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Henna
12-20-2012, 03:57 AM
Hello

I thought to write a bit of update about myself, as much has happened, since I first wrote to this forum. This is my first post to this section. I kind of want to vent my thoughts a bit and write them down. Feel free to comment, although I do have a bad habit of writing in a longish way :) I apologize that, but I finally feel happy about myself. To really know and accept myself and to understand why life has been a bit strange.

I talked here, in other forums, to my SO and to psychiatrists fifteen years ago that I have two personalities. One is female (which I never told to the army of psychiatrists in fear, that I would be locked forever in a hospital) and the other male. Outside is male, inside is female, which is me. I have kind of know it all my life, but haven´t accepted it. I have been really good at suppressing myself, partly because of my upbringing and my very non-tolerant father. However, now that I finally started to open knots (tight ones) in my head during the past few years, slowly at first and in the past six months with an increasing speed, digging up my past with photographs, items, drawings and with letters from my youth and childhood and with my medical records, it really feels like everything suddenly in my life makes sense. Memories from childhood are also coming back. I´ve removed nearly all the suppression that I´ve created to myself.

It´s like a Jack-in-the-box bursting open! Hello, here I am!

Memories of my doll in the carriage and being in picnic with it, my father looking at me angrily, boys don´t play with dolls, the other doll that I liked very much, but couldn´t play with it at home, instead played with it in upstairs where an older lady lived, our landlord. Boys don´t cry!. The fear of my father. My mother letting me try nail-polish, make-up, high-heel shoes and her night gowns, when I was with her (my parents divorced when I was few years old and I lived with my father). I remember how the make-up table looked like, how the make-up smelled, the jewelry box and the jewelries that I liked. I always thought that those memories are not real, as I was so young. However when I told sometime ago to my grandmother, how I feel, she confirmed that everything that I remember is actually true, even to the color of the make-up table. I have been about five years old then.

I remember my "girlfriends", when I was at elementary school. The first thoughts that is this love that I want to be like one of my "girlfriends"? I remember getting beaten up, bullied and tossed outside of social circles in high school, as I used to spend time with one girl, who was dating another boy. I could not see anything wrong with me spending time with her and looking at her clothes, room and magazines.

Others could and so could rest of the high school. Rest of the time in high school I was completely alone. There started the endless loop of thoughts in certain situations, that still haunts me and which seem to be really hard to kill; How would men act in this situation, how would men say, don´t keep your hands like that, don´t sit like that, don´t stand like that, men don´t do that.

Late teens, trying to find a place to be, to find myself from religions, sub-cultures, drifting from place to place. Twenty years old and the realization or feeling, that I should have been born as a female from the outside too. The thought that it´s completely sick to think like that. Depression, anxiety, self-destruction and two years of psychiatric treatment, without any help to the feeling.

Mid-twenties studying health care, getting a good job and surrounded by female co-workers. Being happy among my female co-workers. Getting told during the years by several co-workers in private and in public, that I´m one of the women at work. Feeling good about it, but still sad. Co-worker telling me a week ago as a second person in the world, even before her sister, that she is pregnant first month. Something shattering inside me, as she told me. Feeling that certain people can see past the body, to really see who you are, your soul? Realization how many friends I´ve lost during the years and that I have none, as I don´t feel comfortable with my appearance or who I appear to be. I don´t want to be in social situations like this. Realization that I don´t want to be naked anywhere, even in front of my SO I feel uncomfortable. Realization that I haven´t bought male clothes until the clothes are so worn down, that I have to buy something if I don´t want to be naked. I just cannot see any of the male clothes on top of me.

Jack-in-the-box or TS-in-the-box?

I will most likely get into the examination for possible diagnose for transsexualism next year, which is the path here to transition. I´ve discussed with my SO how I feel and also with my grandmother, who is the closest person in my life. Both are quite supportive, although afraid. I´m afraid too, or actually terrified. I´m terrified that I get told that I´m in psychosis, I have a skitzofrenia, any other serious mental health issue, perhaps testosterone levels in the body are low, which causes that I feel the way that I feel? Anything that can be cured with few tablets and suddenly I don´t feel like a woman anymore...who am I then if that happens?

If the above would happen, then I wouldn´t really know myself at all anymore. I´ve spent most of my life trying to figure out myself and finally coming to conclusion and accepting, I would get told that sorry, you are psychotic, take these tablets and your thoughts and feelings are gone.

