Red Flags and Radicals: A Detransitioner writes

The original article IS interesting, anyone could agree on that. Well the subject matter could be nothing else, and it is well crafted of it's type.

Whether it is very helpful though?...….

The tone was oddly familiar, and I've worried about that for a few days, and it has come back to me where I ( almost ) recognise it from.

It reminds me very strongly of the written documentation of the therapeutic guidance ( underpinning was the phrase often used) we came across in schools for emotionally and behaviourally troubled teenagers in the 1970s and 80s; well written, presenting itself as of the time and well informed, and yet, strangely unhelpful when questions such as what should be done, how should it be done, and how would we assess if it had been done properly, or done at all. Somehow, not throwing much light on the matters in hand.

Stylish, and sort of impressive in it's way, but ultimately, in the words of Alan Bennett, it doesn't move us any further forward.

ABitCrapper
Thank you for explaining.

That's a very insightful post at 19.34, ABitCrapper. Thanks.

Also in that it can threaten friendships that feel very important, Crapper. It's like leaving a cult in some ways.

Thanks Lang. To be honest I don't think it will ever totally leave me ,(had a bit of a mini relapse last year,), but recovery is pretty cool. :)

There is another parallel: recovery from EDs mean giving up your whole identity as the "Ill" one. The thin one. The special one
Admitting everyone else was right (apart from your entrenched pro ana friends), and that you were wrong.
Constructing a whole new identity with interests, a new body, adjusting to just being one of the crowd again.
It's hard! Especially when your entire life for a decade or more has revolved around your ED.
Detransitioners must surely experience something similar?

Anchormum. Just because there are GFs desperately trying to make the thread unusable for productive discussion doesn't mean we have to engage with them, especially those of us for whom doing so would be painful rather than just irritating. Keep talking to the rest of us, if you can.

I do wonder if some of the trans men will get to their 30s and have a similar epiphany. I really really hope they don't have the sorts of regret I do as you can never get your young body back....

It's a very good analogy and Carey pretty much addresses the various commonalities here in the article:

Longstanding patterns of identity diffusion, social skill deficits, struggles with emotion regulation, and obsessive-compulsive tendencies tend to be obvious to the people around us, and hard for the individual to recognize. Ideally this is what the therapy room can be: a place where it’s safe for us to see the ways we cause trouble for ourselves.

I am glad you made it through.

Not thought provoking to those that have a better understanding of dyphoria than some people on this board seem to have.

I was actually trying to make the point that actually some of us care a lot about potential detransitioners, because of blah blah blah, and instead it came across in another way entirely. I think because I was trying to do Duplo trains with the toddler at the same time so didn't actually type what I thought I had!

Nah it's fine. You are correct! anecdata is meaningless

ABitCrapper sorry for my insensitive post, I posted having read the last page and hadn't seen your 14.38 post

feminist 4; I thought the analogy that was made was fair enough to illustrate something important. I didn't read it as an inappropriate assertion. At any rate, I found it thought provoking. Things get easily heated when we are talking about stuff like all this.

If gender dysphoria is not a mental health issue in the way that anorexia is (forgive my ignorance, but they both look like body dysmorphic conditions from where I stand - a disconnect between the physical reality of the body versus the mental image / identity), then could you explain what kind of health issue, mental or otherwise it is, please?

I was speaking about regret.i know about regret...

I think it is very different. Gender dysphoria is not a mental health problem in the same way as anorexia. Please don’t try and make assertions about things you don’t know about.

Individual stories are interesting, but can’t be used as scientific evidence.

You don't fucking say.
This applies to you too.

Can I interject a personal anecdote that may or may not be relevant (feel free to ignore).
I'm an ex anorexic. At the time I believed I was making sane and rational decisions and that everyone was just out to make me fat. I was also an adult so had full responsibility for myself.
I am left with various physical problems directly resulting from my anorexia that I deeply regret
I also regret the lost decade where I was too focused on my ed to grow and develop.
I was well into my 30s before I suddenly realised that actually being "normal" is a good thing. And accepted my body for what it is. I now try to look after it.
The ED was a way out of all sorts of pressures and expectations.
I am now a very non gender conforming presenting SAHM.

I do wonder if some of the trans men will get to their 30s and have a similar epiphany. I really really hope they don't have the sorts of regret I do as you can never get your young body back....

Talking of doctors who operate outside the system, isn’t it Dr Helen Webberley’s sentencing on Monday?

Accounts of individual patients or small clusters of patients - called "Case Histories" - have always been an important part of medical research literature. They occupy a similar niche to what is called "qualitative" research in psychology research. They are used primarily as first step, to generate hypotheses for further testing using "quantitative" methods, and are certainly a valid and important part of research methods.

Would people start looking for no frills type cover,

My knowledge is limited, but I believe there are all sorts of packages with different levels of cover vs costs.

I have read that the issue of ensuring that costs of transition are regarded as medically justified in the same way as some kinds of psychological treatment, is an important part of the trans debate in the U.S. It's a bit of a dilemma for those who want to claim trans status is not medical problem.

They can as part of academic research - such as that that James Caspian wanted to do before his university shut him down

Not to mention the wholesale and ignorant dismissal of ethnography as a research method.

But even in the US, unless someone is very wealthy indeed, health care is still provided communally via insurance, and insurance places at least some restrictions on providing people with what they "want" rather than what they "need", generally speaking, or the costs of insurance would be even more prohibitive than they already are.

I wonder how this would affect the insurance market? Is cosmetic surgery covered? How are elective procedures approached generally? Would people start looking for no frills type cover, thus raising costs exponentially for patients in this particular group pushing for autonomy?

(I know colleges are including transition in their plans. Which is a concern.)

not something a surgeon will be criticised for I mean.