And, if anybody recognizes something about my psyche that I am not recognizing, do shoot out!

the only thing I would say is that it’s very common for binary trans women to experience a huge amount of denial which can make it very hard to feel gender euphoria and to recognize gender dysphoria as gender dysphoria; I think for this reason it’s also not uncommon for us to take a long time to figure out we are women, and that path often includes years identifying as non-binary, agender, gender fluid, etc. - and it’s very common for binary trans women to feel indifference or numbness about their gender. I think the reason for this is mostly the fear around social and medical transition. Your story sounds pretty much exactly like mine: I myself spent years as a man who just wanted to undo the male socialization (including years in therapy with the explicit goal of undoing my maleness), and also spent years identifying as non-binary and disclaiming gendered pronouns. That was before I finally ran across some trans resources and realized my experiences were entirely compatible (and in fact stereotypically common) with being a binary trans woman.

Typical next steps include: 1. education, 2. trying out estrogen, 3. getting into therapy with a gender-informed therapist (particularly one who has lots of experience helping trans patients).

The right dose and route of administration of estrogen is low risk, can be very clarifying for people in denial, and can dramatically improve mental health, so I think it should be an early step rather than a later step. The permanent effects don’t even start until after 3 months.

I can send a list of resources for the education step if you’re interested.

But that’s all I could think of - just be open to possibility as you explore and learn more.

EDIT:

Read any trans related educational material you feel might be useful, but here’s a starting list:

• Gender Dysphoria Bible
• Whipping Girl by Julia Serano (and Sexed Up as well)
• Yes, You Are Trans Enough by Mia Violet
• “What Does the Scholarly Research Say about the Effect of Gender Transition on Transgender Well-Being?”
• An Introduction to Hormone Therapy for Transfeminine People

You might also find helpful this longer list of resources.

I’ve also put together some tips on how to help with dysphoria you might find useful.

I’m not sure there is more you can do than what you have done - ultimately you can’t make someone else stay friends with you; if anything I would take some comfort knowing that if she still took interest in you it could go worse places (like heart-break, or being used as a punching bag for the amusement of her new popular friends, etc.).

It is probably best to make friends with people who aren’t in denial about their sexuality, who don’t become best friends with bigots, and who don’t treat you unfairly as a friend by alternating between pushing you away when they don’t want to deal with you and then bombing you with affection when they want to be around you.

There are plenty of red flags there, maybe it’s actually good for you that she is drifting away from you?

^ yes, this is what it looks like when you’re on the operating table

why? it’s not like being 20 years old makes a difference tbh

:O

so your friend who gave you extreme but mixed signals in both directions ended up friends with your homophobic bully and is now denying she is bi, while also growing more distant and less communicative with you?

I mean, I don’t think I could possibly give you advice, but I guess what I can’t tell from you is what is really the question here - you said you don’t even like her anymore, and she’s sorta brushing you off in conversation - if she’s really brushing you off, then that’s not really your fault or because you are starting the conversation the wrong way.

Are you wanting to re-kindle a friendship there? Have you considered talking to her about how you feel and what you are noticing, that you felt you were friends but it feels like things are more distant now and you’re wondering if she still wants to be friends?

false, there are no boys on the internet - we will require a photo of a sharpie in your butt to prove it you’re not a girl

denying healthcare because a patient has vaccine hesitancy seems really unethical to me, but I also think that it probably overall increases community risks compared to other methods like empathetic-refutational interviewing, especially because refusal to listen and address concerns and meeting vaccine hesitancy with sanctions will have an effect of further undermining trust and so helping anti-vaxx and anti-science movements

how did you get the venison?

looks delicious!

pretty sure OP is a woman

A stark disconnect between reality and rhetoric surfaced on Tuesday as U.S. forces continued their methodical strikes on military targets in Iran even as their commander in chief raised his steady stream of threats directed at Iran to apocalyptic levels.

The United States launched a series of more than 90 strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s oil export hub, early Tuesday. A U.S. military official characterized the Kharg strikes as “restrikes” — hitting targets that have been struck before to ensure more damage. He said that the United States was not yet striking Iranian infrastructure on the island, which lies in the Persian Gulf off the country’s southern coast.

not down for me

!autismmemes@lemmy.zip

you might x-post on !cooking@lemmy.world and/or !food@beehaw.org

Do you put lettuce or tomato on your tuna sandwiches? what about melting a slice of cheese and making it a tuna melt?

I don’t like to put tuna on both pieces and combine, I find it’s easier to lump it on one piece and then add the last piece of bread to the top and to smush it down from there.

yes, you look like your spaceship just landed on a planet’s seaport - rather surreal in the literal sense (of having dream-like qualities)

If there are no societal roadblocks to prevent anti-vaxx parents raising their children to also be anti-vaxxers, then the cycle of misinformation will only get worse as time progresses.

right, but people don’t get socialized or educated by their doctors, doctors are like gatekeepers for medicine and surgeries that you get to see in very short windows of time once a year … withholding access to medicine and surgery is not going to help the situation

Regardless, parents should not have the ability to prevent their children from getting vaccinations on the basis of their own unscientific beliefs.

right, but the flip side is that you’re OK with foregoing the individual’s right to opt in or out of a medical procedure … I haven’t read enough bioethics to arrive at some kind of position on this, but I don’t think either side is obviously right - on the one hand individual liberties being protected results in more overall harm and deaths from fewer vaccinations; on the other hand ignoring individual liberties is authoritarian and can create medical trauma, as well as may backfire and result in greater resistance.

Either way, we need to solve this on a societal level through education, developing greater trust in biomedicine, and probably by penalizing the grifters who profit from promoting anti-vaxx anxieties.

are you a boomer? lol

my partner asked me to include my proclivity to bite her in my patient history document submitted for my testing for ASD 😅 now I’m wondering if there is a pattern here - are other biters also autistic?

so Matt Walsh works for Daily Wire, which is a right-wing and conservative media company that was started with oil money:

The Daily Wire was conceived by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing, who both worked for TruthRevolt, a news website that was formerly funded by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.[11] After the duo secured several million dollars in seed funding from billionaire petroleum industry brothers Dan and Farris Wilks, the Daily Wire was launched in 2015.

For context, the David Horowitz Freedom Center is a right-wing Islamophobic foundation, and listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

So why is ending the Iran war is a demand being made here, and why do we think Matt Walsh is taking this stance?

Is it because Matt Walsh is an anti-Semite and wants the US to stop supporting a war that he sees as ultimately benefiting Israel (the way MTG ended up becoming anti-Israel likely for anti-Semitic reasons)?