- Date posted
- 11h
Trans people who have gender OCD
I am a trans woman and i have had a severe ish gender identity OCD moment for the past couple of months. Every small thought/error must mean something deep about who i really am. Idk if this makes sense because idk how many of you speak gendered languages, but in my language (a slavic language) every adjective is gendered. Every verb in past tense is gendered. (masculine and feminine forms) And just one example from tonight, i was going home from a musical and while it had been warm the whole day and evening it started raining. And i wasnt wearing a jacket or a coat, i could feel the temperature dropping because i was wearing a skirt and some stockings, and my legs felt cold. And i said to myself in a inner dialogue: "It's colder now. Yep, you're right" In my language, the difference between being right as a woman or being right as a man is the difference of a single vowel. "Prav- masculine; prava- feminine" and it was like an unexpected intrusive thought. It's like something activated the moment i pronounced the word in my brain and just didn't finish off with the extra vowel. And that made me feel really distressed, like this MUST mean that i deep inside see myself as a man because for a split second i didn't react to finishing the sentence like that in my mind. But then, i had a strong emotional reaction. And the reason why i doubt my OCD a lot of times is because- i don't know if that's how you guys experience it, but a lot of times intrusive thoughts for me are predictable..like the intrusive thoughts feel kind of voluntary in the sence that i know that im going to think a thought that is going to distress me but I can't mentally stop it from coming. So i can expect the thoughts because its almost like I trigger myself on purpose..like self harm almost? But in instances like this, its unpredictable which makes me think- "Hmm, this thought seemed to be genuine and not forced like my ocd thoughts. Therefore it must ring true to who I am deep inside" and then that really causes me distress . Because sometimes i will also misgender myself and it will feel like it was this "on purpose" intrusive thought and I can let go and say "Oh, it was my OCD" and then i can let it go...But then this happens and i drive myself crazy. Some of the mental compulsions look like: "Probably it's just linguistic mistake in my mind, thoughts dont have much meaning" "Maybe it happened because i misgender myself so much lately in regular intrusive thoughts, so it started to confuse me and this doesnt mean anything" "I am only ever distressed at the thought of whether or not i have a secret unrealised desire to go back to live life as a man, but never was I distressed about living my life as a woman, as I currently do." I have been socially living my life as female for a bit over 2 years (im almost 22 now) and i have been medically transitioning since last year. And its really interesting how this bothers me so much and it is so dissonant to when i look at myself in the mirror and i have so much more confidence and euphoria i experience in the way my body looks than years prior... anyway lol i feel like i will never meet someone who experiences gender ocd like this because i will A) need to find a trans person B) someone who doesnt speak english 🥲🥲🥲 have a beautiful weekend :D