Regarding the age groups on the Therian Guide

(2017-02-01 13:39)PinkDolphin Wrote:  Maybe this topic is a little old but I just want to say how gratefull I am that people here are looking realistic on different subjects.

Like this here, no member under the age of 13.
Yeah I know there are kiddos from 13 and under who can take serieus desicions and be kind of adult-like. Who aren't childish at all. I've met some of those people who are more adult-like than me, an almost 17 year old. But there are SOOO many peeps out there who are so childish, they fight, they don't really understand what therianthropy means.
Maybe I don't either, but I'm open to learn. I really want to know these things. I dare to look at myself and tell myself that I understood something TOTALLY wrong and I'm even able to change it.
But MANY kiddos are like
"NO, a therian does this and this and this" (barking, wearing collars, has to be wolfs, be in some kind of gang, bully 'normal' people etc etc etc)
I hate how a lot of kiddos makes therianthropy in something totally different and attention-like for the sake of being 'different', cool and 'interesting' while Therianthropy is something personal.. for most.

Like when I first heard of Therianthropy, I watched this documantary of 2009 (i think) about Teenwolves. And it excalated so quickly in something typical (and fake) for kids of 8 to 12 mostly. It turned into a game.

And I admit, therianthropy can be fun and playfull etc etc. Personally it make me look at the world in a more positife light and made me wanna learn more about it and enjoy the cloudy days and sunny days more then I already did.

But kiddo's.
PLZ
It's not a game you can play to be interesting and different at the playground at school.

Therianthropy is a identity. It is part of you. Yu are (often) born like it. And you can pay less attention to it or more. But keep it in control.

Keep it with therianthropy
and not some child game of playing a pack and YOU have to be alpha becuz it's soooo cool.

AND guy's this is total no offense and I don't hate the kids who do it. But it annoys me.

that actually reminds me , when i was 6 -7 ,around that time i diliberately searched when flipper died in case i was that famous dolphin ... i found she was female actually, (and that flipper was actually played by 5 dolphins) but the year she died or any of them, didnt resonate with me, i remeber looking at the picture trying to feel something.

although i knew what were the chances, i figured i was an unknown, so i closed my eyes and did get a visual of a dolphin jumping in a sunset, though i felt that was symbolism for the beginning of my journey xD i kinda opened up to the idea around that age, before i would still always think about it or feel the connection in such a deep way, for all my life...

people since they found out my dolphin love in first grade when i was like 5 kept asking why i liked dolphins so much i kept saying idk and i felt like i would find out later somehow, because that how it was supposed to be for me....

i figure i discovered inlayers, and cycles, of my life, my most recent was when i found about my past life slaughteded in the japan dolphin cull, that set me off on a whole new layer and quest for acceptance of my identity (after the middle school discovery phae and bulling )

as a kid when i searched on that bulky computer back when the interwebs was nothing as it is today , a lot has changed in the way kids get information. back then it was 1 hour computer time, 1.5, tops. kids nowadays spend so much time with so much tech available for access to internet... so they could really quickly find or discover who they are under those circumstances with more info available at their fingertips , really....

at 7 years old, it didn't really seem like a big deal to me,i was just like , oh ok, just for myself not to show off or prove myself or anything... there were a lot of things i just randomly thought about that i felt seemed tabboo around adults, especially to talk with kids. i felt i didnt need to say anything to any one, i kept most of these thoughts to my self i was also the kind to think about alien life and the afterlife on the car ride home xD

pretty sure ive seen just as weird kiddos out there xD (follows one that gives philosophy on facebook ) XD


down side to that though: no one ever took me as seriously as i wanted they always thought i was playing some game (though i was also a very playful kid) i just wanted to talk about stuff bro *pouts* heh i just needed to vent about that xD

omg so cool if id find TG at 7

or maybe not , i was DEAD SHY my dolphin connection xD maybe id also be scared to talk to strangers xD idk, if not ill prolly just tap into past life trauma too soon, that was the biggest issue about remebering too early, i had to much crap already going on xx xD xD time and place time and place for everything xD

(2017-02-01 13:39)PinkDolphin Wrote:  Like this here, no member under the age of 13.

