Does your drive to dress increase with your stress level?

[Charlotte-Jones]

Hi everyone! Its Charlotte again! :)

I've been thinking about this just today.
While I've always known that dressing was a way for me to relax and escape the daily grind/so to speak, i think ive come to realise that my drive to dress might actually increase the more stressed out I get all together.

Today was really stressful and I noticed that as a result I couldnt stop thinking about dressing and building my fem repetoire as a result.
I physically could not get my mind off of it and onto anything else!

But as soon as my shift was over and i got ready to leave, i noticed it subside a bit.

Im curious as to whether any of you have noticed something similar yourselves.


With that said, i think ill prepare some tea once i get home. <3

[Krea]

I think it's more the other way round for me.
I tend to feel stressed sometimes because i don't have opportunity for CDing. Put on some femme things at home and i feel more relaxed again, just being me. :)

[Charlotte-Jones]

I guess there is a feedback loop in there somewhere because that definitely is a factor for me now that you mention it. :/

[Beverley Sims]

That was my reaction years ago.

[Jaylyn]

I know it's been on here before but that's why nearly wear my panties under my jeans all the time. It has helped me when I can't dress. Just knowing they are there and feeling the smoothness helps with the stress of not getting to dress.

[Steph_CD_62]

The more I am stressed the more I want to dress.
I don't dress as much as I would like because of my wife. She is supportive and doesn't mind seeing me dressed, but not everyday. I wear panties 24/7, but only dress a couple times a week.

[Cheryl T]

Actually for me it was the opposite.
The more stressed I was at work and such the less I felt the need. It was primarily because I just couldn't enjoy the time I had while dressed if I went into it stressed out. I needed to calm first or things just didn't work.

[Sami Brown]

I don't think my level of stress dictates how badly I want to dress. I do know that going out dressed is still stressful to me, rather than relaxing. This is simply due to not having enough exposure to get over the fear. This is something I hope to start overcoming in September, after moving to Las Vegas.

Sami

[Stephanie47]

I think it all feeds upon itself. I've always felt a need to escape stress. Some escape stress with alcohol. Some use drugs. Some step outside for a smoke. There's a reason why C-rations had a small packet of four cigarettes in them....stress relief. If you can enjoy the thing which relieves stress you indulge. If that is not readily available the cravings increases. Sometimes it is akin to an addict looking for the next hit.

Before I retired and stress built up I had little opportunity to escape into my other personna. Drove me to distraction. I grabbed for any crumbs of time....my next hit. Now as a retiree who is debt free I have greatly reduced stress. I do not experience the overwhelming need to escape from anything. In my dry spells of letting Stephanie take over I am content to bang away on this key board, peruse women's attire offerings and indulge myself with feminine purchases.

[prettytoes]

Stress can bring on or increase my urge to dress, or reduce it. After a rough day, etc. it really calms me down to put on a pretty skirt or dress. If the stress is too great, it has the opposite effect. I can get so worked up that I have no desire to do anything, let alone look pretty.

[Hozeguy]

I love the feeling of putting on a pair (or two) of hose. It really brings down my anxiety level. But then going out in public gets me anxious all over again! Something about the rush is worth it though!

[Charlotte-Jones]

Stress can bring on or increase my urge to dress, or reduce it. After a rough day, etc. it really calms me down to put on a pretty skirt or dress. If the stress is too great, it has the opposite effect. I can get so worked up that I have no desire to do anything, let alone look pretty.


This resonates with me. The bus driver skipped my stop and I had to walk a great distance to get home.
By the time I got home, I was so upset that I actually never got dressed.

[Crissy 107]

I think it may increase with stress but going home, taking a shower and slipping into a pretty pair of panties can do wonders for reducing stress.

[Pixie_94]

Depends on the day, but for a long time, it was most of the times I felt it.

[Aunt Kelly]

I know it's been on here before but that's why nearly wear my panties under my jeans all the time. It has helped me when I can't dress. Just knowing they are there and feeling the smoothness helps with the stress of not getting to dress.

That's me. I'm underdressed, even if just a little bit, almost all the time. It's way to hang onto something feminine when I can otherwise. Now... that's not the same as dressing as an antidote to stress. I know that there are many who do that very thing, so there must be something to it. There was a time when I would have told you the same thing. Now, it feels like I'm just more normal when I'm dressed. I don't know. Maybe that's the same thing.

[Phoebe Reece]

My need to dress increases when everything is going well in my life and I am a bit bored. If I am stressed, I am too focused on solving whatever the issue is that has me stressed to enjoy dressing.

[Veronica Lacey]

Hi Charlotte...

Dressing for me is a hobby. Hobbies tend to be activities that enlighten, entertain, pleasure or interest the hobbyist. When feeling stressed it seems rather natural to think of activities that bring you comfort, joy, pleasure. Some people think of having a beer when stressed. Going for a run. An extreme sport. Yoga. Craftwork. Eating. You put on a dress.

