Gender dysphoria or bad obsessive thinking?

djslanty wrote:People don't always articulate themselves proper or well enough.. and because of that, people should refrain from ever diagnosing someone based on how they attempt to explain themselves.

At this point I'll also point out diagnosing is against forum rules. Opinions are fine and I give mine rather strongly but we need to keep it at opinion.

The area of sex and gender is highly controversial. People with gender dysphoria have a really marked incongruence between the gender they have been assigned to (at birth) and their experienced gender, and alhtough obsessive and intrussive thoughts are not always present in the diagnosis there is an obvious gender dysphoria. And who says that a person can't have obsessive traits and this diagnosis. Best of luck.

how do any of us know if we aren't really in the same boat?

Because you haven't given any real indication of it. Sure sometime who is not sex or gender normative can also obsess over it. Like me. But before the obsession, despite the obsession, there is something there you know you're not completely ' normal'. It is not a bolt out of the blue, like an intrusive thought is. It's not the same. It isn't.

What's completely normal or are you saying because of the obsession we feel that way?

I'm saying I don't need intrusive thoughts to tell me I'm weird. Who is it here? Otter? Someone.

"if you have to ask if you are, it's OCD". Something like that. My obsessive nature has played up the femininity and the bisexuality in me beyond what it probably really is, but I've never had a bolt out of the blue, one sudden scary thought, what if I'm (fill in the blank). I don't need OCD to tell me I'm freaky. I LIKE being freaky.

jdd wrote:But... if its OCD why go to a gender therapist especially if they refer you back to someone who deals with OCD right away >.<

Funny you mention that. Several months later, I ended up seeing a gender therapist, who actually helped me in understanding myself more. I ended up asking for hormones at one point (back then, believing that taking female hormones would alleviate my anxiety, and she said no, and even seemed alarmed that I was thinking this way. Ultimately, after an assessment of me for gender dysphoria, she seemed to think that I did NOT have gender dysphoria and that I was simply suffering badly from OCD/anxiety.

Glad you realized before going through with anything you'd regret doing that can't be easily undone.

Hi OP, I really hope I can help you out here. I've suffered from TOCD as well and believed it was gender dysphoria and I just have to transition to make it go away. Here I am 9 months after it first came up, and I can tell you right now that you're not trans. I only realized and noticed for sure a couple of weeks ago, but it was all obsessive thinking from intrusive thoughts. I had given up reassuring myself, so I didn't ask people anymore, I didn't talk to my psych about it anymore and it dissappeared 4 weeks ago. Got really weak and I started to feel so much better. Unfortunately,OCD will latch onto something else, so the fear of self-harm popped up again, but during that time, the trans thing wasn't an issue to me anymore. In fact, I KNEW I wasn't trans. And this is the same for you. You aren't what you fear and you can't be. These thoughts are ego-dystonic, meaning, they don't represent your true self, that's why you're so scared of them. Do not experiment with clothes of the opposite sex, please. Your OCD can lie to you am make you believe that you're trans. I'm not saying this theme will never come back, but I can tell you that I have yet to hear of a single case in which people were actually what they feared. It's impossible.

Stead74 wrote:

jdd wrote:But... if its OCD why go to a gender therapist especially if they refer you back to someone who deals with OCD right away >.<

Funny you mention that. Several months later, I ended up seeing a gender therapist, who actually helped me in understanding myself more. I ended up asking for hormones at one point (back then, believing that taking female hormones would alleviate my anxiety, and she said no, and even seemed alarmed that I was thinking this way. Ultimately, after an assessment of me for gender dysphoria, she seemed to think that I did NOT have gender dysphoria and that I was simply suffering badly from OCD/anxiety.

Hey Stead, how are things going?

I also have TOCD and I get the genital dysphoria you mentioned on the last page.

Sometimes I feel a discomfort at the base of my penis and I feel like it is a sign of transsexualism, rather than OCD.

Also in the last couple of days I have felt like my feet are too big to be a transsexual, as most women have small feet, and that has scared me as that is the sort of thing a transsexual thinks about, rather than an OCD sufferer.

I am just so stuck.

I dunno what to do anymore.