#wolf kin

Adolescence and adulthood

I primarily looked back on my therian identity as a cringy phase, which, yes, is unkind to my past self, but is honest to how I felt. Despite feeling this way, I have felt the sensation of something similar to phantom limbs. I often feel as if I have ears on the top of my head that move according to my moods, or in the direction of a sound. I also often feel as if I have a snout or tail.

Sometimes, I've felt more human than nonhuman, but these experiences have continued on and off in the background through all phases of my life. So far, these feelings and experiences have lasted for 18 years.

Reacceptance of therianthropy

So, this has been a recent development, as in just last week recent. This was not prompted by anything large or earth-shattering. Just reflecting on my nonhuman feelings and what this might mean, whether I should identify as alterhuman even though I don't necessarily share all the common experiences of therians. But I finally decided to re-embrace a part of myself I thought I had long left behind.

I am a psychological therian + what that means to me

I identify solely as a psychological therian. I do not believe that my therian identity has any spiritual roots behind it -- nothing like past lives or an animal soul trapped in a human body. Logically, I understand that my mind and body are human. Another, less logical part of myself also still feels nonhuman despite this.

In addition to the phantom limbs and what might be called envisage shifts, ever since I hit puberty, I've felt like I'm a nonhuman creature trying to figure out how to be human. It seems as if everyone else got handed a "How to Be Human" handbook, but I missed the day it was passed out, so I've had to learn how to be relatively normal and how to socialize correctly through social consequences (i.e., middle school bullying), observation, and trial and error. I suspect that this is the result of some sort of neurodivergency that I've never been diagnosed with.

Despite the purely psychological, and possibly neurodivergent, origins of my therianthropy, this experience is still very real to me.

My theriotype

As I mentioned earlier, I identified as a wolf therian at 13, and this has remained relatively stable over my life. When I have phantom limbs or envisage shifts, the nonhuman aspects of myself always feel canine. So, I would imperfectly describe my theriotype as a wolf/werewolf/caninething.

This is ironic, as my personality is much more catlike, and being around dogs, with their intense energy, constant need for stimulation, and tendency to get in your personal space, often stresses me out. (Not all dogs, mind you. I have known some wonderful dogs over my life.) I also don't really enjoy the outdoors, but I have come to understand that this isn't a prerequisite for being a therian lol.

My theriotype being canine in nature very likely comes from my lifelong fascination with werewolves and imprinting on them in some way. My theriotype appears not to be voluntary, even if it originally started as an otherlink.

Like I talked about in the psychological section, I understand that I am a human and am not truly a wolf or a werewolf. But the disconnection I have from humanity manifests as feeling like a caninething.

A domestic, indoors-loving wolf/werewolf/caninething, I guess lmao.

So yeah, I don't know. That's me! Hello, world.