Therian Guide: Forums

(2021-09-25 11:09)DustWolf Wrote: [ -> ]

Fascinating Dust. Honestly I absolutely have seen this all over tik-tok and the fictionkin community.

Just proves humans aren't as far beyond monkey see monkey do as they'd like to believe.

Personally I think it's good to be proud of who you are, especially something you can't change about yourself. However being proud of yourself doesn't mean posting videos glorifying your mental illness on social media. If one wants to spread information I think the format this guy used is much more informative, however people don't find it trendy to have a clinical dialogue like that sadly.
I'm proud of myself, but I wouldn't post a video of myself taking a crap if I wanted to educate people about the digestive system. I feel like that's the TikTok equivalent of mental health videos on there.
Pride can be quiet, it's only narcissism that demands everyone else be proud with you. Being proud of yourself doesn't mean advertising every part of yourself to the world.

And if you (not you Dusty, rhetorical you) are really proud of yourself, you wouldn't feel the need to mimic others. You're not really proud of yourself if you're trying to be someone else.

Honestly humans and chimps kind of terrify me, social media has really brought out a very dark side of human nature.

I also think this explains most of the fictionkin community. They're exposed to it online and "spontaneously discover symptoms." Vs most real therians I know have felt this way before we discovered the community, probably since young childhood if not birth.

As much as I hate to say this, I've also seen this HUGELY in the trans community. People see that being trans is suddenly trendy and they want to be too. That's not to say there isn't people who are legitimately trans, there are many out there. However I think young people are taking it and using it to be cool and trendy.

It's interesting, because I'm seeing it mostly with ftx people (female to whatever) and he mentions in his video it's mostly young girls who are doing this. Similarly I don't see a lot of biological males in the fictionkin community.

I feel familiar enough with the trans community to say this because I used to consider myself trans. But as my mental health improved my gender dysphoria naturally alleviated. I guess I wouldn't say I am entirely cis, but I don't want to change my body, and it's something I just don't think much about.
I also took very high potency ashwagandha for a few days and it caused my testosterone levels to spike. I became extremely emotionally erratic, unreasonably upset about things that would have only bothered me before. It made me realize I really hate testosterone and would never want it in my body.

Anyways, thanks for sharing dust. Whish topics like this had more publicity.

(2021-09-25 15:13)Atlantis Wrote: [ -> ]And if you (not you Dusty, rhetorical you) are really proud of yourself, you wouldn't feel the need to mimic others. You're not really proud of yourself if you're trying to be someone else.

As I understand, it's empathy. Not much different, from how I can feel how it would feel when someone pets my dog's snout. Empathy in itself is not a bad thing, I'm actually quite glad everyone has it.

What I think is problematic is when well-known members of the community say they are something backed up by a medical diagnosis -- if (rethorical) you have a diagnosis, what are you doing to resolve it, why are you wearing it like a badge of pride when you said it's recognised as a disorder.

If someone supported their therianthropy with something like clynical lycanthropy I would say the same thing. Psychosis is not fun, if (rethorical) you get it, please go to a hospital and get meds before something bad happens?! Don't advertise it to half the Internet, especially considering the point that you could actually cause harm to others just by showing it around.


It is true that some medical conditions are only diagnosed and there is no way to treat them. I question the ethics of medical professionals who make such diagosis. If it isn't really harmful and there is no way to cure it, how is it a disorder? As I have mentioned in Discord, I suspect some of these are just schemes by quack doctors to draw insurance money and have people pay for treatments that don't really help. This is not sustaniable and I feel bad for people who have become trapped in such schemes.

(2021-09-25 15:13)Atlantis Wrote: [ -> ]It's interesting, because I'm seeing it mostly with ftx people (female to whatever) and he mentions in his video it's mostly young girls who are doing this. Similarly I don't see a lot of biological males in the fictionkin community.

I think he is explaining what is statistically the population. This is not to be misunderstood as "everyone is like this".

