Trans- gender dysphoria- mental illness?

Did you see the interview?

Dr Cass was very clear about many of the harms of the current practices around 'gender affirming care' including the lack of understanding of how co-morbidities such as Autism and ADHD interacted with gender distress.

this article you posted just covers some of what she discussed in the interview such as this from the article:

She also suggested "unrealistic images and expectations on social media" had misled children, and that if some young people had "taken more time" they might not have pursued medical treatments.

Her 2024 review found gender medicine had been operating on "shaky foundations" when it came to evidence for medical treatment.

In an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, she said there was a "lack of realism about what transition would really mean and how hard it would be" - pointing to "quite intensive medical treatments" and "sometimes quite brutal surgeries".

and

"I think what has kind of misled children is the belief that if you are not a typical girl, if you like playing with trucks, or boys who like dressing up or that you have same-sex attraction that means that you're trans and actually it's not like that but those are all normal variations," she said.

"I think children and young people were being given a narrative that it's not okay to be anything but absolutely typical of the other girls on Instagram."

The interview was quite clear that she believes that there are 'charlatan' gender clinics out there who are harming children and using harmful misinformation to do so.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k1vkmxgd6o

Sad to see the weaponising of trans children continues, now autism too!

This is an example of epidemiological confounding. Transgender and nonbinary people are up to six times more likely to have autism, and current evidence reports that around 50–80% of autistic people experience mental health conditions.

Autistic people are more likely to experience gender dysphoria. Autistic people are more likely to experience mental health issues. Some autistic people experience both.
www.npr.org/2023/01/15/1149318664/transgender-and-non-binary-people-are-up-to-six-times-more-likely-to-have-autism
www.amaze.org.au/about-autism/mental-health/

I find it ethically questionable in general to affirm the delusions of others both in terms of the impact it has on the belief holder (not accessing the mental health support they need) and wider society (women being denied safe spaces etc). I accept that in some situations, as in the case of dementia or someone experiencing an acute psychotic episode during which they suffer a complete break from reality, it may be a more compassionate way to deescalate distress but in most other cases validating feelings is perfectly acceptable and healthy as long as the underlying beliefs are not being affirmed.

Given the passion with which TRA narratives are reproduced in many social groups, I think it's more likely they genuinely believe it must be true because it came in the same packaging as LGB rights and Feminism. They simply don't allow themselves to think about whether the opposing arguments have any merit because to even consider questioning the trans is good narrative is to take a step towards thinking like homophobes, racists and racists.

The realisation that this particular "right" to be seen and respected as "who you are" might actually be a very different proposition indeed to LGB or women's rights, and is actually a demand for other people to give up their own self knowledge, identity and rights, is never even approached because the self censor kicks in before that can happen.

So True.

I don’t know many people with gender disphoria, but the ones I do all have poor mental health. They’re all on anti-depressants, have severe anxiety, can’t cope with normal life, bipolar etc. They’re a mess. They’re also all neurodivergent which I think also plays a big part in this.

So your partner is a woman. You can't change your sex. It's impossible

There’s discussion in the epstein files about creating gender confusion to destabilise societal health. Apparently its part of the Frankist agenda.

Which is your personal experience - ie anecdata. So was my post - my personal experience of a couple of TiMs in academia who were small skinny boys and then small skinny men and had suffered so badly at school because they were "weedy" that they chose to identify out of it. At no point did I say that all small skinny men would choose a trans identity. Your family do not have the monopoly on small skinny men.

What’s your point?

There are some terrifying yet odd views expressed in this thread! Small skinny boys become girls because they don't fit in with male stereotypes? One of my sons is shortish and very skinny but I have to say he's never suggested he would fit in better as a girl. He wants to go out with them - not become one of them. If this were true most male jockeys would have sought to become women years ago.

My husband and his brother were both sent off as young boys to fattening up camps which failed to have any effect whatsoever on their naturally thin frames but there seems to be no suggestion that they might then have thought they were girls rather than scrawny boys.

