I think for me its a mixture of imprinting and weird brain wiring (I’m autistic.)

Therianthopy helps explain experiences that always bothered me because no one else I knew understood them.

I grew up with a cat, and was always fascinated by them as a kid, devouring all kinds of books and media about them (fiction and nonfiction.) I pretended to be one, and imitated my cat's body language to try and communicate with her. I didn't have good role models growing up (family issues) and so she became my role model.


I have a lot of trauma surrounding dehumanization. Due to my Tourette's and other issues, I've never had a chance to NOT be perceived as "other," but I've started thinking of myself less as a "subhuman" and more as a "nonhuman."

I still don't feel like I was socialized or even born the same as someone who feels human. However, thinking of myself as "nonhuman" has helped me treat myself with more respect and understanding.

Thats really interesting!

Personally it's really hard for me to tell why i feel what i feel, but i don't think i had a past life. I have two main theories.

1. It's just how i was born. for no reason. I was just born with part of an animal in me. I experience animalistic urges and feelings that happen to match up with an animal.

2. As a child i played so many games as animals, and i grew up around pets, that eventually it just became a part of me. other things came into play like how it made me feel safe and happy, but thats the gist.

I have other small parts of theories but nothing big. I don't really personally believe my therianthropy was really caused by anything, its just how i am.

I'm not. I may have been a wolf in a previous incarnation (figurately speaking), and then my love and life was taken from me. I was rendered a disembodied spirit existing in torment. Over decades I came to realize I have to inhabit the body to "reincarnate." The body is a neural network attached to a bunch of smart machinery. Flesh and blood. I don't like it but I can live with it.

What makes me believe that I'm therian?
The predisposition of consciousness to shifts, sometimes dog behavior, admiration for dogs and their bodies...
In fact, although I know that my therianthropy is psychological, I cannot give an answer why I have it. Until the age of 18, I thought that I was a man; after the awakening, I cannot consider myself that way. If earlier I doubted whether I was therian, now I understand that I am one. It's a part of me and it won't leave me.
It can be suppressed, it can be denied, but it is unlikely to leave us. Because it is part of each of us. And I don't know how or why she came into my life. But I am proud that I got a new path for development, a new meaning and a new impetus. A new plane where I want to evolve.

Useful realization, don't you think?

LP,
Dusty

(2023-06-30 12:20)DustWolf Wrote:  Yes basically the stuff that's all over the site. Experiences other therians have, such as shifts and feral traits.

LP,
Dusty

Well then I suppose that -by your standards anyways- I am not a therian then because I have not experienced shifts or feral traits. For me it is more a background or underlying feeling that is perhaps more on a spiritual level than physical.

(2023-06-30 1:04)Observant Demon Wrote:  

(2023-06-25 23:20)DustWolf Wrote:  If you don't have similar experiences, there is no point in considering yourself to be a therian.
LP,
Dusty

I am curious as to what you meant by that statement? What experiences is one required to have in order to consider themselves 'therian'?

Shifts? Phantom limbs? Not trying to be confrontational but I am curious.

Yes basically the stuff that's all over the site. Experiences other therians have, such as shifts and feral traits.

LP,
Dusty

(2023-06-25 23:20)DustWolf Wrote:  If you don't have similar experiences, there is no point in considering yourself to be a therian.
LP,
Dusty

I am curious as to what you meant by that statement? What experiences is one required to have in order to consider themselves 'therian'?

Shifts? Phantom limbs? Not trying to be confrontational but I am curious.

i know im a therian because ive been a dog since i was young. a young kid hiding in the corner like a scared animal, running outside at night, and just being "abnormal" in general. its definitely partly to do with my trauma and schizophrenia, and i just feel the animal inside me, being me. i am a dog, i just am.... idk if this is just the ramblings of a mad man XD

(2023-06-26 12:22)Lupus Ferox Wrote:  

(2023-06-24 5:44)Alliana Wrote:  Otherkin beings to me are like elves and dragons for instance that have a community.

What do you mean, humanoids?

I mean those who are sapient, don't have to be humanoid. Just those who don't act wild or anything, that would apply to therians.

Sorry if I don't make sense. But that's what I believe.