Rebel is exactly right.
Starving yourself is very dangerous and often leads to death, which is why anorexia is considered a disorder. Because counseling can fix the problem with anorexia, it's a mental disorder.
Bleaching your skin would generally be motivated by non-white people being discriminated against, not because a person actually feels 'white' inside. If some woman were to want to transition to male because men get paid more on average or are better off in other ways, no counselor would write a letter for her to be able to get on testosterone. Also, she would like end up regretting her decision to make her body male, because inside she'd still feel female.
Try imagining someone called you a man, he, him, etc all day long. Everybody treating you as if you were a man. You wouldn't feel happy about that, would you? TS people *do* feel happy if people were to see them as the opposite of their birth gender. It's a brain-body mismatch. Counselors and transsexuals have tried for decades and decades to fix the problem with counseling, and it just does not work. So, you can either see it as an untreatable mental condition or as an imperfectly treatable physical condition. For pragmatic reasons, we go with the latter. If someone figures out a way to make transsexuals feel happy being their birth gender, then some (or all) might chose to fix their brain instead of their body.How come transsexuality isn't considered a mental illness?
Because it is a physical disease. Transgenderism is mostly a mental disorder, but transsexualism is a medical condition. TSs have mainstream values, TGs have queer values. TS is inborn, TG is choice.
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Laugh it Off is wrong - TSs want/have surgery and TGs don't. TSs as not a part of the TG community and it is insulting to call a TS a TG. I broke someone's face for accusing me of being a TG and sued another. I changed my sex, so I am a TS. It is impossible to change gender.
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If TSism %26amp; homosexuality aren't the same, then why do ';TSs'; defend it as if they were gay instead of TSs? TSs are not seen as mainstream and are deprived of rights *because* of the gays. Most people stand against their abusers. ';TSs'; %26amp; battered wives are the only ones who support their abusers.
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from my understanding, transsexuals feel trapped in their own bodies...they don't necessarily hate themselves.
Transsexuality isn't hate for one's self. It's just an overwhelming, inescapable feeling that you were born in the body of the wrong gender. So, no, it isn't a mental illness.
I don't believe that transsexuals are necessarily uncomfortable with themselves. I've always thought that they just feel like they are a man trapped in a woman's body or vice versa.
Transexuality doesn't mean someone is homosexual which a lot of people seem to think. Which pisses me off cause i get **** for it. I just think it's the way society has become. Like how females dressing up as males is more accepted then males dressing up as females. Just how society has become i think. Mind you i don't think anyone should get **** for changing their appearance.
';How come transsexuality isn't considered a mental illness?';
Because it ISN'T a mental illness. Transsexuals have to be assessed by at least two psychiatriasts, both of whom have to agree that the trans person has NO mental illness or psychosis, before they're allowed treatment.
And it has nothing to do with homosexuality; that's a seperate issue.
There is no ';changing';. Transexuals (actual term nowadays is ';transgenders';) don't actually CHANGE their sex. They simply are fixing who they are on the outside, so it matches who they are on the inside.
A transgender is a person who is actually the opposite sex inside. A MTF (Male-to-Female) Transgender is a male on the outside, but on the inside, they are female. A FTM (Female-to-Male) Transgender is female on the outside, but male on the inside. It was once thought that transgenderism was a mental illness because it was thought that the person believes themselves to be the opposite sex was because there was something wrong with them, making them believe that. But in recent years, the opposite has been found to be true. It's not the brain that doesn't match the body, it is the body that does not match the brain. There is nothing wrong with the brain. There is just something wrong with the outside.
Transgenders are SUPPOSED to be the opposite sex, but they are born wrong. If a transgender recieves a sex change, they are not actually changing their sex, they are simply CORRECTING who they are on the outside, so it matches the inside.
It's their BODY that is wrong, NOT their brain! This is why transgenderism is not a mental illness.
Homosexuality is NOT a mental illnes either. A homosexual simply is attracted to the same-sex. What makes straight women attracted to men is simply in gay men, and what makes straight men attracted to women is in lesbian women. HOWEVER transgenderism is different from homosexuality because a homosexual IDENTIFIES as the sex they were born with. A gay man, identifies as a man, and a lesbian woman identifies as a woman still, differentiating the 2, whereas many people get it wrong. Transgenders CAN be homosexual, however, as well as heterosexual or bisexual.
