Gid A Mental Disorder

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Hi Everyone

There has been something that has been nagging at me. Something that I am begining to realize how incongruous the concept is that we must be diagnosed with a mental disorder (Gender Identity Disorder (GID)) before we are allowed to heal and move forward with ourselves. The diagnosis is GID. Afterwards, we are then allowed and encouraged to undergo HRT, and other physical transformation surgeries.

What I find puzzling about all of this is that if being allowed to be ourselves is the "cure", then why the diagnosis of a mental illness in the first place?

Isn't it the healthiest state of mind to insist on being one's self in spite of all opposition? To me, that demonstrates extraordinary understanding and sense of self and awareness. How could awareness be considered a mental disorder?

Don't mind me.....

I am just thinking.....

Brenda

[Guest AshleyRF]

I have NEVER viewed this as a "mental disorder". To me it's always been a physical one. My mind is perfectly fine. It's the rest of me I have a problem with.

[Guest miss kindheart]

I had to beat this one to death with the FAA.

GID is not a mental disorder.

I had to pay a Psychologist $600 to state it in a letter.

It is what is known as a medical condition, and that's big difference.

vanna

[Guest angie]

You know that is why transactivist's want GID taken out of the DSMV don't you.

It is not a mental disorder at all.It is a physical disorder,and anomily,a birth defect

that can be fixed with surgery. According to the medical community,it is the only

mental disorder that can be cured with surgery,which we know to be the case.

Since once complete,most move on and live fullfilling lives as happy,well balanced

members of society. The fear is that if taken out of the DSMV,is that insurance

companies will still be able to deny surgery as being a pre existing condition.

Angie

[Guest N. Jane]

Way back about 1972 I was assessed by the entire psychiatry department of a major hospital (they had never encountered anyone like me! ) and a psychiatric assessment would likely be required by any future surgeon (this was before SRS was readily available). After two full days of interviews, they concluded I was "remarkably well adjusted, under the circumstances"

[Guest Chandra]

I agree with you Brenda.Perhaps it's because gender treatment is relatively new. The medical community is a little slow to change with the times. They sure don't have everything perfected, this might be the loophole. They think we must be sick in head to be the way we are. I think as time goes on this will change.

Look how far society's views on us have changed from the days of Christine Jorgensen. Back in those days mainstream seen her as some kind of freak. Now it seems trans is becomming more acceptable and mabey a little in favor. This I base on the increasing amount of trans shows on TV, and the amount of young people that come out at a very early age.

Brenda you and I are the same age, did you dare spill your guts when you were young, I know I could'nt, it was so taboo back then. I even remember my mother saying I must be sick in the head, after she found my stash of some of my older sisters stuff.

Hopefully there will come a day when treatment for being trans will be as acceptable as getting treatment for a broken bone.

Love, Chandra

[Guest AshleyRF]

That is very true. The staggering number of children coming out as trans has without a doubt been a huge credit to us all. It is without a doubt complete validation that we are and always have been what we say we are. It is proof that, even at such a young age, we knew. It is proof that it has nothing to do with the way we grew up or that it's not some sort of fetish. We are born this way.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Brenda you and I are the same age, did you dare spill your guts when you were young, I know I could'nt, it was so taboo back then.

I would not even dream of coming out when I was young. I crossdressed in secrecy.

Brenda

[Guest Yinyang Mist]

Totaly

I mean when I was a kid if I had said anything.., I would have been rushed to normal family know it all shrink. well it was just not heard of much, even in "parts" of California. Surely there must have been something wrong with you ... was the belief. If I was 14 again now I would not be so affraid, would just have chosen my friends a bit more closely. This newer acceptence we see now is a clear sign that enough or close to enough research is being done to understand and correct these types of assumptions often made by the medical community. I have seen this in many areas of medicine, and is often money driven but not always the case. Once the correct answers are found, often then the money side disputes in fear, oddly also much like the "Incarceration" industry. So staying on topic I agree that the high volume of youth coming out could be that sign of hope. When kids talk people listen...odd

[Guest angie]

I told my parents when I was five that I was a girl at a birthday party.

Was summarily slapped down and yelled at with my dad saying...

" No you are not,you are a boy,act like one!" And spent my childhood

being severely beaten at times for my innate feminine tendencies.

My Mom found my stash three times before I left home.They attributed

it to being popular with girls and me wanting to have a souvenier of my

sexual conquests.

Angie

[Guest Donna Jean]

Hi Everyone

There has been something that has been nagging at me. Something that I am begining to realize how incongruous the concept is that we must be diagnosed with a mental disorder (Gender Identity Disorder (GID)) before we are allowed to heal and move forward with ourselves. The diagnosis is GID. Afterwards, we are then allowed and encouraged to undergo HRT, and other physical transformation surgeries.

Brenda

See? Right there is the problem...the very name of it. Gender Identity Disorder.

That is the word that sticks out like a sore thumb!

It's like Vanna said...it's a medical condition...not a disorder as the name suggests!

That's why I personally use the word "Transgender" in reference to myself and others rather than "Transsexual" because the word "Sex" is the only part people hear!

And that ticks me off!

You've been thinking too much, Brenda!.....lol

HUGGS!

Donna Jean

[Guest BeckyTG]

See? Right there is the problem...the very name of it. Gender Identity Disorder.

That is the word that sticks out like a sore thumb!