I narrowly escaped the same attempts at fattening up as my mother steadfastly refused to agree to the doctor's suggestion send me off to be fattened up given that she came from a naturally lean family herself. I did grow up with cowboy curtains though as my tomboyish mother had dearly wished for a son rather than a daughter and saw no reason to adjust her plans when she produced a daughter instead. I have to say that when I was pregnant people told me I was so feminine that they struggled to imagine me with sons. Obviously the cowboy curtains had no lasting effects. And my tomboyish mother was very very attractive in appearance as well. She collected more wedding proposals from very presentable men that anybody else I ever knew.

This, totally!!!

Indeed. And it is well known that it can be harmful to attribute suicide to any one particular cause.

Professor Appleby has repeatedly warned against not just the inaccuracy but the risks of suggesting that a person is at risk of suicide just because the rest of the world won’t bend to their ideas about pronouns and gender identities.

Until fairly recently gender dysphoria was recognised as a form of body dismorphia and a mental illness, campaigners got it removed and reclassified which was a massive mistake and failure by the authors of the dsm5

Yes I agree it's a mental illness. If body dysmorphia is a mental illness then so is being transgender.

This from a journal that actually talks about it being declassified as a mental illness and saying it's not about choice or following fads:

'.......recent studies comparing transgender and cisgender persons show differences in the cerebral networks involved in own body perception in the context of self (Manzouri and Savic 2019; Nota et al. 2017), and in the patterns of brain connectivity that might affect one’s sense of body congruence (Moody et al. 2021). If proven, a biological aetiology would destigmatize transgender behaviour.'

I then googled 'do people with body dysmorphia have differences in the cerebral networks involved in own body perception in the context of self' and google said:

'Yes, individuals with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) exhibit significant differences in brain structure, function, and connectivity within networks responsible for processing visual information, emotions, and self-representation.'

So if body dysmorphia is a mental illness then surely so must be being transgender.

Exactly this.

Of course it's a mental illness thinking you're not the sex you're born. It's completely crazy and society has a lot to answer for indulging this insanity.

Calling people terfs or indeed cis.. is more evidence of mental lack of health. Trying to grab shared reality and distort it. Sad.

Sadly I think that's not entirely true.

The messy head may be why they first fell into the belief that their mind is somehow "transgender", but the online communities and extremist culture they then find themselves part of absolutely messes them up further.

Just look at the PPs calling anyone who quite rationally questions the belief in "men who are male on the outside but really women on the inside because of something in their heads" vile and accusing them of being motivated not by the honest observation that what is being claimed is nonsensical, sexist and harmful to everyone include trans people, but by some sort of dumb irrational animal hatred of trans people themselves.

If that is what young trans people are telling each other is happening "out there", no wonder they are becoming embattled, isolated and paranoid.

Oh I said there were 2 of 9 mass school shootings perpetrated by trans students over the last 5 years, but it turns out there was another one in 2025 that wasn't on the wikipedia list (perhaps because although classed as a school shooting it took place off site at a church). If you count that one then that's 3/10 so 30%. That is quite high if you believe there is no correlation with trans identity and violence.

I fully agree.

I think it is weird to think we are called 'terfs' for saying men can of course wear dresses and tights but they aren't women, I'd even advise any of them with lipstick shades if they asked for tips .

It is crazy that stating the obvious labels us 'haterz'.

I agree gender dysphoria is a form of MI.
It's similar in some ways to body dysmorphia, anorexia, people who get addicted to steroids and getting more and more 'big'.

You're seeing your body in a way that isn't true. It's in your mind that it is/should be a certain way.

Like those people that think their leg isn't supposed to be there and deliberately have it cut off.

Yes surely suicide in itself is the result of mental health illness regardless of contributory factors.

Sympathy to anyone who has lost anyone to suicide but it is never as simple as someone wouldn't use their desired pronouns.

I don’t mean to cause offence, so this will be my final comment on this - but even considering suicide is a mental health crisis. Mentally well people don’t kill themselves.

I’m almost 100% certain if everyone in my life started referring to me by a male name and he/him, suicide still wouldn’t cross my mind.

"We've been using your bathrooms for years 😆"

Indeed we have!