Legal reasons for that. Children under the age of 13 are supposed to get parental permission before joining the site. Telling whether or not the parental permission is genuine would be a bit of a pain.

(2017-02-01 13:39)PinkDolphin Wrote:  AND guy's this is total no offense and I don't hate the kids who do it. But it annoys me.

Aye, likewise focusing on identity-related issues is a typical teenage trait. It irritates me.

But TG is a family community, us older folks will tolerate you and you'll maybe listen to us -- we both benefit.

LP,
Dusty

My understanding is that many folks experiment with identity when they're young, also. Trying out goth, hipster, etc... until they get a better grip on who they are.

(2017-02-02 19:22)Kisota Wrote:  Yup! It's very natural and not inherently a bad thing. Adolescents around that age start to be a lot more self aware and it's normal and healthy to go through different phases and try on different labels.

Of course, it's such an important time for identity development and such an impressionable period that it's important to give proper information and guidance when possible. Gotta help those young folks understand that therianthropy isn't a trend to bandwagon on.

I think it's easy for young people to also stumble across therianthropy and not only misunderstand it, as PinkDolphin said, as being about wanting to be an animal and bark and wear collars... but it's also easy for them to genuinely think they are experiencing therianthropy. The so-called "med student syndrome." That's why I think it helps to encourage people to consider what their experiences were like before they ever heard of therianthropy. Not that I expect everyone to come into the community with a fully-fledged and well-formuated, cohesive sense of an animal identity. But the "me too!!" effect definitely occurs sometimes.

There's obviously difficulties when it comes to even interacting with minors online, let alone such young ones. And legal issues.

Altough I can't properly explain in english, I will make a try!
Like Kisota said, it is normal for young people to try out differnt ways to express theirselves. Many different identitys, and that's totally healty. Kids who can't try out things duo parents who don't let them are often frustrated, feel caged and make more mistakes.

If a kid never flied in a plane, he will be scared to fly in a plane.
Not to forget he will probably not know how to take on his belt, call for help in the plane. Even going to toilet. He will be helpless, make mistakes and will have more stress then people who fly in planes often.

It's like someone who has never met a dog.
He will be more likely to not understand the dog. He will be more likely to treath the dog incorrect. etc etc

Some people think to try out different identitys (emo, punk, ..) isn't the same as meeting a dog for the first time or flying in a plane for the first time.
But actually it is the same.
If you are goth, you do different things, feel different, dress different, meet different people than when you are emo. For emo's just the same as for even Therians or Furrys.

Furry's aren't the same as Therians either.
I've never been in a furry comunity. I am not a furry. So I won't know how it feels to be a furry. I will understand furrys wrongly. I don't do the same things furries do.

It's a bit like transgenders. Kids nowdays often identify as trans, for a short period. As a 'try-out'. Even those kids who decide they aren't trans after all, they will understand other trans peoples better then non-trans persons. Look at many older humans.
My oncle of 80+ will never understand trans people. He will say trans people have a mental illness. That's wrong. But he doesn't know. He has never met trans people, nor been one hisself.
He has no experience, so he will make mistakes.

I hope this was a bit correctly explained, since my english is a bit poor to explain some serieus subjects.

(2017-02-02 19:22)Kisota Wrote:  

(2017-02-02 0:14)BearX Wrote:  My understanding is that many folks experiment with identity when they're young, also. Trying out goth, hipster, etc... until they get a better grip on who they are.

Yup! It's very natural and not inherently a bad thing. Adolescents around that age start to be a lot more self aware and it's normal and healthy to go through different phases and try on different labels.

