In this thread, OP posted the following
I have been cross dressing for a while now but I'm concerned hows its going to affect my life negatively in the future and i don't want that to happen.
and one of the responses was this:

The only way to avoid ANYTHING negative occuring is to stop doing it. And for most, that's not an option, because the desire never goes away.
This seems like pretty sound advice, but to be honest this is something I personally struggle with because it feels like an awfully big assumption. I hope I don't offend anyone by questioning this, but I can't help but wonder how we really know that "the desire never goes away". It seems like if you accept it as something that is tied to your identity, then its going to create a feedback loop that keeps that desire going. But on the other hand, I can't help but wonder if treating it more as a "bad habit" could make it become more manageable. (Again, I apologize if this offends anyone, its not my intention at all and really just trying to honestly reflect on and discuss the different angles of this. I know a lot of you have worked hard to accept yourself which is awesome and I don't mean to diminish that.)

Just for example, lets consider eating habits. It's no secret that eating sugar and sweets is a delicious and satisfying experience that adds excitement to life. But sugar and sweeteners are also very addictive. I tried cutting them out of my diet for a few months, and lo and behold, I no longer crave sweets at all. If I'm at an occasion where cake is being served, I can enjoy a piece for what it is if I want, but I don't feel compelled to at all. Which is great -- it feels like freedom.

But I feel like this would be so much more difficult if I went around saying, "I identify as a sweetener. I just love sugar -- that's how I was born, so I may as well accept it as part of who I am and love that part of me." Okay, but that's really a cop-out right? It's kind of ignoring the fact that in the long run this mentally is going to cause a lot of problems in your life that will lead to unhappiness and not taking responsibility for dealing with that because "its just how I am". Especially because we know that this is not true, and that it isn't that hard to break the cycle of sugar cravings by not indulging or obsessing over it.

So again going back to the original statement that "the desire never goes away"...is that true? If it is, then it makes life a lot easier because the only path forward is to accept it. But if that's not true, then it gives us a couple options: to accept it as part of ourselves (which is fine - we're not hurting anyone and it feels good), or to reject it as something that doesn't bring value to your life in the way you want. But because it does feel very good, the latter option may be very difficult. Ideally it would be great if there were some studies out there that have determined fairly definitively whether this is something that really is a part of who we are, or if its just a fun thing we've discovered as open-minded people that we can reject but gets wrapped up with our personal identities due to being such a taboo subject.

As you can probably tell, this whole thing is the cause of a lot of inner conflict for me. Not knowing the answer means that I don't feel like I can commit fully to either path. I'm not saying that it's not something that's just a part of who we are, I'm just questioning how we know that. (Unfortunately, part of the problem with this kind of question is that we're probably going to be relying mostly on anecdotal evidence, but most of us here are going to be in the "accepting" group. People who used to crossdress, but no longer, are probably far less likely to be active on this forum. Hopefully we can still have a balanced, honest discussion, but any insight is valuable! )