The perfect recipe for a therian.

It's difficult for me to pinpoint what exactly caused my therianthropy, or whether or not it was even a choice, because I don't remember when I started feeling this way. My memory only goes back to about the age of five, and I've been acting feline for as long as I can remember.

I was raised around Bengal cats, and was very close to my first cat, an old girl named Squealer. She was like a grandmother to me almost, she taught me how to have empathy for animals and bond with something not of your own species. She was there for my birth, up until she died when I was about seven. It is very possible that she had imprinted on me at an early age, causing me to develop an attachment not only to cats but to spotted, half-wild, or wild cats in particular. That and childhood trauma from being excessively bullied and isolated during my formative years likely could have contributed to the development of therianthropy, it's just been too long, and my brain blocked out too many of the memories for me to remember accurately. When it comes to things like this, I don't want to guess and end up being totally wrong, as that might send me or somebody else into a complete spiral, wondering if we're valid, if we're real, if something went wrong along the lines that led to our current state, etc. Ultimately, I don't care what caused my therianthropy — I still feel non-human and I likely always will, I view it more as a matter of 'what just is' rather than what could or should have been or why it is.

I also would like to add on to what @Jeb_CC said about disassociation: I think disassociation is simply required for some aspects of therianthropy. In order to recognise and accept this part of yourself, you have to willingly detach yourself from humanity, even if only momentarily. Furthermore, when you shift or do something to feel more in tune with your theriotype(s), you are essentially disassociating in order to bring about the animal in you. Disassociation can also be a common way of coping for youth experiencing early or extreme trauma. Somewhere along the lines, amidst trying in desperation to detach yourself from reality, the human and animal sides of one could become muddled and blurry, causing a feeling of non-humanity to develop and, ultimately, permanently stick. But I believe that, without a professional psychologist's perspective, this is honestly hard to determine and, even if it were true, is probably only relevant for a very certain sub-set of therians.

Special interests being a major factor is a theory I share. Atleast in the cases where it starts early and the animal seldom if ever changes. Sometimes therianthropy itself might be a special interest and that could be how some people end up with lots of theriotypes?
If you were to discount autistic special interests or general obsessive tendencies (with or without autism), and only include cases where that isn't a factor. I think our numbers would shrink significantly.
I know it's a factor for me for sure, it would explain why I have two types that on the face of it are very different to eachother. The commonality there is lifelong or near lifelong passions. I am my passions, like a patchwork quilt of spinterests past.

People with this tendency are prone to social isolation and bullying especially in adolescence. And those interests are comforting and provide a reliable source of company during a miserable time. I hated being a teenager (and being a younger kid was a mixed bag too). I wasn't cool, I got picked on, didn't go to parties, I had anxiety with knobs on, home life was hell. Escapism is enticing. I have all the time in the world to throw myself into my passions and watch sealife documentaries and mermaid films and imagine being there. I can retreat into reading ape articles, collect figurines and make up fictional worlds about talking apes with a bonobo as self insert.

This is as good a recipe for a therian or otherkin as any. Autistic tendencies + interests + environmental adversity and isolation. Tried and tested formula.

Odd, I remember replying to this thread already... Or maybe it was another thread similar to this one.

Regardless, I don't really see this being the case for me personally. Nothing really happened to me prior to me showing the first signs, and while I do feel disconnected from myself, that came later on due to life circumstances. In fact, this disconnect contributed more to me not realizing I'm a therian, not to me being a therian. I also think being born with a predisposition for therianthropy in this case is pretty much just saying one is being born as a therian, but with extra steps. If one is a therian and goes their entire life without finding out, they're still a therian. There will always be at least some signs.

If I were to apply this logic to myself, I'd be a cat. I grew up around them, was pretty much raised by them when nobody else wanted to pay attention to me, and they're extremely imprinted onto me. I see myself in them, but not as a member of their species. I see myself as a member of their family. I'm cat otherhearted through and through.

It's also worth mentioning I used to despise most canines for the majority of my life. I only stopped when I figured out I was a therian, and a canid for that matter. I hated it, but what can you do. Sometimes I feel like it was a punishment or a lesson, but I don't really believe in that stuff.

I also remember mentioning a couple of times that my dad and me share quite a few canine traits. How he described himself when he was younger sounds an awful lot like me. When I told him about my therianthropy he wasn't surprised. Who knows.

(2025-01-23 1:32)UniqueUsernameTADA Wrote:  I don't believe in souls, and I don't believe that we are born therians. Some of us may be predisposed to therianthropy, but it is not guaranteed to develop. So what does it take to become one? I see two main ingredients necessary for therianthropy to develop. Those being a connection to an animal, and a disconnect from oneself. The connection can come from a variety of places. People prone to special interests and hyperfixations are far more likely to have this connection. The same goes for people with pets, especially those who had a deep bond with the animal, potentially due to trauma. The disconnect from yourself or reality seems to have several common causes. The first of which is being transgender, which causes you to be uncomfortable in your body and life. Another one is being neurodivergent, which causes you to feel out of place in the world. Trauma and dissociation are very common causes as well, but it can be from anything really. When someone feels disconnected from the world, they will latch onto the animal that they feel connected to for a sense of security and identity. They will begin to project themselves onto the animal, then they will eventually see themselves as the animal. I feel that this recipe for therianthropy explains why so many therians are neurodivergent, mentally ill, and LGBT.
My experience certainly falls under this pattern. I had a special interest in animals from around the age of three, maybe younger. I would play pretend as an animal as much as I possibly could, and learned all that I could about them. Once I started school, I couldn't act like an animal visibly anymore. The school environment was incredibly overstimulating and overwhelming, so I dissociated frequently. I spent hours every single day at school zoned out. While I was dissociating, I engaged in maladaptive daydreaming. In these daydreams I would imagine myself and everyone around me as an animal. I never saw myself as a human, not even once. I wanted to be someone else and somewhere else, and being an animal was my escape. Eventually, this pretending wasn't pretending anymore. I really did see myself as an animal on the inside. That has never gone away.

well I have to slightly dissagree my earliest memories are from being 1 and a half and I still remember havig dysphoria and dissconnection from humans mainly because they looked at me as if I was a trheat or treated me like a ghost so unless I imprinted all of these wolf behaviors when I was a 1 year old or less I find it unlikely I also remember that unlike most kids aka the normal ones I didn't cry or scream when another animal was eatean by another I just saw it as part of life so to speak I also vaguely supressing my animal side because I knew it wouldn't be precived as normal just so you know I don't remember all the stuff that happened just the ones my brain demed important and my meomeries from early puphood are more like a straight line wiouthout dates upantyl the point where I go to school and even then they might be slightly incomplet because I was a pup that generally while very observabt was focused on 4 things mum my dog Fluffy this one horse on therapy and other people's emotions everything else be damned lol