Creative Non-Fiction
Obligatory Trans Masculine Gender Dysphoria Post
What did it feel like and why is it helpful for me to share this with you?
CW: suicide (mentioned in passing without details), gender dysphoria
You’re probably asking the same question I asked before submitting this for publication. Why read another dysphoria post?
I’m posting this because I originally wrote most of it before I knew this was a story of gender dysphoria.
I hope reading this helps someone to better see themself. Perhaps it could also help someone to better understand a loved one who is struggling with something like this. It is certainly not the only form that dysphoria can take, but this represents one way that it has manifested for me. Dysphoria varies in form and intensity, and not all trans people experience it.
I had this experience while looking at myself in the mirror at age 14. It happened shortly before my first, thankfully unsuccessful suicide attempt. 21 years later, I realized, or admitted to myself, that I was a man.
