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Original poster

What is the difference between gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia?

38 replies

ExtraPlinky · 11/02/2022 22:39

Why does one get affirmed with surgery and hormones and the other one seen as a mental illness?

OP posts:
Whatiswrongwithmyknee · 12/02/2022 00:50

Honestly I think the difference is how much the ideology serves the interest of the powerful (I.e. men). It doesn't serve them to have teenagers starve themselves but some of them get off or feel validated by getting into womens spaces. Plus ca change.

Original poster
ExtraPlinky · 12/02/2022 00:43

@ScrollingLeaves

Agree. I also wonder how many people don’t feel some sort of body dysmorphia when puberty arrives? That is why it is so worrying for teens to get caught up in feeling they should try to change their bodies. Given time most will become more at ease with themselves.
We all had weird feelings during puberty about our bodies - wanting to develop quicker or have bigger breasts, or wanting to shrink, wanting to hide, etc - a whole range of different emotions. Very individual even from the point of view of wanting straight and not curly hair for instance. Constant self scrutiny.

But we weren't indulged in it. No one said to us constantly to talk about ourselves.

OP posts:
Original poster
ExtraPlinky · 12/02/2022 00:37

Also in terms of young people, how many years of research do we have on long term satisfaction?

If someone wanted to lose weight from a size 12 to a size 8, wouldn't surgery make them happy? Why isn't that available on the NHS and if they said they were suicidal what would happen?

OP posts:
RVN123 · 12/02/2022 00:32

@ExtraPlinky

Would have to dig out some studies to see what the percentages are saying they are happy. But then there is a pressure to say you are happy so you don't get rejected by the community.
Yes, quite. And then the accusations that they were "never really trans" in the first place.
Original poster
ExtraPlinky · 12/02/2022 00:29

Would have to dig out some studies to see what the percentages are saying they are happy.
But then there is a pressure to say you are happy so you don't get rejected by the community.

OP posts:
Whattochoosenow · 12/02/2022 00:12

@Tellthemagain but I don’t think that’s the case. Some people detransition, others continue to suffer with poor mental health, and some have gone so far down the road yet end up regretting surgery.
It’s possible that some of the suicides are not because they weren’t affirmed enough over their transition, but because nobody said to them it’s normal for a teenage person to hate their body when they go through puberty and give them some support to come through it.

RVN123 · 12/02/2022 00:11

@Tellthemagain

i would guess its because dysmorphia doesn't go away when u make the change. an anorexic person stays feeling like that no matter how much weight they lose. whereas the feeling of dysphoria is "cured" if you like as soon as the change has been made.
I'm not really sure this is true though. It doesn't explain the de-transitioners. There are lots of people who make all the changes they think they need to make, realise they are still as unhappy as they were before and realise that they actually are not the opposite sex, that their dysphoria has been caused by many different things in their life. Then they detransition. Only now they are worse off because of irreversible and unwanted changed to their previously healthy bodies.

I'm not saying some people are not happier when they transition BTW, just that it doesn't hold true a lot of the time.

Tellthemagain · 12/02/2022 00:04

i would guess its because dysmorphia doesn't go away when u make the change. an anorexic person stays feeling like that no matter how much weight they lose.
whereas the feeling of dysphoria is "cured" if you like as soon as the change has been made.

Mrstwiddle · 11/02/2022 23:57

Really good point

GroggyLegs · 11/02/2022 23:51

Agreed.

Why are people pretending this is completely normal and in no way worrying instead of asking WHY teen girls are identifying out of being girls, and why middle aged men are identifying into being young women?

RedToothBrush · 11/02/2022 23:49

Ideological belief.

ScrollingLeaves · 11/02/2022 23:44

Agree.
I also wonder how many people don’t feel some sort of body dysmorphia when puberty arrives? That is why it is so worrying for teens to get caught up in feeling they should try to change their bodies. Given time most will become more at ease with themselves.

RVN123 · 11/02/2022 22:49

Very good question.

So for example, an anorexic who weighs 70 pounds looks in the mirror and sees herself as fat.
We would be generally seen as doing her a disservice if we AGREED with her she was a whale and needed to lose another 10 pounds, even though that was her firm and un-waivering internal belief.
Or a paranoid schizophrenic hears voices from the TV telling them to kill Boris Johnson. Would we give them a gun and directions to 10 Downing Street or would we recognise they had a problem?
Or a person with multiple personality disorder - do we confirm their assertion that they are actually Napolean and to ready their horses?

Why IS gender dysphoria so very different?

However I don't suspect this thread will last very long.
You have already mentioned the dreaded words.