@NicolaElle @JoscelynTransient @emmalilian @faithisleaping @rooster @siege I'd like to offer an alternate thought, informed very much by CJ's take on dysphoria being, ultimately, a specific type of CPTSD:
In order to not come out to ourselves before, or to keep ourselves from transitioning, we had to inflict upon ourselves (aided and abetted by cissexist, transphobic society) a daily, minute-by-minute trauma that boils down to one thing:
"The real me doesn't deserve to exist."
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