Of course, it's such an important time for identity development and such an impressionable period that it's important to give proper information and guidance when possible. Gotta help those young folks understand that therianthropy isn't a trend to bandwagon on.

I think it's easy for young people to also stumble across therianthropy and not only misunderstand it, as PinkDolphin said, as being about wanting to be an animal and bark and wear collars... but it's also easy for them to genuinely think they are experiencing therianthropy. The so-called "med student syndrome." That's why I think it helps to encourage people to consider what their experiences were like before they ever heard of therianthropy. Not that I expect everyone to come into the community with a fully-fledged and well-formuated, cohesive sense of an animal identity. But the "me too!!" effect definitely occurs sometimes.

There's obviously difficulties when it comes to even interacting with minors online, let alone such young ones. And legal issues.

I have recently considered my phantom shifts might be an effect of being in the community and knowing of it. It's a subconscious effort for my brain to try and super impose these limbs, ears, tail, etc. Because it was as of late that I realized before acceptance happened in May of 2015, I felt no phantom limbs. I had mental shifts, and instincts emerged all over the place that I sure didn't understand. I am for lack of a better term, an like those 14 year olds. Naturally I am not seeking a trend. Especially for something that causes me personally so much heartache (species dysphoria), fear and panic, and even when I had a mental shift full blown after accepting and knowing a tiny bit about the community. I prayed for 2 hours in a panic state for God to "take my fursona away".

So I feel our mind adapts to new information. So personally I feel my mind didn't know it could superimpose limbs phantomly onto my body til I knew of them. Now I feel it's my brains way of trying to complete the picture. Feeling those limbs might even be my brains way of trying to ease my species dysphoria.

Who knows. I feel my wolf ears all the dang time. Gets annoying. That's about the limit.

I do think as we learn more can emerge to because our brains might not realize what we should do.

Like I used to hiss at dogs vs growl or snarl. This was two reasons. 1; I feared growling and snarling, so I shifted the vocalization to something different. 2; until I accepted and thus learned of the community I didn't know what wolves made sound wise. I knew NOTHING of wolves prior to May 2015.

I feel our minds experience these events and try to make sense of them. Things, like vocalizations that slip out might go from one sound to another. Because like real animals, wolves included. These sounds must be taught. Young wolf pups do not know how to howl right. Their father's teach them.

So when people say, oh you should know all things you do prior to learning either of therianthropy and or your type. That's just not true. We all must learn to correct any mistakes or mislinks in our behaviors from our therioside.

Lee

Gosh, now I feel old being around such youngins! XD

(2017-02-13 2:01)Alliana Wrote:  Gosh, now I feel old being around such youngins! XD

I felt old too when I first came here (34, going on 35) but I guess these youngins have rubbed off on me. I sure as hell don't feel as old as I am and I've seen a nice uptick in the number of members our age joining as of late.

(2017-02-13 12:11)LycanTheory Wrote:  

(2017-02-13 2:01)Alliana Wrote:  Gosh, now I feel old being around such youngins! XD

I felt old too when I first came here (34, going on 35) but I guess these youngins have rubbed off on me. I sure as hell don't feel as old as I am and I've seen a nice uptick in the number of members our age joining as of late.

Age is nothing more then a pair of numbers It doesn't matter how old you are. What matters is the amount of experiences and wisdom you carries.
I've seen a girl of 7 carrieng more wisdom with her then the 77 year old woman I saw earlier. and vice versa too.

Just curious if the data from when this post was first made is still the case. Does anyone have the data and the time to figure that out again? If not no worries. Don't stress yourself.

Just curious.

(2018-04-14 15:54)Kaitsev Fáelán Wrote:  Just curious if the data from when this post was first made is still the case. Does anyone have the data and the time to figure that out again? If not no worries. Don't stress yourself.

Just curious.

The source is noted and it's this poll:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/Thread-What-age-did-you-discover-you-were-a-therian

I took out the figures and used a Google Spreadsheet to get the graph.

LP,
Dusty