What does it feel like to be transgender?

[saragirl35]

I always felt out of place and akward...........like i was not really part of the world and society. I knew i was different and felt it.

[madannie]

For me it was like the knot in the gut - the feeling of "otherness" was there, in the background for much of my life, becoming more prominent as time went on until a point came when it could be ignored no longer.

My initial thought was that of being an outsider, observing the world but not feeling fully a part of it: I spent a long time trying to engage with it, and to some extent succeeded until that feeling of otherness became too insistent. I have always felt apart from what is regarded as "normal life" and still do: whether this is down to being transgender I am not sure, as my partner feels much the same way.

Apologies for quoting myself, but I wish to correct and expand on a point I made.

Having discussed this with my partner, I think it is probably my current illness which is making me feel somewhat apart from society in general: I have always been a shy person and it doesn't take much for me to retreat into my own world: depression is one such trigger. For several years after becoming the real me I was very much more at ease in the world than I had been previously, and I expect that ease to return when I have got through this bout of depression. Hence the latter part of my previous post is perhaps a little over-stated.

[Ice Maiden]

and some do not like what they see

I didn't understand what you meant there Ice . I hope I am not one of them .

On the original thread - for me it has been like watching all of the other kids playing the ball game but I was not allowed to join in. . But now somebody has thrown the ball my way and it's my chance to pick it up and become part of it .

K x

Sometimes we over compensate as the wrong gender, being brave, even foolhardy and gung-ho as we don't really care that much as we have already been dealt a harsh blow so no extreme sports can compare to that. Being trans is an 'extreme sport' in itself, I say this because ask any extreme sportsman or woman to live as the other gender for a year and see what they say

Nah what I meant was when the real world is 'revealed' some prefer the sancturat of the old self. Not the old gender rather some can mourn the loss of that old courageous you.

Lets put it another way, was the old you the courageous one, as they had to live with this misery and fight it every day, the new you just has to get out of bed.

[rachel]

It's having to build a life rather than live a life.

[EricaDraven]

I just felt like my whole life was a lie, and the biggest thing was lying to myself about it. No more lies my truth is out there for all to see