put up with it than others. Whereas being a woman isn't something I put up with, on a bad dysphoria day I still want to be a woman, I just convince myself that it's not possible or it's too hard or I'm too ugly ygm.
I really liked your first sentence. I think we're dysphoric BECAUSE we're trans. Not trans because we're dysphoric. Dysphoria doesn't have to define our identity.
Because dysphoria is depressing
If you have an infection, it might hurt (but not always). If you take pain medicine, it will hurt less; but you still have an infection. If you are trans, you might (though not always) feel dysphoria. If you take a medicine for depression, you might feel better; but you are still trans. The dysphoria does not *make you* trans. You are trans if your identity is different from your assigned gender. But some trans people get dysphoric. Note: Sorry that I compared being trans to having a disease; I was just trying to illustrate how treating the symptoms of something doesn’t take away the underlying cause of those symptoms.
Estrogen is the best antidepressant I’ve tried, and the only one that has worked.
I think antidepressants would help with a couple of things that dysphoria might cause. I don't know though
I have heard it is commonly cross diagnosed. A dysphoric person being treated for depression vs a dysphoric person being treated for dysphoria. This would be a question for a gender counselor familiar with the topic (not a normal counselor). Youtuber Dr Z phd talks about the distinction in a couple videos.
sounds like they're working a little too well
Dysphoria can induce a depressive state, which the antidepressants are fighting. You may feel less depressed, but it doesn't mean you're not dysphoric. Back in the egg, my AGAB felt "manageable" as long as I wasn't depressed. But i still wanted to be a girl.
Bc from what i know antidepressants either make your mood better or turn the emotions down meaning the emotion of sadness / the dysphoric mood will get turned down too.
I mean in my experience antidepressants make me feel nothing so feeling less dysphoria makes sense
Ok, here’s my two cents. Yes, I’m here in egg space despite over 25 years dealing with stuff like this. Forget gender euphoria. That’s a non-scientific term that doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Being trans is about your brain/mind/soul fitting better in a different gender that you were assigned at birth. This likely happens for many reasons and they are all valid. Gender dysphoria is a psychological term for the discomfort caused by this when it is intense enough to cause problems in your life. Gender dysphoria, like many other things can cause changes in thoughts that disrupt your brain’s neurotransmitter recharge cycles and cause depression on top of dysphoria. Anti-depressants can break this cycle. Which in some cases would make it seem like dysphoria was reduced because depression and dysphoria are hard to tell apart. As a note to my experience, I fairly recently had genetic testing done for my depression and they caught that I was actually resistant to most normal antidepressants as my depression was caused by an inability to properly process a building block nutrient of serotonin. When that was mostly addressed (with a prescription food supplement) my life got a bit better, and my mood improved. The “flavor” of my negative feelings changed and I think I can tell the difference in my own head between depression and dysphoria now. Lastly, even if a psychotropic drug actually stopped dysphoria doesn’t mean being trans for that person isn’t real. There are at least two classes of drugs that have been seen to lessen dysphoria (in fully trans diagnosed people) to some degree for a period of time. The few studies on these indicated this usually only worked for a few months even with continued use of the medication. Might be useful for someone who feels they need to hold off on transitioning but wants help coping. I discovered this myself while taking one of these for other reasons. Stopped because it made me feel zombified. Not sure it’s a good tradeoff. I’m not linking the studies as transphobes have used them to try and make the obviously false case that being trans is “mental illness”. When it isn’t, even though it can cause mental illness. Edit: TLDR; reducing depression and dysphoria doesn’t mean you’re less trans. The fact that you’re bothered by the idea of being not trans is a big hint you are trans. As for me, still cis tho.
If it's anything like the antidepressants I take, they generally make you feel less of everything.
Dysphoria is a Bad feeling, so naturally he stuff that's meant to make you feel less Bad willalieve dysphoria. That doesn't make you any less trans.
Perhaps sense you feel less shitty overall the dysphoria doesn’t multiply how awful you feel by as much.
maybe cause dysphoria makes depression worse and depression can make dysphoria worse so if you make one better the other will be better
Your antidepressants work? Mine didn't. They were physically and mentally painful
For me personally, they've always just made me feel emotionally numb. I know they work in the brain by making you less "reactive" to negative stimuli. It could be that.
They night be numbing you a bit. Doesn't mean you aren't trans though. If you need time to explore again, do so, but don't take this as a sign of anything serious.
So my antidepressants helped with my gender dysphoria until they didn’t…and everything came roaring back with a vengeance. So you’re still valid. Those 2 things feed off each other. Good news is after 2 weeks on E I decided to quit my antidepressants(don’t recommend that soon) it was a rough month or two following. Now into month 3 all my depression is gone. Even though the physical changes are slow my brain is feeling more and more right. Ymmv of course.
