jaded

What exactly is a therian, at least in your opinion? A therian is any being that involuntarily identifies as a non-human animal on any level.

How do you know you're a therian? How do you know what kind? Usually it takes a great deal of self-exploration to narrow down a theriotype, and as it’s deeply personal, many may have different experiences.

I’m cisgender, neurotypical (from what I can tell), and do not have any chronic mental or physical illnesses/disabilities. Therianthropy is not always tied to gender, neurodiversity, or illness/disability, although I’m sure it can be.

In my case, it’s based off of involuntary urges, physical sensations, dream/envisage shifts, and seeing members of a species as one of my kind.

I knew I was a therian due to the fact I never felt human despite being one physically, I would behave in an “animalistic” manner naturally (e.g. not in a “playing pretend” way, but instead a “this is me” way that included the less idealized and “gross” behaviors of my species), I would feel nonhuman features (such as fur, feathers, wings, a muzzle, paws, a tail, large ears, a beak, a different body makeup, scales, spines, etc.), and I simply saw myself as my theriotypes without it feeling unusual or forced like seeing myself as human felt.

I relate to plenty of animals, including humans, but it is not to the same degree as identifying as them. I don’t imagine myself as other species often, but that’s also a distinct experience from therianthropy.

The main things that complicate finding a theriotype in my experience are (a.) a lack of exposure to your type species and (b.) suppression of animalistic traits in order to conform to human society.

Disclaimer once again that other therians’ experiences may vary, and that a great deal do identify as their theriotypes on a physical level.

Do you have to be specifically one kind? While plenty have only one theriotype, it’s also normal and commonplace for therians to have multiple theriotypes (such as myself) or even to identify as entire clades or EVERY animal. There’s no limit and theriotypes can change over time.

In my case, I have three confirmed theriotypes and one that is highly likely to also be one. I’m them simultaneously (meaning I consider myself to be all of my species, recognize other members of my species as one of my kind, and appreciate being referred to in a manner appropriate to any of my species), but each species’ physical/mental shifts come bundled together and I only shift into one at a time.

Shift in this case means feeling exceptionally more like one theriotype. For example, I don’t feel wings when I’m in a coyote shift, my feet feel different depending on whether I’m in a goshawk or an osprey shift, I don’t feel a mix of fur and feathers at the same time, etc. Transitions between shifts are very fluid and cannot be controlled, but they can be influenced by outside stimuli. I never experience human shifts, nor do I have a default “form”.

I identify as my theriotypes equally and shifts are distributed fairly evenly as well. As much as I wish I could be just one species, I’m not, and the whole thing can be a difficult thing to wrap the head around even though it’s true to who I am.

Are you also a furry? + Questions pertaining to agere/petre. I’m not part of the furry, petre, agere, or similar communities, (although I don’t have an issue with them) so I unfortunately can’t speak for how they tie into therianthropy.

How does it affect your daily life? It’s difficult to fully determine the differences between my daily life and that of a human, as I haven’t truly experienced the latter. I’ve also tried very hard to adapt to human society, which also complicates matters. Still, I’ll try my best.

Therianthropy influences my hobbies and interests (e.g. I enjoy hang-gliding because it’s one of the closest things I can get to flying in this form, I enjoy making the sounds of my theriotypes because it feels euphoric, etc.).

My movement patterns are also subconsciously impacted: I tend to walk on the tips of my toes, I instinctively move my “arms” in tandem with my legs while my equivalent of the palms face backwards (most humans seem to walk with their palms facing inwards), I often tuck my “hands” when walking, I adjust my foot position to account for talons, I can move my ears, etc.

I have to force myself to not perform certain movements and to keep things subtle. Certain coordinated movements like typing also feel incredibly awkward; while it’s not a physical struggle, it mentally feels very odd.

Certain activities were a real struggle to learn as well. I still can’t swim because in stressful situations I default to animal movements, yet I physically lack the tail, oily feathers, fur, wings, or paws that might assist me. As such, I perform the physical movements without the proper physical features that would make them effective. I have to consciously override baseline instincts to perform many ordinary human activities.

My physical body is much larger than that of any of my theriotypes, which feels incredibly strange. I’ve gone more in-depth about this in a previous post.

I’ve been around humans for long enough to understand and replicate their body language without much trouble, although it still feels much more “right” to use the body language of my theriotypes.

There’s a great deal more, but I can’t let this entire post turn into answering this one question.

How has it affected your life long term? I’m not sure. All I know is that I am who I am.

How do you represent it in daily life in more subtle ways? How about more obvious ways? I don’t intentionally decide to represent my therianthropy, I just do whatever feels natural. That said, seeing others of my kind, being in my natural habitat, eating my natural diet, being free to move naturally, hunting, and making sounds that sound right to who I am are all nice.

Do you ever feel satisfied being a person? I truly don’t see myself as a person, but being in a human body is absolutely advantageous. I face significantly less danger in this form and I’m used to being in my body, so it’s not a constant cause of distress, but it’s not a perfect fit either and if I could physically become my theriotypes I’d absolutely do so.

Realistically, life as my theriotypes would be no easier, and I recognize that. I’m not chasing some dream of being able to fly for the fun of it; I’m chasing the ability to move as I should.

To put it into perspective, would you be satisfied if you became a fish? You might get used to it and enjoy swimming, but you’d still miss being able to run and laugh and smile, and other humans would never recognize you and possibly even eat you.

I’m satisfied sometimes in the way of chasing human experiences rather than the way of feeling content and right in my body.

How does it affect your adult life vs. young life? I’m on the lowest end of the adult spectrum, but for me, there’s no difference between the two other than me being more free to be myself now. I can make more decisions for myself and I have more privacy than before, which is freeing.

Are there specific things you wish you knew about therianthropy earlier? Is there anything specific I need to know about it? You don’t need to pin your therianthropy down to a specific cause, determine all of the specifics of your theriotype (like subspecies, color, etc.), do quadrobics, wear gear, or prove your therianthropy to anyone. Your identity is your own and does not have to match mine or anyone else’s experiences to be valid.