Statistically the active TG user is a female in mid-teens, because 60% of our users are female and there is an activity spike for older teenagers, who don't yet have jobs. This says nothing about the fact that almost half (40%) of all TG users are male, or that there are a whole lot of very active members who have jobs. It obviously doesn't mean that you can only be on TG if you are a teenage female.

It doesn't really describe anyone here either, because I have found that our discussions of therianthropy work the best if we don't even know each-other's sex at all. I find it helpful if you don't know sex / gender and such and you have to drop your predispositions and just treat everyone with respect.

The statistical description of the population exists to quickly give a rough idea of who we are talking about, to people who are not particularly invested in or interested in learning who members of a particular group are. Just like if I tell you that TG people are 60% female, while furries are 90% male, it gives you a rough idea that these aren't the same kinds of people (and maybe explains why there is such a thing as furry porn, but no such thing as TG porn), but it doesn't actually tell you anything about who people on TG are. It's not intended to describe a community accurately.

But then, you know, anyone who wants to know can find out on their own.

LP,
Dusty

(2021-09-25 19:33)Pinedirt Wrote: [ -> ]Everything you said in this post just sounds like you want people to hide the life the have to live every day because they suffer with a disorder.

There is a clear distinction between not hiding something and identifying with it.

I experience migraines. I don't hide it. I talk about them sometimes in the forums. I do not identify as a migraine therian.

(2021-09-25 19:33)Pinedirt Wrote: [ -> ]I also do not understand saying it is okay to have therianthropy as an "identity" but not DID for example, when this exact same thing we're talking about happens with therianthropy. I understand it's not as serious if it happens with therianthropy as with a disorder, but I don't see why using your logic in this post it is okay to "advertise" therianthropy if it could cause youth to think they are therians by seeing it when they are not, in fact.

Therianthropy is not a medical disorder. Even if it does cause negative effects to some, those negative effects are recognised as medical conditions that should be treated, rather than dismissed as an aspect of identity (who we are).

I hope this is clear enough.

LP,
Dusty

(2021-09-25 20:00)DustWolf Wrote: [ -> ]

(2021-09-25 19:33)Pinedirt Wrote: [ -> ]Everything you said in this post just sounds like you want people to hide the life the have to live every day because they suffer with a disorder.

There is a clear distinction between not hiding something and identifying with it.

I experience migraines. I don't hide it. I talk about them sometimes in the forums. I do not identify as a migraine therian.

Can you explain to me more what you mean by "identifying with" something? I do think I better understand what you're saying, but perhaps I am not fully understanding what that is intended to mean. I think of that phrase as acknowledging a significant part of ones self with a term. How you would if it was something with relevance to your sense of self. like your gender, or for a DID system, putting a label on the fact that they experience that condition at all times and it impacts their internal self significantly. Meaning, I don't see how one could not "identify with" a disorder like that anyway, unless they were unaware of its presence.
With the migraine example, migraines probably don't make you into the person you are, even if they have affect on living quality. DID is literally an identity disorder like its name states, so, it's self explanatory how it would be an identity. (The same things with migraines would go for Tourette's syndrome, so yeah those do not need to be an "identity," like who we are, however migraine and Tourette's education/awareness should still exist, should they not?)

(2021-09-25 20:58)Pinedirt Wrote: [ -> ]Can you explain to me more what you mean by "identifying with" something? I do think I better understand what you're saying, but perhaps I am not fully understanding what that is intended to mean. I think of that phrase as acknowledging a significant part of ones self with a term. How you would if it was something with relevance to your sense of self. like your gender, or for a DID system, putting a label on the fact that they experience that condition at all times and it impacts their internal self significantly. Meaning, I don't see how one could not "identify with" a disorder like that anyway, unless they were unaware of its presence.
With the migraine example, migraines probably don't make you into the person you are, even if they have affect on living quality. DID is literally an identity disorder like its name states, so, it's self explanatory how it would be an identity. (The same things with migraines would go for Tourette's syndrome, so yeah those do not need to be an "identity," like who we are, however migraine and Tourette's education/awareness should still exist, should they not?)