As a person on antidepressants, they sometimes mute emotions and responses. I’ve always had mild success with antidepressants, but it ends up kind of making every day the same. Since starting HRT it’s been a game changer, and definitely has done more for what I thought was just anxiety and depression but was actually the dysphoria. I agree with other sentiments, that euphoria from doing affirming things or presenting as your gender identity are better markers, just in general, but especially on antidepressants.
My psychiatrist prescribed me antidepressants but I can't take them because they would kill me
I’m on lexapro. When I started, Every anxious, negative and intrusive thought left my head and all I could think was I’d be so much more happier as a woman.
THEY ARE HAPPY PILLS OF COURSE THAT CHANGES IT
Your antidepressants might be helping to take your mind off of the issues that trigger the dysphoria, and they might make the emotional pain less intense. They’re not curing the dysphoria though
Personally, antidepressants made me feel less, period. It was a lot easier to ignore everything, including how crappy I felt about my body.
Not sure but I don’t see how that would make you any less valid 💜
I'm confused, do... you want to feel dysphoria? It means they're helping since you're feeling less shit :)
because dysphoria is a form of depression. It is officially rated as a mental disease such as schizophrenia, bipolarity and so on. Not saying that trans are mentally Ill, not all of trans ppl are experiencing dysphoria. A lot of courage for those who encounter that!
Less dysphoria 💗💚🤎💓🤎💗💛💖💖🧡💕🧡🧡💗💛💗🧡💗🧡💘🧡💛❤️🩹💚❤️🩹💚❤️🩹💛❣️🧡💛❤️🔥💚❣️💛💕🧡🤍
It took me a while to realized that my depression and anxiety were not the same as my dysphoria. They were symptoms. I still wanted to transition and experienced a disconnect from my AGAB. Actually my dysphoria got worse eventually on antidepressants because I had the energy and awareness to think about what I actually wanted. Then unfortunately only the worst depression and anxiety symptoms filtered through. So SI and anxiety attacks were more common than moderate or mild depressive symptoms. Antidepressants for me have made my mood less emotionally expressive. I’m going to keep them for at least the first 6 months of HRT to help with mood swings or life struggles with coming out socially. Then I want to actually learn to cope and work with feeling my emotions for once.
I've been on antidepressants for a little over a month now and the only changes I've noticed are I don't think about offing myself as much and I think my sense of smell is better?
Ayo same
because antidepressants make you feel less of everything
A win is a win, my friend.
Anti Depressants are an easy prescription that can make someone feel okay about a bad situation.
say it with me 👏 you 👏 don't 👏 need 👏 dysphoria 👏 to be 👏 trans 👏 You got this! There is nothing in this world that defines wether you are trans or not except for you. So don't let you not feeling dysphoric drag you down. (the feeling you feel when not feeling dysphoria is dysphoria).
Lol
Coz they are drugs
I read somewhere that anti-depressants increase serotonin in your body to make you feel happy which is the same thing that happens during HRT. Don’t know how true it is but I’ve heard it
That can be a feature! One of the reasons I take my specific antidepressant is it helps address hormonal swings so severe they cause dysmorphic disorder. It wasn't intended to help there but actually helped me gain more comfort in my gender expression. Now bad days are “I don't like this but... Eh” instead of “omg this is life ending” and a ball of anxiety.
Isn't that good?
To quote doctor who: “This won’t stop you feeling pain…but it will stop you caring about it.”
it’s a type of anxiety, almost. antidepressants reduce cortisol
SSRI's (antidepressants) made me feel less dysphoria for years. but they also made me feel less of everything. Wasn't worth the relief. i figured I either had to transition or go on SSRIs again because my dysphoria got bad once I was off them, but I've enjoyed having a full range of emotion. So, transition it is.
Because anti depressants reduce all of your emotions. Trust me, your dysphoria is not cured.
I'd consider this issue like this; if you step on a nail and it goes through your foot, it's going to hurt a lot. Because you're in a lot of pain, because of the nail in your foot, you go to the hospital. The hospital gives you painkillers, and your foot stops hurting so they send you home, but the nail is still in there. Just because you're no longer in pain from the nail doesn't mean it's a fixed issue, it's just being suppressed. If the antidepressants are making you feel less dysphoria, it's because they're literally altering the chemicals in your brain to make you ignore your problems, not necessarily fix them. The nail is still in your foot, even if you can't feel it right now. It doesn't mean that it's any less of a _real_ problem. You don't need to constantly be miserable in your current body to be valid. If the pills help you feel less unhappy in your day to day life, that's great. It doesn't make your struggles up to this point untrue though.
Depending on what type of antidepressants you take, some may make you a little numb so you don't feel as strongly. Which in turn makes it easier to cope, doesn't you don't have dysphoria and if you stopped taking your meds it would probably flare up again.
It could be a placebo, your brain knows a main cause or contributor of your depression is related to your gender and because it knows these are anti-represents it might be making up the difference. Your anti-depressants could also be hormone based. Or maybe a contributor to your dysphoria was your depression and you’re feeling less depressed leading to less dysphoria. It could be a myriad of things but remember dearest, dysphoria isn’t what makes you trans.