I've read through a fair bit of the FAQ on the subject, but like, non-dysphoric trans people still don't quite make sense? I get that there's gender euphoria when properly addressed and when your body looks how you want it to, but how exactly does euphoria work without dysphoria? Wouldn't something have to be off (even slightly) for euphoria to make sense? I'm sorry if this comes off as rude, I'm just trying to understand and I didn't mean to offend anyone.
I donât in particular identify as non-dysphoric, but I do think I experience my dysphoria in a very different way. In fact, I used to actually think I had no dysphoria. For me, this meant I experienced gender euphoria instead. Now, what is that exactly though, right?
Gender euphoria without gender dysphoria is definitely a thing that can and does happen. In my experience, I didnât dislike my body, I wasnât even in particular uncomfortable back in the early stages of my transition, but when I was mistaken for a guy I felt great. I could see myself living the rest of my life as a girl, but I knew that if I did that I would never be as happy as I could possibly be. I wouldnât be content, I wouldnât be comfortable, I wouldnât be able to stand it once Iâd known I had other options.
What I discovered as I began my transition is that I definitely still experience gender euphoria, but I do also deal with dysphoria. For me my dysphoria comes through in the form of derealization. I look to the body parts I dislike and feel a vague disconnect. My brain just subconsciously decides that these things arenât permanent so as long as I can avoid them for now then eventually I wonât have to even think about them.
So, to conclude, gender euphoria can exist as a separate and independent entity from dysphoria. You can also start to experience dysphoria because of euphoria and vice-versa.
I recently had a friend say the following to me and it helped in my understanding a lot:
âSo, imagine, when you were in kindergarten, your teacher told you to write with your right hand, and your parents both wrote with their right hands, and all your friends and classmates do to. So, you also become pretty good at writing with your right hand and you assume that everyone in the whole world writes with their right hand because youâve never seen anything else.
But maybe one day when youâre in fifth grade, or youâre a teenager, or youâre 50 years old, you get bored, and you pick up a pencil with your left hand. Maybe itâs because you saw a friend do it, or you read some article online about left-handed people, or you just felt like trying it for some reason.
And for some reason, even though youâre used to writing with your right hand and everyone in your life up until that point has told you to write with your right hand, writing with your left hand is so much easier, and once you start doing it, thereâs no way you want to go back to your right hand because your left hand feels more natural and easier and you never wouldâve known this if you didnât just try picking up the pencil. And sure, if you had to, youâre still perfectly capable of writing with your right hand. Youâre probably pretty good at it, since youâve been doing it for years, and at times you might think itâs easier to write that way since everyone else does it and youâve always been told thatâs the only way to write and youâre scared you might get in trouble or get weird looks for writing with your left hand, especially if youâve been writing with your right hand for years and have never had a problem with it until now.Â
But still, you canât shake the feeling that you shouldâve been writing with your left hand your whole life, even if thereâs nothing particularly impossible about writing with your right hand. You feel like if someone had just told you that some people write with their left hand, you mightâve made the choice on your own, but no one ever told you, so you didnât even know it was possible until you tried it yourself, and now that youâve tried it, you donât ever want to go back to writing with your right hand.â
There are many different ways to experience and label gender identity and theyâre all valid, so saying someone has to have dysphoria ignores the diversity of trans experiences- we donât all go through the same thing, or label our feelings in the same way.Â
The majority of trans people do have dysphoria, but that doesnât mean that every trans person has to.Â
Creating artificial criteria to judge who counts creates a toxic atmosphere where trans people (with and without dysphoria) feel that they arenât âtrans enoughâ when they are- the only person who can decide if someone is trans is the trans person themself.
Here are more articles and posts on non-dysphoric trans people:
Not All Transgender People Have Dysphoria â And Here Are 6 Reasons Why That Matters
You Can Still Be Transgender If You Donât Feel Physical Dysphoria â Hereâs Why
Non-dysphoric trans people
Jealousy towards non-dysphoric trans people
Do I have to have Dysphoria to be Trans?
You donât need to be diagnosed with dysphoria to be trans
Why you shouldnât force a label on someone
Discourse over being dysphoria
A book that said not all trans people have dysphoria
What about insurance coverage if transgender identity is demedicalized under the new WHO ICD classification?
Non-dysphoric trans people wouldnât cause insurances to stop covering medical transition for dysphoric trans people
American Psychological Associationâs stance on nondysphoric trans people
A post by a post-phallo person (tw sexual assault)
Gender Dysphoria: DSM-5 Reflects Shift In Perspective On Gender Identity
While hopefully the links above and the other modâs explanations helped clarify this topic for you, someoneâs identity doesnât have to make sense to you personally in order to count and be valid. Just accept that they feel that way and move on.
If anyone has more links to add feel free to do so in a reblog! All of the mods of this blog are dysphoric so we especially encourage non-dysphoric followers to add on with their personal experiences and viewpoints!Â
d3viantvanguard said: These are amazing comments, but tl;dr: People can tell the difference between neutral and positive feelings, theyâre not similar at all.  (That is, because âneutralâ is the absence of emotional valence, whereas âpositiveâ is⌠positive emotional valence. Itâs pretty darn hard to confuse the two.)  You donât need negative feelings (dysphoria) to recognize whether something (gender) is right or wrong for youâa shift away from neutral in either direction is enough to be noticed.
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