I think the concept of a medical disorder is that something isn't the way it's supposed to be and that there is a healthy state in which the disorder isn't present. In identity, you are exactly who you were supposed to be (because, it's you). You can't be cured of your identity. If someone were to try and remove parts of who you are through medical procedures it would be considered to be invasive and unnecessary.

For example, being gay is not a disorder, it's an aspect of identity. You can't be cured of being gay, it's a part of who you are. There were historic attempts at removing homosexuality from a person, but this is now understood to be unethical and it was ineffective at the time as well.


If you identify with a disorder, you are basically saying that the disorder is a part of who you are and it's not something that anyone should attempt to remove. It would be unethical to try to cure you. However, since it is a disorder, it's negatively impacting your life and it should be cured. There is an obvious conflict here.

Additionally to it being detrimental to your own life, because of the disorder, there is also the problem described in the video, where broadcasting your disorder causes harm to people around you.


I don't think DID being an identity disorder really makes these problems go away. Being affected by DID and it causing you to dissociate is one thing, but making the DID diagnosis a part of who you are, is another. I'm not going to dive too deep here because anything either of us can say about DID is going to be plagued with inaccuracy (given that there likely isn't a qualified person to talk about this). However, there is a standard for which people are allowed to interact with society and if your DID is so severe that you actually have no choice but to present as different people on a daily basis, likely you will be institutionalised and won't have access to the Internet to broadcast anything in the first place.

Also, you could easily stretch your explanation to migraines, since they are a brain condition and personality (a large part of identity) is obviously based on the functioning of the brain.


As for the question whether awareness videos should be a thing or not. I don't know if I'm qualified to answer that, but I guess when you get to the point where someone is making money or enjoying a higher social standing from having a disorder, it's not about awareness anymore.

Perhaps what would work better was if the awareness videos were made by clinicians and not patients.

(2021-09-25 20:25)Lupus Ferox Wrote: [ -> ]May I add something? Understanding of the trans community, I am not trans myself, but I am very much fascinated by the people in it. This does not cause me to have a different outlook on my gender, however. Naturally, being trans isn't a medical condition, as far as I'm aware, but I am genuinely intrigued by their community.

Trans people do have medical conditions which are a direct result of them being trans. Not all people have them, obviously.

There's a bunch written on this topic in the DSM-5. As you might imagine it's a bit of a hot topic, but essentially the gist of it is that clinicians are looking for ways to help people who are trans not have medical conditions.

It depends on who you talk to. People in general probably don't care about medical conditions, but if you talk to medical professionals, they care about nothing but medical conditions. I'm sure you got to experience that first-hand regarding your autism.

(2021-09-25 20:25)Lupus Ferox Wrote: [ -> ]My experience with therianthropy is that most people in this community have medical conditions or are mentally scarred in a way.

I think it's important not to forget that we are an online community here on TG. Online spaces tend to attract people with unresolved issues, because online you can exist without needing to deal with the issues. It creates a kind of bias where over time, communities get saturated with people with unresolved issues.

I once revisited an IRC community I hung out with in my youth. The only people who were still there, were those who had the same unresolved issues they had when I was still frequenting those places about a decade ago. It's not a great outlook.

(2021-09-25 20:25)Lupus Ferox Wrote: [ -> ]It's not because I like Michael Jackson, that I want to alter my facial appearance. Dumb example, maybe, but I think this was the point of this thread, wasn't it?

There are many spaces outside of TG, that have therians in them, where disorders are glorified and if you check, everyone in those spaces claims to have these disorders. It's to the point that people come here to TG to make accounts and the first thing they have to do is tell everyone about all of their disorders.

It's indicative of the fact that we have a problem.

LP,
Dusty