Dysphoria & you!

If you're trans, you've most likely learned what gender dysphoria is the hard way. For those of you not in the know dysphoria is a feeling of unhappiness, a very broad term to cover discomfort with mental health. Gender dysphoria is what you feel when you sort of don't align with your body. Body hair, genitals being wrong, facial hair, and size of the body can all just send you into a depressive episode.

So, what can you do to fix that? Well, the answer isn't easy but there's not much you can do. You can consume content, distract yourself. Until you start transitioning there's a whole lot of nothing you can do. The best is to do something physical alongside something else, walk and talk. Games are an easy activity you can do. Reading isn't very physical but is very good after a walk. A good read is Zoe Quinn's Crash Override, it's a good way to learn about online security.

Dysphoria can still happen after transition, getting rid of whatever photos you can, deleting old accounts, and avoiding contact with people who will deadname you is a good way to try and minimize this. You're not going to be able to get everything or everyone though, and it'll still find a way to creep up on you. Don't be afraid to ask for help, hopefully you have support from friends and if you need it it's not a bad thing to call someone and be like "I feel like shit" because they can help you. You can't always hop out of the spiral alone.

In closing, you can't do much alone, come out to someone you feel comfortable with and start getting support where you need it. It's not something you can just stop, but you can avoid for later. Dealing with dysphoria isn't healthy, it's basically just repressing it until it goes away. The solution to completely fix it would be born the correct gender, and that's not how things work.

#LGBT #transgender #trans