Hi everyone, it's good to find this place.

[Guest cygnusX-1]

Hello everybody, I'm a 26-year old male (in body only at least) who has been recently coming to terms with who i really am. I've felt like I was born the wrong gender for quite a while now, since i was about 14, but never took any steps towards the physical realization of that other than cross-dressing in private. Lately however I've been coming to terms with it, but i really wish it happened a lot earlier. I'm currently active duty Air Force stationed in Japan and ever since coming here I've been feeling increasingly trapped to the point where my depression and anxiety worsened to where i attempted suicide a couple months ago. I feel like I need to start transition ASAP, at least with that I'm lucky to be seeing a therapist who is understanding of that and is helping me separate early without mention of any gender identity issues to my command. This site and others like it have given me a lot of good info on what to expect with transition, but there are still so many questions and unknowns.

Thanks for listening,

April

[Guest Mia J]

Hello April and welcome to Laura's. We are happy to have you here.

You will find that there are a lot of people here who have gone through what you are going through. We have members who are current or ex military who may be able to give you some advise. We try to provide a safe space where our members can give and get advise and share experiences but we are not therapist.

Does you therapist have experience in gender issues? I'm not sure what you can do while your stationed abroad but one of the first steps in helping you to find more about yourself is to go to a therapist that specializes in gender issues.

We do ask that you read the terms and conditions so you can better understand how we operate here on the forums.

Looking forward to seeing your posts.

Mia

[Guest cygnusX-1]

Thanks for the welcome, Mia.

Sadly my options here are few, my therapist has limited experience with gender identity issues, but even that's better than nothing right now considering many military therapists have no idea whatsoever. And options off base are nonexistent. Regardless, my separation is being fast-tracked and i should be a civilian back in the states before Thanksgiving. I've found out a lot of good information in the military forum about VA benefits and it's good to know there's a chance I could get referred a gender therapist from there and possibly even HRT (if i'm lucky enough to qualify for benefits, it looks like that is completely up to the VA).

April

[Guest Krisina]

Welcome to Laura's. There are plenty of unknowns in transition but just take one day at a time. A good gender therapist will really help you out. A good book to read whenever you get the chance is True Selves. It will give you an idea of some stuff you will have to go through. It's also a good book for family and friends when you get to a point that you feel comfortable sharing more info about yourself to others.

Krisina

[Guest miss kindheart]

Hi April,

<<< hug >>>

Welcome to Laura's Playground.

Please feel free to come over and chat sometime.

The Chat room does require another registration that is separate from from your forums one.

Please read the chat room rules before coming in, and expect a short interview with one of the chat room moderators.

One of the things that they will ask you is if you read the rules.

We all look forward to seeing you.

vanna