#somatic shift

It doesn't make any sense.

* I am aware of history of p-shisting groups but come on, not every p-shifter is bad. And if go into p-shifting deeper, even phantom or somatic shifts could be considered types of physical shifts.

def: somatic, meaning in relation to the body (and specifically derived from the word psychosomatic). includes things like sensory shifts, nesting cycles and unintentional shifts in gait.

what it feels like

what it actually looks like

Coincidentally I am now no longer going to be present at family functions where my younger sister-(not)-in-law is going to be, because I would catch some assault charges. :V

Shifts for me, especially when I was a preteen first awakening to them, were very intense and often triggered by people violating my boundaries or purposefully upsetting me. One time, when I was like 13, I remember being smacked really hard in the back during a play fight, blacking out in rage/pain, and coming back to, only to find i had done something to that friend who hit me and made her cry. She caught my teeth *hard* another time when she participated in holding me down and shoving grass up my nose.

And I got in-school suspension for biting a kid i knew so hard that he bruised multiple colors for a week or two -- he took something from a friend, held it up to taunt me, triggered my chase instinct, and then made me get creative to make him drop it- which always ends in teeth.

Therianthropy has always been a thing that I've had to mask and control in order to not get in trouble with humans around me. I have to hide it actively, not passively. And now I cant see my evil monster of a SIL because if I hear her talk about administering ABA "therapy" or being racist or sexist or ableist or whatever the fuck, I WILL attack her. This is like, advanced levels of bullshit she puts out, and Im no longer allowes to see her.

Because the last time I heard about her bullshit, I shifted, and my gaze changed, and my pupils actually narrowed to an absolute pinprick as I felt my vision tunnel and focus on my QPP telling me about his sister. He said I looked like an animal about to attack, and he felt afraid and not sure what to do. I *felt* like an animal about to attack. My body knew what to do when I heard something that made me feel like attacking someone, and narrowed my pupils to focus on my prey. It was kind of wild.

But uh. Yeah this is a thing, in case anyone else out there is struggling to feel seen in having similar shifts to mine. Ones that are about the hunt, the predatory drive, self defense, but all end in teeth and claws and sometimes severe consequences. Im not gonna glorify attacking people, but I will be frank about how often I have bitten people in response to being fucked with, or blacked out and hurt people bc they hurt me so bad the pain made me go berserk.

(term coining post, I guess)

There's been talk of essentially needing to find a word to express some of the physical experiances otherkin and therians experiance. Some have resorted to trying to reclaim and alter the definition of the term physical shifting (or p-shifting) to fit this gap, but that attempt has recieved criticism and complaint. Physical shifting as a term was weaponized by manipulative and abusive people, and as such many still feel hurt around the term. So to I'd like to propose a new term for the aforementioned experiances.

Somatic Shifts

Somatic = in relation to the body (specifically derived from the word psychosomatic, more on this later)

Shifting = an experiance that aligns you more with your kintype/theriotype

Examples of Shifts and experiances under the Somatic Shift umbrella-

Sensory shifts

Body aches (in relation to kin/theriotype)

Nesting cycles (heat/rut)

Berserker shifts (if I'm remembering the description of the shift correctly)

Unintentional shift in gait (when you subconsciously move like your kin/theriotype, such as toe walking)

And possibly many more-

And what it explicitly is not-

Gene mutation

A "special" hormone levels changing

"Morbing out" (full body morphing or shapeshifting)

The point of this term is to express the physical experiances that we otherkin and therians experiance, while putting emphases on the fact that these specific experiances are not outside the realm of physiological possibility for the bodies we exist in. Its also expressing that these specific experiances are not solely physical in nature either, they're a blend of mental and physical- they're psychosomatic.

Now I know many have a knee-jerk reaction to the term "psychosomatic", please let me elaborate. When something is Psychosomatic, that means it is a Mental Factor that has effected the body Physically. Stress sickness is a good example of this. When Stress (mental factor) gets bad enough, your brain will respond by sending out chemicals into the body causing Sickness symptoms (physical effect). There's no virus or bacteria being fought, but you'll still physically feel like you have the flu.

Sensory Shifts are a great example of this too. (To use myself as an example) I am a feline. I percieve the world through feline-inity. So my brain tries to subconciously work my body as if it were also feline. My otherkin processing (mental factor) causes my brain to try to sense things around me as a feline, so it spends more time focusing on sensory processing (physical effect.) Meaning I experiance shifts of hightened smell, taste, touch, light sensitivity, etc.

These are very real physical experiances. But the fact that they are both psychosomatic and physiological changes is what really sets them apart from the expectations that come from the term "physical shifting". Physical shifting was defined to mean the literal and full body physical shift from current body to kintype/theriotype body.

We as a community have shunned the term "physical shifting" for good reason. It left an opening for manipulative and abusive people to target some of our most vulnerable members. Those of us who have extreme species dysphoria, delusions, or are very young, are targets for those who want to hurt others. "Pshifter" cults would lure people in with promises to ease their pain, and body transformation, only to groom and abuse them. Many of these spaces are still active. And I don't think it's safe to attempt to reclaim a term when it still puts parts of our community at risk. But Somatic Shifts still gives us a way to express what we need to.

So this would make the categories of shifting, Mental, Somatic, Astral, Magic/Spiritual, and Phantom (though phantom might fit under Somatic for some, I know it won't for all).

Meat meat meat meat meat

First my feline phantom ears and tail popped up. Something that's been happening a lot recently (I blame the season change). But then I noticed I was also experiencing a sensory shift, specifically my hearing was more attuned. Like I could place what direction sound was traveling from way easier.

What was interesting was, it felt like I was hearing the sound *through* my phantom ears. Like I was actually catching the sound and processing it from a location up higher on my head. Where as now when I type this, I'm sound is distinctly coming in from the sides.

The form changes. Everything from the growing claws to the increased size. I’d usually also be short of breath during these moments. Changing back to human is noticeably not as intense

Slower walking speed. Usually I can’t speed up even if I want to unless I let someone else front

Feeling as if my entire body becomes much heavier than it really is. It can be difficult to get up from bed on my own when this happens

Finding it hard to straighten my back when fronting because fuckass massive shell is in the way

Starting to walk like a t-rex (unintentional shift in gait)

> I noticed that I fully transformed again

> moves the meatsuit slightly, suddenly noticing that it feels much heavier and now I can’t easily get up on my own

> thinking “this is basically <insert sprite from Bowser’s Inside Story where Bowser is on his back and unable to move> all over again”