It's not a hard concept to grasp really. Only the ones who grew up being taught bad things about homosexuality and transgenderism, who have trouble accepting these simple concepts, do not understand them. Partly because they at least in part, downright REFUSE to understand them. That is called ignorance.
I hope this helps!
=)
Personally, I think transexuality could be interpreted two ways:
1. A physical defect
2. A mental illness/defect
On one hand, we could accept unconditionally that a person with a female mind is female, regardless of the sex of their body. In which case, we would view transexuality as a physical defect. Their body isn't the sex it's supposed to be.
On the other hand, we could feel that it is a person's body which is the ultimate determinant of which sex they are. In other words, a person with a male body is male, regardless of whether or not that person feels like a male. In which case, transexuality would be a mental defect/illness.
Personally, I think I lean more towards the latter. However, since there is currently NO WAY to change the sex/gender of a person's mind to fit their body, transexuality would be effectively untreatable if we viewed it as a mental defect/illness. However, there IS a way (sorta) to change the sex of a person's body to match their mind--through surgeries and hormones. Thus, when we treat transexuality as a physical defect, it is a treatable condition. Of course, the results are not perfect--the person is not a flawless specimen of the sex they wish to be. MtFs often have scars, breast implants, deep voices, Adam's Apples, and bodies which are a tad too masculine. With FtMs, they have high voices, scars, short stature, and they may never have genitals which can be used for penetrative sex. So, treating transexuality as a physical defect is an imperfect solution. However, it is currently the best solution we have. Most transexuals are happier after they transition, even though their bodies are never exactly like they sex they are trying to be.
Thus, we should continue to treat transexuality as a physical defect and allow/assist transexuals to physically transition to the sex they want to be. With our current medical technology, this is the best we can do for them.
However, I don't think we should completely abandon the idea that transexuality could be a mental illness/defect. While we continue to develop better ways to change the sex of a person's body, we should also research ways to change the sex/gender of a person's MIND. Perhaps some day in the future, transexuals will no longer have to go through the lengthy and complex process of physically transitioning to make their body match their mind but can instead be given a simple medical procedure or medication to mentally transition their mind to match their body.
Frankly, if such technology is ever available, it would be a much smarter and simpler solution to make a person in a male body FEEL male and WANT to be male, rather than giving them surgeries and a lifetime of hormones to create a facsimile of a female.
Dear Penny,
Trust me on this one. Gender dysphoriea and homosexuality are NOT the same! In fact it’s VARY possible to be trans and to be lesbian… I should know
Homosexuality is about who you see as sexy and/or sleep with.
Gender dysphoriea (transsexuality) is about who I am on the inside, and making what the rest of the planet THINK they see match the person inside.
In itself Gender dysphoriea may or may not be a mental illness. (The OLD clinical term was “Gender Identity DISORDER”) But The most resent research indicates that such people are indeed what they have been claming to be for the last 4 or 5 thousand years. An anatomically female brain in a male body. BUT it definitely leads to a lot of emotional eschews… (The best estimate they’ve come up with is that half of all Gender dysphorics don’t make it to age 40. Either due to homophobic attack, or to depression.)
So either they TRY to make the rest of the planet happy and pose as what you THINK they should be. Or make the outside match the inside.
Hope all this helps you to “get it”.
From one Penny to another ;)
LaPenster
Transsexualism isn't hate for oneself, and it isn't a mental illness.
For many years, transsexualism was regarded by the medical profession as a mental illness (it's still listed in the DSM, and the ICD, as such), and many various and inventive methods to 'cure' it were attempted by psychiatrists; most of these methods were brutal and inhumane (electric shocks, aversion therapy, psychedelic drugs, deliberate attempts to shame and dehumanise trans people, and many others). And none of them worked; in the century or so that psychiatry has been considered a real science, there is not a single transsexual person ever recorded as having been successfully treated by these methods. Many of these medically approved tortures only stopped when the patient, pushed beyond endurance, took his or her own life.
Modern medicine has a different view; more, and better, research** is showing quite clearly that transsexualism is a physical condition, and can't be treated psychiatrically.
It's a congenital neurological condition in which the gender, which is formed by the neurological make-up of the brain, doesn't match the somatic (bodily) anatomy. This creates a constant feeling of 'wrongness'; like walking around with your shoes on the wrong feet, you can function, but you're never comfortable within yourself.