What then, what or who would I be? That terrifies me more than anything I can imagine. That also keeps me from going to the research group who diagnoses transsexualism here.

Now that I finally know myself, accept it and I feel happy and relaxed about myself, I want to enjoy myself, who I am, at least for a short moment.

Kaitlyn Michele
12-20-2012, 12:43 PM
you actually sound pretty centered and in control to me...

i can relate to alot of what you are saying in my past

i remember a moment where i struggled to talk to my parents about all this...i told them i liked to dress like a woman and they were "supportive"...but they also wanted me to be private about it (for my own good)..and i remember i blurted out that they didn't get it...that it felt like my meaning of life was to dress up as a woman...

looking back , it was a very backwards and tortured way to say how i really felt...at the time i didn't consider that i was transsexual!!! i was CLOSED to the idea that my dressing and obsessing was something more than it appeared...
it took lots of those moments to get me to understand things better..

as you go through this, despite your troubles you seem already at the point where you can look clearly at your situation and thats a really really positive thing!

LeaP
12-20-2012, 01:25 PM
I will most likely get into the examination for possible diagnose for transsexualism next year, which is the path here to transition. I´ve discussed with my SO how I feel and also with my grandmother, who is the closest person in my life. Both are quite supportive, although afraid. I´m afraid too, or actually terrified. I´m terrified that I get told that I´m in psychosis, I have a skitzofrenia, any other serious mental health issue, perhaps testosterone levels in the body are low, which causes that I feel the way that I feel? Anything that can be cured with few tablets and suddenly I don´t feel like a woman anymore...who am I then if that happens?

If the above would happen, then I wouldn´t really know myself at all anymore. I´ve spent most of my life trying to figure out myself and finally coming to conclusion and accepting, I would get told that sorry, you are psychotic, take these tablets and your thoughts and feelings are gone.

What then, what or who would I be? That terrifies me more than anything I can imagine. That also keeps me from going to the research group who diagnoses transsexualism here.



I'm guessing that psychosis is unlikely, given the tone of your post alone. Among the non-gender issues that can mask themselves as gender issues, psychosis would among the easiest to detect. It's also likely that if you had psychotic episodes you would already know this. You should ease your mind on that point.

The question of testosterone comes up fairly frequently. There are some members here who have undergone testosterone therapy. I don't recall any being affected by it as it pertains to gender identity, other than to aggravate the issues that arise from gender conflicts. The question makes intuitive sense, as there is a developmental link between hormones and gender identity, but once set, gender identity doesn't change and adding/subtracting testosterone won't change it, either.

You won't lose yourself, no matter what. I want to be a little careful here, as there were times when I thought I WAS losing myself or perhaps losing my grip on reality. This turned out to symptomatic of fighting myself, however, and I've fully returned to a normal sense of self. You are going to have to trust the process (whether mediated by medical and mental health practitioners or going through discovery on your own).

Henna
12-20-2012, 04:18 PM
You are going to have to trust the process (whether mediated by medical and mental health practitioners or going through discovery on your own).

This is the hardest part, to actually trust someone. I find it really hard to trust to people, I know it´s something I need to work on. Discovery on my own has crossed my mind lately. I kind of would like to just sell everything I own and to move some tolerant place, where I could live as I feel is right. I know it´s daydreaming, but taking back the years that I kind of feel lost and wasted, to really live, is so tempting.

I´ve processed my thoughts so long that I kind of know how to do a "reality-check" to myself now and then, to check that I´m still level with every other person. I do feel ok, I work every day in a quite demanding job, which requires a lot of concentration, so I´ve thought that as long as I can work, I´m not too badly off the radar. However, I would think that if I would have some serious mental health issue, I wouldn´t know it?

My fear of the mental health issue comes from the fact, that when I was in my twenties and "treated", I was given diagnose after diagnose. All kind of diagnoses, ranging from mild to severe diagnoses. I can´t deny that I would have not been really messed up back then. I just didn´t know enough, didn´t know anything actually about gender issues. Only years later, when TS people started to appear in public here, speaking of their experiences I started to understand.

But I must say that lately my life has gone in a better direction. I finally start to have friends, I´m much more social, participating to transgender meetings, I´ve changed my clothing towards more/completely feminine, only at work I still wander around in the old rags. I´m finally taking care of this body, after neglecting and abusing it for fifteen years. I started to think this body as a nice piece of rock, from which a sculptor could still create something nice. Of course years of neglect and violence against it will always remain, but better now than never.