On the flip side, sometimes not being able to find appropriate or adequate time to don the fineries used to generate some stress. Go figure?

[Diane Smith]

I'm with Cheryl - when I get stressed out at work, dressing up is actually the farthest thing from my mind.

- Diane

[Rachelakld]

stressed, when not focused on a project, then yes, CDing is a good release.
If I'm stressed on a project, then completing the project winds me down.

[alwayshave]

No. When stressed, working my way through the problem/issue releases the stress. I tend to dress more when I don't have stress.

[AKADonna]

In Marketing classes in college, I learned that department stores and women's apparel retailers thrive on women's need to shop to relieve their stress. I find that to be true, even in my retirement. Whenever there's a lot of family things going on and I don't get the opportunity to be Donna enough, my stress builds and builds, then gets expensive as I go on a shopping spree as calm permits me the oppotrunity to do!

[Tracy Irving]

I do what I can to avoid stress but sometimes I pick a bad hiding spot. I don't recall an increased desire to dress during those times.

My drive to dress is ever present so if it was relates to stress I should be a basket case by now.

[Nikkilovesdresses]

The bus driver skipped my stop and I had to walk a great distance to get home.

Did you challenge him about this?

[sometimes_miss]

I discovered long ago, that I subconsciously repressed my desires to crossdress or indulge in feminine behaviors or thoughts in any way. This apparently worked well enough, that I had stopped crossdressing for a very long time. However, when my life became filled with other stressful problems, the desire to crossdress returned with a vengeance, and it was either crossdress or become very short tempered, irritable, bordering on violence. Turns out that our minds can only manage to do so many things at any given time; when overloaded with too much, well, something's got to give. And that, for me, was crossdressing.

Think of it like your computer; it does lots of things in the background, while you're web browsing, doing video file conversions, downloading, etc.. If you ask it to do too much, well at least one of those things will have to be stopped. And so it is with our own minds. At least for me, a certain amount of 'cpu time' was being used to keep the desire to crossdress out of my conscious mind. When overloaded with other stressful things, well, my mind couldn't hold back those thoughts anymore too, so the crossdressing desires came back.

I spent much of the 80's in good relationships with women. Plenty of sex, romance, my jobs were good, everything was fine. I wound up getting married. Still everything was fine. Several years into the marriage, I lost my job, had to take another at about a 40% cut in salary, AND go back to school. In short order, I was overstressed, overworked, and surprise surprise, the desire to crossdress came back, too. I really, really thought that I had 'beaten it'. That it was just something that I grew out of. I had no idea that I was subconsciously holding this desire to crossdress in the back of my mind.

[sometimes_miss]

duplicate.

[April T]

I find dressing a great stress reducer

[JustAlex]

I've noticed something like that. I guess, and it's just a guess, that it's not exactly CD related. The stress comes from having problems going around your head that you can't solve right now or you can't solve at all or you don't know yet how to solve them. You get worried and the natural response is to move your focus away of the problem. You don't want to think about unpleasant things for a change, you want something that makes you feel better. Obviously, in our minds, dressing is on top of the list. But I'm sure that there are other things on your mind that pop up from time to time. Like... er... or could it be that other thing... what's-its-name... or... you know what I mean :D

[Erica2445]

I personally find that dressing is an excellent stress reliever. I forget all my cares in the world when i dress

[Becky Blue]

No correlation with me at all, if anything I lean slightly towards feeling more becky when I am less stressed.. although having a F side has lowered my stress levels substantially...

[Charlotte7]

It's probably that if we're going through something unpleasant, then as people, we like to think of something pleasurable and for many of us here, that would be dressing. For others who are stressed they would focus on something else, something that they enjoyed. It's not a specific thing for cross dressers. I suppose that makes it a natural coping mechanism. In my case, there have been times, say at work, when a manager has been going on about this and that, and while they are doing this, I've been there thinking, "This is all well and good, but when I get home this evening, there's nothing you can do to stop me putting on my favourite party dress"

[jfem]

Abso—f@#$&*%—lutly!! Not only do I think about it more but I buy more women’s clothing. I find dressing very relaxing. I have a message therapist who lets me attend appointments as Ingrid.

[Eboni Robinson]

I used to have an increase urge to dress when stressed. Now whenever I'm stressed, dressing up is the furthest thing in my mind. I need to work the issue/s first, then I can think about the things I do for fun later.

[lynnstar]

I find hit more stress full if I can't dress. Dressing for me does relieve some stress, but it's also excilorating as well. So i get stress relief and happy at the same time. 😊

[Alice B]

100% No doubt about it

[Lacy PJs]

Stress doesn't increase my interest in dressing but I've noticed that many times when dress, I'm much more relaxed.

Lacy PJs