Gender identity can't be changed; it's an integral part of who you are. Even if it were possible to alter it to match the body, doing so would effectively change who you are; you'd become a different person; so the only way to resolve the disparity is to alter the body to match, or at least closely approximate, the gender of the brain.
This treatment DOES work; it's 98% effective at relieving the symptoms of the condition, which is a higher percentage than almost any other medical treatment, but because it's such a radical treatment, it's necessary that those who request it are carefully examined and assessed to try to ensure that only those who need treatment, get it; This assessment is performed by psychiatrists, since historically, they have the most experience in identifying transsexualism; and it is this association of psychiatry with transsexualism that causes laypeople to assume that it is a mental illness.
** You can read some of the research here;
http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/768900…
http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2009/04/anot…
http://etransgender.com/viewtopic.php?f=…
http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls…
Because it ISN'T !!!
Rachelle In High Heels
actually it is considered a mental illness by many professionals, they call it gender disphoria or gender identity disorder.
Actually it is in the DSM.
And no, we do not hate ourselves. We just feel nature made a mistake and we are going about our business fixing it.
And transsexuals are not homosexuals. At least many of us. Myself I liked women before I changed over and I still do. Does this make me a lesbian now?
rebel - so if you are born with a medical condition that can be treated to such an extent that nobody knew you ever suffered from it (i.e. cleft palate), then it's okay to leave the person's mind alone?
Do you realize how insane this sounds? The body is not who you are. Why would anyone want their identity altered to be happy with a birth defect?
Suppose doctors did come up with a way to determine if a fetus was going to be born transsexual. You would be in favor of a procedure that would alter this fetuses brain so that it grew up happy with its physical gender? Where does this sort of ';science'; stop? We just start altering minds so that people grow up happy with whatever condition or features they are going to be born with?!?
DOCTOR
';Oh, your child is going to be born with her fingers fused together. We can either try to surgically separate them after she is born, or inject her brain with something to make her happy with her deformed hands.';
PARENT
';Oh please do the injection, and while you're at it, can you make her happy with small boobs, a big nose, and buck teeth.';
I suggest you read the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and see just how terrifying this sort of thinking can be.
I'm going to try to make this short.
First it is in the DSM right now. However, homosexuality was in the book before and was removed. We're actively moving to get transsexualism removed as well:
http://www.GIDreform.org
Almost all gender experts agree that transsexualism is a physical birth condition. Changes to the DSM take time and there is a LOT of behind the scenes politics going on.
Also it must be noted that many benign things are in the DSM. For example: Shyness. That's right if you're very shy (social anxiety disorder) you're in the DSM.
For current scientific thinking in regards to transsexualism see this ';Gender Basics'; section of Lynn Conway's site:
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/T…
As I said before transsexualism is a naturally occurring birth condition characterized by a brain-body mismatch. Read the link! Gender identity and sexual orientation are two totally separate concepts. One is about who you love and one is about who you are.
Transsexual people don't ';become'; anything and they are not ';changing';. What? Remember I said brain-body mismatch? For example I was born with a female brain, but in a male male. I am, and always have been, female. Through the process of transition we change the body so that it represents who we are on the inside AND adopt the gender role that's appropriate for us. You see transition is both physical and social. I finished transition a couple years ago and now my life makes sense. My body is no longer a stranger to me AND people treat me in a way that's correct for my gender.
For transsexual people transition is a life-saving medical treatment.
Hope this helps.
It's not a mental illness.Since trannie lifestyle isn't direct threat to other people well being, I think it should be considered normal
it was, and will more than likely be in the DSM V when it comes out
Transexuality isn't considered a mental-illness because it is highly regarded as a choice one makes. For instance, a guy can be gay, but does that mean that he has to be girly? No. In my case, I'm gay but I consider myself more masculine than feminine.
But be open-minded to the fact that it is considered as a mental thing by some. It is thought that transexual people feel that they really belong to the opposite gender but are trapped in an oposing body (EX= a girl may feel like a boy but is trapped in a girl's body).
Penny you make a valid point but be prepared for all the haters to insult you and degrade your valid point and call you a bigot when the truth is that you are an intelligent person with a valid point.
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