With many of these examples that we have witnessed in this thread, the people who bought tickets to the Troon train did not actually have true "gender dysphoria" but other mental disorders that either masqueraded as GD or trooned out of escapism. True GD is extremely rare.
Maybe, maybe not. With how common eating disorders and other self-destructive disorders are, I would not be shocked if the numbers for 'true GD' were higher than anticipated. Bear in mind, I was just a regular woman with a clinical history of OCD and abuse, and plenty of people are abused sexually, physically, emotionally, every minute of everyday. It's a fucked up trauma response and seems to usually be a reaction to internalised sexism/gender roles and homophobia, sexism and homophobia are pretty much just facts of life. The people we've seen without "true GD" seen to be GNC autists, terminally online fetishistic incels/femcels, and grooming victims, but I'm not entirely convinced that someone can not spontaneously develop GD after being exposed to trans messaging. To make an easy comparison, if you have OCD, it's pretty easily to accidentally pick up new anxieties and body dysmorphic traits, think about all of the young women who develop anorexia after comparing themselves to hungry skeleton fashion models, and having friends who are anorexic. Transsexuality has been observed to function like a social contagion, and it might be reasonable to suspect the actual disorder might be catching too. Couple this with the fact that being trans gets entangled with their identity, and it seems like a spreadable disorder that would be hard to treat. Remember, it is impossible to get better if you identify as a victim, and
every trans person I've ever met considers themselves a victim- a victim of circumstance, of mental illness, of transphobia, and so on.
We're talking mostly about the usa, who's healthcare system is so bad doctors prescribe marijuana without a second thought (and it baffles me still why over there the doctors don't give a crap, that kind of shit wouldn't fly over here) . And in what would now be a stressed system after a global epidemic? Yeah, it's bound to screw up. It was doomed from the start, add lgbt brow beating into mix, you're screwed.
Yes, I imagine the doctors are doing the best they can, and they're under enormous social pressure from their employers and trans activists to conform with the new treatment protocol, so I can't blame them entirely. After all, if you espouse even the slightest hint of being gender critical, you can be fired and have your name blacklisted from every employer. Still, it is frustrating having dangerous body modifications being used as first-line treatment for people arguably too mentally ill to even consent to such drugs and procedures.
Then what would be?
There may very well be a third option out there, who knows?
I can speak on this, if you want. Just to establish some credibility, in case you haven't picked up on what I've been putting down, or read my past posts in this thread, I am a woman who formerly had clinically-significant symptoms of GD for many, many years, and later detransitioned when I realised the drugs weren't helping, that the side-effects were too dangerous, and that, carrying on like this, I would never,
ever be happy. The mental disorder never quiets, not even when you try to dissociate from it with hormones, drugs, and alcohol.
I got most of these strategies from researching treatments for other anxiety disorders (BDD and the often comorbid anorexia/bulimia, and standard OCD), traumatic disorders (such as PTSD), and dissociation/derealisation disorders. Additional potential strategies could probably be found by reading literature about the previously mentioned. The main issue is it takes a lot of courage to face your past traumas, and you have to actually
want to change, most people with GD are too fucked in the head to try. It's the nature of the beast, honestly.
Firstly, I treated it like OCD. I removed the term "gender dysphoria" from my vocabulary, as this only reinforces and feeds the anxiety, and I just tried to analyse
what I was feeling, why the sight of my own body would trouble me so. I would sit with myself and try to think back to the very first time I'd ever felt this way, what triggered this anxiety in me. For example, in the case of my breasts and hips, it was due to be sexualised at around the age of 10 by vile old men, and as an autistic girl, my reaction was to see the offending anatomy as the reasoning for my exposure to objectification and sexism, and to loathe it and desire to remove it. Every other exposure to sexist and homophobic behaviour served to reinforce this belief in me, before I even consciously realised it. After figuring out what events caused a certain aspect of GD, one could try to reassure themselves that they're safe, they're an adult who doesn't have to dignify sexism and homophobia with a response, and attempt to integrate the traumatic experiences and move past them. When GD thoughts would emerge, I would observe them, but not indulge them, because it can trigger an anxious spiral into a mental health episode. All of this is easier said than done, of course, and I seriously struggled with the final step. It is hard to change the profoundly mentally ill.
I treated it like a dissociative disorder, spending time with myself in nature, taking stock of my surroundings, the sky, the wind, the grass, the birds, my own breathing, and finding myself to be a part of all of it. This helped a little. I did focus-consuming exercise in the form of stand-up paddleboarding and weightlifting, in an attempt to force myself to see my body as only a useful tool that I feel deeply connected with, rather than a sex object and evidence of my inferiority, I tried to ignore every terrible lie people have told me about my body and my sex. This gave me moderate success, but the GD still lurked and resurfaced frequently.
During this time, I meditated frequently, to try to calm my anxieties. It helped only a little with the GD.
I'd done research on how psychedelics were being used to treat traumatic disorders that refused to budge, especially in victims of sexual abuse and war veterans. Your intentions, setting, and actions on these substances are critical, and I really do hesitate to recommend them to anybody. For better or for worse, a substance such as LSD makes your pysche incredibly malleable, so you could use it to radically alter your way of thinking and move past the trauma that is causing the GD, abandon the identity, or accidentally give yourself new trauma by having a bad trip. I've known trans people who have taken literally hundreds of doses of LSD and never changed, because the drug is what you make of it. In my case, I meditated, prayed to whatever deity is out there for guidance and safety, begged it to help me finally feel comfortable in my body and no longer have GD, and spent the day painting in nature processing my trauma. I really think my past efforts to find the causes of my GD, redefine my body's purpose and dismiss my experiences with homophobia and sexism as the opinions of assholes, and just observe my anxious thoughts without chasing after them, helped significantly. On this substance, I was able to see every past event that lead to my current situation, and I was able to move past the vast majority of them. I think about it like psychotherapy as we all hoped it would be, since the substance allowed me to take stock of all of my past bad experiences without fear, understand them, and put them away.
I do not believe I would have recovered without being able to radically alter my psyche with LSD, because of how complex and deeply-rooted GD is. As dangerous as it can be if you are not in a good and prepared mental state, if you do not have experience with anxiety de-escalation, if you are not in a safe place physically (a place in nature on a beautiful, sunny Spring day seems best), it seems to be an invaluable tool for someone who can not otherwise recover from a traumatic mental disorder. I would rather take a drug once that actually helps, rather than take hormones for the rest of my life, anyway. My best advice to anyone would be to treat the "you" that will be on LSD like a very young and fragile child, have access to paints and drawing implements, fresh fruits and other foods you like, a good, comforting, and calm environment with access to nature, and knowledge in how to calm and comfort a small child. At risk of waxing religious, it really does feel like starting life over again.
TL;DR: If done in the right environment, with care and preparation, and with intentions in mind, psychedelics could present a better treatment option.
