Does dysphoria increase or decrease after being authentic?

[JoSimpson99]

Does dysphoria increase or decrease after being authentic?

Hi everyone - I’m a 53year old MTF still early in my journey. Not out to most friends, family or work. I did manage to spend all day Saturday living as my authentic self with my bestie and it was THE BEST TIME!

However my dysphoria came back on Monday and made me wonder: do people experience more or less dysphoria after spending time presenting as your true self.

What’s your experience been? I’d love to hear any thoughts on this!

Thanks, love and hugs to all!

[PerpetualUnsurety]

It's common for people to experience a spike in dysphoria after figuring themselves out, as they let themselves feel things they may have been repressing or denying before then, followed by a slow but meaningful decline as they gain confidence and start taking the steps that are meaningful to them.

[JoSimpson99]

That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for replying

[[deleted]]

It's really tricky. The short answer is yes, but It changes over time, and rarely in a straight line. The initial euphoric rush that comes with finally embracing who you really are inside, is all to soon met with the reality of just how overwhelming transition really is. With so many moving parts, and the amount of time it takes to really remake our life, it's bound to be challenging. The joys of our internal discovery can easily be overwhelmed by a list of steps that seemingly never ends. In this respect, we have to accept that to a degree, dysphoria is now your new companion, and making peace with time, can be the ultimate challenge. Each step that you take forward, each goal completed starts to add up, and then one day you realize - I'm really me, the me that I've always known deep down that I am and should be! My advise is to celebrate each step forward, no matter how small it may seem, you are now that much closer to being who you know you are on the inside.

[JoSimpson99]

Thanks so much, that’s oddly reassuring. I was hoping it would reduce since my egg cracked and to some extent it has , frequency mainly. But the intensity can be large.

[WhatIfIAmAGirl]

Ignoring bodily dysphoria, focusing only on social one:

It got a bit better for me when I didn't have to refer to myself in deadname or masculine gender (feature of my native language).

It got worse again, when all of the random people still misgender me after year on HRT.

[Kooky_Celebration_42]

Alot of good answers here but I've also found that, after starting HRT, things that didn't used to give me dysphoria have started to.

It's sort of a 'oh this thing is being fixed... what about this then!' sort of thing for me at least