It's like Vanna said...it's a medical condition...not a disorder as the name suggests!

That's why I personally use the word "Transgender" in reference to myself...

Donna Jean

You are NOT transgender, Donna Jean. I've met you before and you're a GIRL!

I don't know what you're trying to pull here.....

Becky

[Guest Soph]

That's why I personally use the word "Transgender" in reference to myself and others rather than "Transsexual" because the word "Sex" is the only part people hear!

See, I use the opposite. Even though other people don't know the distinction between the two, I don't self-identify as transgender since thats such an umbrella term that it really says nothing about a person's condition. Transsexual is very specific, however. Even though people might focus on "sexual", I feel I would be doing an injustice if I lied (if only because of a lie of omission).

[Guest angie]

See, I use the opposite. Even though other people don't know the distinction between the two, I don't self-identify as transgender since thats such an umbrella term that it really says nothing about a person's condition. Transsexual is very specific, however. Even though people might focus on "sexual", I feel I would be doing an injustice if I lied (if only because of a lie of omission).

That is exactly how I feel about the term I prefer to use to self discribe Soph.

When I first came out seven years ago and told others that I was trangender,

they didn't understand the term. But when I chose to use transsexual,that left

no doubt about what I was talking about. And I do not like to class myself under

the one umbrella term,transgender. That is not the phase I am in my life journey,

nor do I identify with crossdressers or any who may come under that term either.

It may not be the popular term among us trans,but I prefer to say I am a transsexual

woman in transition,living in role,during my real life experience.

Angie

[Guest AshleyRF]

I think that if most of us expressed out true feelings as children we would have probably been taken to a quack pot therapist or doctor who would have insisted we be forced to do things generally done by our assigned gender. It is probably best that we didn't come out at a young age. Things were so different back then than they are now for trans children. Our parents just didn't know about these sort of things. They didn't understand what to do about this or what to expect of it.

I do find it strange that I do remember feeling this way from my earliest memories. I remember wanting to do the things my female cousin was doing like ballet, girlscouts, etc... and acting out on many of these feelings when I was very young, however, I don't remember anyone ever saying to me that this behavior was not appropriate yet I do remember eventually knowing not to tell anyone what I was feeling inside. I do know at some point I stopped playing girly things and hid my feelings as best I could.

[Guest Donna Jean]

See, I use the opposite. Even though other people don't know the distinction between the two, I don't self-identify as transgender since thats such an umbrella term that it really says nothing about a person's condition. Transsexual is very specific, however. Even though people might focus on "sexual", I feel I would be doing an injustice if I lied (if only because of a lie of omission).

When I know that someone understands the word "Transsexual" that is the word that I use...

To be expedient, when I know that someone doesn't understand the difference, I use "Transgender"....

No, I realize that it includes CD'ers and other people under one umbrella...

I KNOW that I'm Transsexual and that's what I identify as!

And however we feel about it, we ARE included under the Transgender blanket as we are under the "Human" category...

Donna Jean

[Guest AshleyRF]

I would never openly identify as transgender/transsexual to the outside world. Sorry, it just isn't something I want to be or something I am proud of. I'd far rather be just a woman.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Ashley... My head is realy in a spin. Today my wife looked at me and said "You are going to be a beautiful woman!' So what you just wrote is really hitting home. Like you? That all I ever raeally wanted to be, a woman. I don't particularly like the word trnssexual - but like Donna Jean, said, I suspect she meant it this way, we HAVE TO accept we are defined as transswexual. The gate keepers demand it for one thing - secondly, we beed to think of ourselves that way to plan a path away fom it.

I hope it is a curable condition. I am transitioning - I consider myself as 'under remodeling" - the body that is. So perhasps transexual will change to 'former' transsexual. Donno.

I am just a woman with a defect that can be changed by surgery - amazing if you think about it!

Elizabeth

[Guest viv]

I"ve always considered myself to BE a woman ,,,just an unlucky one !!.viv

[Guest AshleyRF]

I do not like anyone thinking that I am transgendered/transsexual. Those are terms that I simply never want used to describe me even if it happens to be a part of my past. I don't want to be reminded of it. I've never felt "transsexual", I've only felt like a female.

Not passing 100% is not an option for me. I will do whatever it takes to make sure no one can tell I have a trans past.

[Guest Donna Jean]

I do not like anyone thinking that I am transgendered/transsexual. Those are terms that I simply never want used to describe me even if it happens to be a part of my past. I don't want to be reminded of it. I've never felt "transsexual", I've only felt like a female.

Not passing 100% is not an option for me. I will do whatever it takes to make sure no one can tell I have a trans past.

I apologize....

Donna Jean

[Guest Jean Davis]

Well that's just the problem, everyone is looking for an explination on why someone is different than they are.

There seems to be this big insecurity with people that if someone is different that they are a threat.

Untill people can accept others and their differences as people and not see us as a threat we will contunue to have these problems no matter what words we use to describe ourselves.

We have a whole lot of maturing to do as a species.

May God help any beings from another world that come to visit.

LUV

Jean

[Guest Donna Jean]

May God help any beings from another world that come to visit.

LUV

Jean

Amen, Sis!

Donna Jean

[Guest AshleyRF]

I apologize....

Donna Jean

For?

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Ashley and DJ you are both very beautiful women

I adore you both.

This topic is about the inconsistency of the treatment of transsexuals.

Love to you both

Brenda