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Trans 101: Dysphoria vs Dysmorphia
a year ago
Inspired by a recent comments section where even trans people were getting the two mixed up and confused. Plus I seem to recall people being in favor of some Trans 101 style content anyway. Feel free to leave critiques or share your own experiences in the comments!
Dysphoria can be treated and even resolved- hormone therapy and surgery are capable of dramatically reducing it if not completely eradicating it. Not all trans people have dysphoria and among those who do suffer from it, the amount varies from individual to individual. For example, not all trans people are dysphoric about their genitals, but they may be dysphoric about their breasts or lack thereof, or their body hair or lack thereof. Others are overcome with crippling dysphoria when sexual activity with their natal genitals are involved and can turn fun sexy time into a much less fun highly distressing mess. Trans people who are dysphoric about their genitals will often describe disassociating being necessary in order to get off. It's not great to feel like your body is betraying you while aroused, it's very...existential. This can extend beyond sexual activity too of course.
Dysmorphia on the other hand is more of an obsession that will never be satiated. Surgery for example, will not help.
Think of the person who can't stop getting plastic surgery on their face. To contrast, a trans woman who gets facial feminization surgery once (the rare complication or revision to fix an error aside) is not the same as someone who compulsively keeps getting nose jobs, face lifts, lip fillers, etc because they can't stop obsessing over how ugly they think their face is. Plus usually these people looked perfectly fine before, whereas facial feminization has a specific achievable goal: remove/reduce identifiably male features.
Skin picking and obsessing in front of the mirror for hours to hide perceived flaws is another example of dysmorphic behavior. A dysphoric person will usually just shut down. Both dysphoria and dysmorphia can also be present at the same time, and that's often the case for some people unfortunately. There is also the potential for dysphoria to get so bad that it becomes dysmorphic dysphoria; i.e. no matter what they'll always believe no matter how well they pass as the gender they transitioned to, that they in fact do not pass and you will never convince them otherwise.
Dysmorphia isn't unique to trans and nonbinary people either, think of anyone with a negative obsession with a body part, or people who are absolutely convinced they're fat when they're not. Key difference: dysmorphic people can't see reality, dysphoric people are very painfully aware of reality.
Dysphoria can be treated and even resolved- hormone therapy and surgery are capable of dramatically reducing it if not completely eradicating it. Not all trans people have dysphoria and among those who do suffer from it, the amount varies from individual to individual. For example, not all trans people are dysphoric about their genitals, but they may be dysphoric about their breasts or lack thereof, or their body hair or lack thereof. Others are overcome with crippling dysphoria when sexual activity with their natal genitals are involved and can turn fun sexy time into a much less fun highly distressing mess. Trans people who are dysphoric about their genitals will often describe disassociating being necessary in order to get off. It's not great to feel like your body is betraying you while aroused, it's very...existential. This can extend beyond sexual activity too of course.
Dysmorphia on the other hand is more of an obsession that will never be satiated. Surgery for example, will not help.
Think of the person who can't stop getting plastic surgery on their face. To contrast, a trans woman who gets facial feminization surgery once (the rare complication or revision to fix an error aside) is not the same as someone who compulsively keeps getting nose jobs, face lifts, lip fillers, etc because they can't stop obsessing over how ugly they think their face is. Plus usually these people looked perfectly fine before, whereas facial feminization has a specific achievable goal: remove/reduce identifiably male features.
Skin picking and obsessing in front of the mirror for hours to hide perceived flaws is another example of dysmorphic behavior. A dysphoric person will usually just shut down. Both dysphoria and dysmorphia can also be present at the same time, and that's often the case for some people unfortunately. There is also the potential for dysphoria to get so bad that it becomes dysmorphic dysphoria; i.e. no matter what they'll always believe no matter how well they pass as the gender they transitioned to, that they in fact do not pass and you will never convince them otherwise.
Dysmorphia isn't unique to trans and nonbinary people either, think of anyone with a negative obsession with a body part, or people who are absolutely convinced they're fat when they're not. Key difference: dysmorphic people can't see reality, dysphoric people are very painfully aware of reality.
