What Makes You Believe /You/ Are Therian?

For me it's a general disconnect with humanity along with various types of shifts starting from a young age
I've always felt much calmer and more like myself around animals. It's true that a variety of animals don't get along (for example, I've always felt particularly comfortable around cats, when they'd have no problem hunting my theriotype(s)), but I feel like I'm on much more equal standing to them compared to humans. Not to mention a deep yearning for wings and the life of a bird as a whole for as long as I can remember
I've experienced phantom wings on and off for years, and for the same amount of time, have felt like a quadrupedal gait would suit me far better while I lack the light weight and hollow bones of a bird (which probably points to another theriotype I'm still not sure of)
At the core of it, it's a sense of just *knowing* there's some animal part of me

I believe I am a therian mainly because I feel such a strong sense of belonging with the experiences and people in the community. I feel I relate on such a deeply emotional and psychological level with everything I see people talk about here, all the talk of shifting and feeling othered and having an animal brain seems like exactly me any time I read about it.
Now, to get into the specifics, I have felt like an avian for the longest of times. I knew since I was young that I was meant to have wings and claws and fly freely. But I haven't had the language to express that intuition until the last couple of years.
And that's really all I know lol

I reckon I probably got weirdly attached to a particular animal during my horrendous teen years as some sort of comfort thing. Developed species dysphoria and then it stuck and irriversibly changed how I saw myself. That's my best guess.

im not entirely sure how to explain my therianthropy because im still new to the community and granted, im also still learning things about myself. i kinda just see it as something ive experienced for while but didn't really think about until a couple years later. i think i've always had non-human tendencies when i was younger, i never really related with people as much and i've always wanted to be around animals more and even wished to be one. obviously i would do typical kid things like pretend to be an animal when i was playing with my friends but i never really stopped outside of that. i was especially more vocal as a kid and would often hiss or meow but im not very vocal as i was when i was a kid, im even hesitant to practice vocalizing because im afraid its something people will be weirded out by.

i would often be teased because of this and overall i was just a really weird kid so it was pretty common for my own "friends" i considered at the time to treat me like a personal pet or something. as i got older these feelings didn't really go away and it actually made me question my identity. on the bright side, im not as ashamed about it anymore its something that im still trying to come to terms with.

In my entire life that I lived so far I have never once felt entirely human. I have so many memories of feeling very cat-like when I was younger and canine like. I am so very many memories and so many feelings that I've had. I just always felt animal to some degree.

Even when I was younger I didn't even identify as human like that. I mean I knew I was one I felt like one but I couldn't help but also feeling like a cat. I would go so far to tell other people that I was a cat and that I was also a wolf. I remember telling people that I have a great sense of smell (I do not) an absolutely amazing hear (I'm actually hard at hearing and had to have hearing aids that one time) and I would tell people that I'm actually part wolf and I was not entirely human.

It just felt right to me. My entire life I felt animal to some degree, whether it's small or huge. I just never felt 100% human. I've always felt animal like to some degree.

Of course it could have been my imagination but I've also felt like other animals but not like how I feel with cats and red wolves. It was different and way stronger with felines and canines.

And my theory on why I'm this way is that I'm just am. I don't really want to worry about my origins and stuff I just believe that I am this way. there's no specific reason why I am this way, I just am.

That makes me believe that I am a therian :3

(2023-06-07 15:05)indoraptor Wrote:  For me, I openly attribute isolation from, lack of socialization with, and trauma caused by humans from an early age to me identifying as & seeking community with other nonhumans.

My therianthropy itself, I feel, is more psychological than spiritual, yes — but I also feel that it is innate. I can’t tell you why I feel, think, and do some of the things that I do; whether I was predisposed from birth to be this way, or if I would have been different had I been a happier child — but I’m inclined to think that, whatever it is, it was Always inside of me, inside of my brain, my heart, what many would call my ‘soul.’

I relate to so much of this, specifically with how it feels innate, and that it's something that's always been a part of you or your 'soul' as you put it (I don't have a better term). Also with how your discovery of your therianthropy was the result of your upbringing and not that you became one.

I felt very isolated through my childhood, very few friends my age. A lot of that is my own fault, I never learned how to be a true friend to people early on and I was kind of narcissistic and indifferent to classmates growing up. It wasn't til high school that I learned what a true friend was like and I became even more disconnected from people around me after that. I'm lucky not to have experienced real trauma or abuse, but I always felt like I was less than human. I never felt a strong need to "fit in" and weird personalities were mostly accepted where I grew up but I was still singled out as the creepiest in school, I was made to feel like there was something extra wrong with me.

Since I was real little I always had some kind of strong canine connection. I feel it closer to my core than anything else, like a deep gut feeling. To let out wolf like movements and behaviors would just feel comfortable and please me in a way nothing else could, just felt right with my bones in a way I guess.

As I got older I started experiencing shifts but I didn't take myself seriously, I was already so weird why would I want to push that further? So I tried to bottle up and suppress what I believe what was my therianthropy for years, but it never left me, the urges to express the canine in me kept coming back stronger. Now I'm just trying to find people I can share these things with. I have some good friends nowadays but they don't relate to what I'm experiencing. But it feels great to read threads like this and everyones replies. Anyone else think there's a strong correlation between struggling to connect with people early on and discovering you're therian?