The ways that I perceive alterhumanity

Well, maybe we should start off with a more common theory to why alterhumanity is caused; Past Lives, a lot of us have them, a lot of us don't, and a lot of us don't believe in them. I personally believe in them and have them myself, a lot of em, having the memory of those lives could affect the way our minds are shaped, just remembering the stalking of your prey, the agility, the instinct, you just remember all of these and you start to act like you used to before you died, you remember how free you felt to be wild, it's honestly a valid reason, I'd be very likely to believe that if someone said that's how they think alterhumanity is caused.

But not everyone has a past life or even believes in them, so another common reason; Trama/PTSD, It's unfortunately very common these days, bad family, horrible people surrounding your daily life, wartime, poverty, at the end of the day, in this age, it's relatively common. One of my close friends shared their PoV about this, they said that the trauma of loosing their mother caused them to turn to their favorite animal; housecats, they started learning even more about them, roleplaying as them, this could be a cause for c'links, but also other forms of alterhumanity on a more permanent basis.

The very common yet unpopular theory of alterhumanity; Mental Illness/Insanity, now, I personally don't like this idea, but it's actually very likely for some folks, therianthropy could be considered a mental illness, or even caused by one, I know everyone is going to get on the defensive so just read first(please and thank you <3 ). Mental illness is known in many varieties, known for causing the way people's minds think to change, maybe it's a genetic mutation in our instinctual system, maybe it's a chemical disorder. I don't like the idea of calling everyone here "mentally ill" and I'm not, I'm just stating different theories. But we also have to think logically, mental disorders have caused sexual attractions to be, well, lets just say very unusual(pyromania can cause the sufferer to be sexually attracted to fire), they can cause people to be literally insane, psychopaths, now I think if a mental disorder can cause someone to become a serial killer, then maybe another one can cause somebody to think and act like an animal. Just saying, it's possible.

That's all I have for now because I can't think straight currently, I might post some more at a later date.

Alright, I'm back with some more.

Spending a lot of time studying an animal of just being around one; This might be a not-so reasonable explanation, but it very well could be one for some people, spreading time around animals, fascinated, envying them, when I was little I would look outside and see a fox every once in a while, and just think to myself "why can't I move like them? I want to be like that" same thing with squirrels but I don't have a squirrel theriotype so that's a little irrelevant xd, anyways, that probably wasn't the main reason I have a fox theriotype, but it could be a factor of some sort.

Being a hypochondriac; *sighs loudly and pinches the bridge of my nose* I really don't like this one, but here we are, what were we doing? explaining this? Alright, so anyways, being a hypochondriac means you hear about something and you automatically think you have it, a lot of the time it's due to lack of attention and wanting to be different, but sometimes being a hypochondriac can /sometimes/ develop the condition, just forcing yourself to believe that you have whatever it is, in this case, alterhumanity, forcing yourself to believe you have this can cause your mindset to change, to perceive yourself as if you had always been this way, even if you hadn't, you start trying so hard to think like that creature that you can develop shifts, and involuntary in-human experiences, I find this explanation to be.. unlikely, to say the least.

Feel free to share your opinions on the theries i've shared, and feel free to add your own theories, I'd love to hear them.

I think that being a hypochondriac is entirely possible and it wouldn't surprise me if it made up some percentage of alterhumans. I don't know if I'd feel it's valid in this case.

(2024-12-22 11:57)Bloeien Wrote:  I think that being a hypochondriac is entirely possible and it wouldn't surprise me if it made up some percentage of alterhumans. I don't know if I'd feel it's valid in this case.

I'm not really sure that it's valid either, but I would definitely say there are probably a LOT of therians who identify as one because of being a hypochondriac

Is it possible to be a hypochondriac unintentionally? Because then I'd say it's something like copinglinks. And how could they theoretically be counted as valid?

About hypochondria: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/hypochondria

You might also be interested in "Shifter's Disease" (Here), since it's one of the things you're mentioning. The same phenomena is common in medical and psychology students, and is why they're cautioned against attempting to diagnose themselves during training (also why doctors and psychologists go to other doctors and psychologists for treatment rather than relying on their own knowledge).

Relatedly, Psychological Priming (here) is when someone is influenced to expect to find something, and then begins associating/seeing/experiencing those things in response to other mundane stimuli.

The same phenomena is often what's happening in paranormal investigation shows on tv, where the investigator begins seeing/experiencing things after being told a story about the area they're visiting; the phenomena they then report is usually identical. The human mind is wired to search for patterns in things, it's part of human's survival adaptations.

(2025-02-19 5:43)Bloeien Wrote:  Is it possible to be a hypochondriac unintentionally? Because then I'd say it's something like copinglinks. And how could they theoretically be counted as valid?

Well I mean, there's always the chance, and c'links are made to help cope, so i'd still say it was different

Yes, c´links are definitely another example, but if you are a hypochondriac and you unintentionally, unwittingly fixate on an animal, could it not be similar to being a c´link because it is a coping mechanism where you also "fixate" on an animal? Like, you know, both are involuntary choices. Isn't it?

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In this view, I mean c'links who are therians involuntarily. Not as a conscious coping mechanism

I think that the word you guys are looking for is copingkin. It's similar to c'link but it's involuntary.