Is being trans a 'disease'/mental health issue?

[SolveMyPrombles]

I'm asking on this board for deliberate considered responses so please do share your thoughts.

A lady on a local group has described being trans as a mental illness that should be treated with compassion not pandered to because it's a disease.

Looking into it more deeply I believe she's wrong and there is no current diagnostic manual that agrees with her take.

What do you think?

I think I'm young people it's usially a trauma response, often from the smaller consistent trauma of feeling you don't fit in (feminine boys) or because you suddenly stand out (girls going through puberty). "I can't get anything right," can easy shift to "there's something wrong with me." It's manifestation of the desire for a fresh start or do over and should be treated kindly in the vulnerable teens. However, kindness is not playing along, any more than you do with an anorexic person.

There are the fetishists, as well, who are full on exploiting the vulnerable ones, don't feel much kindness there.

Sure I can. Just because being trans is not an inherently potentially fatal disorder, doesn't mean it doesn't share obvious traits with anorexia, such as a blatantly wrong mental image of one's body.

transitioning, which in most cases improves people’s mental health.

Do you have sources for that?

I think it's a fetish and the "dysphoria" comes from the fantasy not matching reality.

I think it’s analogous to anorexia and we treat people who stop eating because they don’t like their body. Trans people don’t like their bodies but they are indulged.

Typical (common) behaviours are not the same as stereotypical behaviours (expectations). Trans people are simply acknowledging the commonality in inclinations/behaviours with the general population.

Common behaviours are unlikely to change since these are consequences of both biological ( genes/hormones) & environmental influences.

Which research are your using for your claim here?

Typical (common) behaviours are not the same as stereotypical behaviours (expectations).

I don't quite see the difference. Do you have examples?

Substantial differences between males & females observed in consumerist, employment, special interest & life choices.

You can look them up if they aren't obvious to you.

Transgender individuals generally have a clear, accurate perception of what their body looks like. The distress comes from the fact that their body does not match their internal identity. Anorexia is marked by a distorted perception of reality. Even when an individual is dangerously thin, looking in the mirror leads them to perceive themselves as overweight.

Really seems like this rhetoric is trying to lead society back to the times when being gay was deemed an illness, illegal, conversion abuse etc. Im not going to bait you, I know better than to visit the feminist boards sadly (this is on my active and its hard to ignore).
Just please think, is trying to rationalise other people and speculate on why they are different to you more important than how any trans and likely lgbtqia+ person reading the title of the thread will feel. It hurt my heart...
#notinmyname

The genetic makeup of men, can without question express effectively all female elements. This is a hard fact, there is a syndrome where you can be entirely female with xy, the only thing missing are eggs due to the stage it happens at, but they can also give birth if an egg is implanted.

Once we have figured out this, you then need to demonstrate why and how you think it is impossible for a female brain alone to be expressed genetically from a male genetic makeup. Because clearly that would then be a female person (what makes somebody a person), trapped in a male biological body.

I am not taking a side, I am just curious where this fanatical absolute certainty that it can't happen comes from.

You'd think if they'd be obvious to anyone, it would be me...

There's no such thing as an "internal identity".

This is a hard fact, there is a syndrome where you can be entirely female with xy, the only thing missing are eggs due to the stage it happens at, but they can also give birth if an egg is implanted.

I don't suppose you would know the name of that syndrome? Because if you're thinking of androgen insensitivity syndrome, I'm going to ask where exactly that egg is supposed to be implanted...

you then need to demonstrate why and how you think it is impossible for a female brain alone to be expressed genetically from a male genetic makeup.

You're the one making the extraordinary claim, so it's up to you to demonstrate how it would even work.

And again: the brain is an integral part of the body. You can't have a female brain and a male body; that makes no sense.

@Baileyonice “distorted perception of reality” sounds like a good fit for the concept of “trans” IMHO.

@SolveMyPrombles for a more clinically qualified perspective there is a book by Dr. Az Hakeem, a psychiatrist who worked with trans at the Portland for many years, called “Detrans”. It all about the various conditions that are part of trans identities.

Internal identity is how the perception of personality of an individual fits in to social categories. Humans decide internal identity through a dynamic of process of cognitive reflection, social interaction, and personal evaluation. Our minds integrate memories, values, and experiences into a coherent narrative of self. This process helps us define who we are and informs how we navigate the world.

But as it's internal, no one else should be forced to buy into it, and nor should the law.

But when your body is one thing, and society agrees that your body is that thing, then clearly there's something wrong with either your cognitive reflection or your personal evaluation if you end up deciding that nope, your body is not that thing.

Beliefs like religion are internal & are respected with both social & legal legitimacy.

All elements can be expressed independently with the right genetic issue or trigger, you stating it can't with no basis doesn't change this.

It's a combination of syndromes, between Swyer Syndrome and CAIS, that covers most things. Not just the one you chose because you don't like the idea that they could give birth, so didn't bother checking to avoid facing that.

I have already demonstrated enough for the burden to be entirely on others to point in the right direction at a bare minimum. The suggesting no part of the brain can be expressed genetically on it's own is an extraordinary claim, even if true you would have to be many years more advanced than the rest of us to be sure with your knowledge of that - and at that point I can't help but feel you need to be doing something more worthwhile with that knowledge.

True to a certain extent. But no one religious is expecting me to also believe in their religion.

The context is gender not sex as well as internal perceptions as opposed to societal ones.

But some, not all, but some trans people do claim to have changed sex. And use the phrase her penis. So it's not just about gender.

Respecting or agreeing with a choice are two different things.

Again, I agree, but religious people have no impact on my life, whereas men in female single sex spaces do, so I don't think it's fair to compare the two belief systems.