Diary Of The Drowning

Crappy Advice

I mentioned in my last post, that trans people are given lots of horrible advice in dealing with dysphoria. One such example is one I looked at today because I needed to calm down. In fact, I had seen this article several times before, and I always look again to see why I hated it so much.
The article can be found here https://www.autostraddle.com/radical-self-care-25-ways-of-making-my-body-dysphoria-smaller-and-quieter-146649/
This is sort of advice is given by people who call themselves genderqueer in order to sound hip. (I'm not saying that genderqueer or nonbinary people are not valid, not at all, all I'm saying is that some use that label as a political statement.) This sort of advice has little to no concept of the reality of gender dysphoria. First of all they said that they stayed in bed all day, because of dysphoria. But honestly, if they actually expirienced it like I do, they would want to be up and doing something, anything, to get their mind off of their body. Laying in bed makes you think about that stuff (he says as he's laying in bed... But it's like eleven o'clock, I'm going to be sleeping as soon as I'm done with this probably). You get up and you do something you usually would do, be it fun or simply routine. Honestly, who has the time to spend an entire day in bed because of their problems. I'm not letting my problems, get in the way of my life. Even if it kills me.
"Some days it’s because I tried to fit my not-so-masculine body into my masculine clothes, and the parts that didn’t fit made me want to scream and disappear and puke up all my guts at the same time. It can grow into a scary place where I don’t know if my body belongs to me, and I feel like I’ve been detached from something essential and am about to wash out to sea. Maybe a picture makes me hate and fear the body I don’t have because it’s not the body I wish I had. Maybe I think that the someone I desire won’t desire me because I don’t look like all the handsome cisgendered men they probably grew up loving. Maybe it doesn’t make sense why I feel these things, but I still feel them and they still hurt, darn it."
This paragraph, sounds like an accurate description of dysphoria, but when that's the same cloned description that you hear over and over again, you have to wonder if they're just going through the motions. Like as if they think, because they're trans* they have to feel this way. It's just... Very generic.
Let's look at the advice, shall we? Binge watching tv shows, meditation, drinking water, breathing, running, fluffy animals, fish, talking to people, candles, busy places, writing, music, movies, reading, cooking, crafts, kissing, food, body mods, wine, ignoring calls, buying stuff, bedazzling your binder, clothes.
Okay, some of that can help with depression, but very little can help the crippling feeling of dysphoria. It's like telling someone who's dying from the inside out, practically combusting from the weight of reality, that holding a kitten will solve their problems. Kittens are adorable, but they can't work miracles.
This view of dysphoria is very shallow, and frankly, when teenagers are subjected to this sort of thing it makes their problems seem even worse. Because, these people who obviously have it so easy, can't cope with their issues. This sort of thing may be with the intention to help, but really it does the opposite. This is part of the reason that 50% of transgender people attempt suicide before the age of 20. Because real advice and support is hidden behind a wall of this shit.