Honestly, I feel like an identity can be pretty damn strong. But also there are definitely therianthrope who feel less intensely about their therianthropy than this, who just... are animals.

Most identity affect who you are, it's kind of the point of the word, and it is logical that being a therian would influence what animal you are, since again, strict definition. So I am not sure if I understand your point on this specific paragraph?

I personally don't think that in the grand scheme of things, therianthropy is that special of a thing to happen. Brains can be weird in many, many ways, and I simply think therianthropy is one of the ways that can happen, just like some people feel objects are alive and develop bonds to them, or some other can see colors in music. I relish in this capacity of the human mind to just do odd things.

I do agree that I believe therianthropy can be a powerful motivator however, it is the main drive in my case toward studying biology ! And I've seen that be the case for many people, I know a falcon who is training to be a pilot to gain back his speed, or raven who sparked a desire to study the occult due to the symbolism of their theriotype. But I've also met many therianthrope who felt crippled by their animality, unfitting in a human world, so while it can sometimes be beneficial, it can also sometimes be painful without really having a meaning to why.

I feel like Therianthropy is something much more then believing your a non-human animal.I know ,its also an identity but I believe that there is something more then that.For me and how I experince Therianthropy is that it affects who I am and what kind of non-human animal I align with and for me there's SO many explanations for therianthropy that I really don't have the right words to say this all.But I think that Therianthropy and being a Therian is like a guide,guiding where your soul should be.Its finding what makes your therianthropy even happen in the first place and,I since there are so many unique experiences and perspective on therianthropy,I think that this is just only the tip of the iceberg to uncover since we really haven't put a label on why therianthropy even happens or why it affects us so much.Why it Means to us.Since I'm still a young pup,I may have not have all the information about therianthropy but I would like to share my thoughts about it and how I think so.

I was curious as to what this forum would be about. I was sure I was going to find some smoke and mirrors type explanation on “how to make it work.” I was not expecting an amazingly detailed science lesson on the physical impossibility that comes with p-shifting, or the psychological degradation that could come from the obsession. This is awesome on so many levels, and I appreciate that there are those out there willing to put in the time and effort to help others understand what is delusion and what is reality.

(2026-01-27 17:41)Hemlock Wrote:  The point about furry artist is interesting, I wonder if there's an equivalent in the alterhuman community ? A specific subtype that would be composed of mostly male-at-birth folk ?
I have to admit I'm less categorical on this because i've also met a ton of nooks in alterhuman communities that are dominated by AMAB folk, but I acknowledge it might be luck of the draw. Specifically, draconic communities have a ton of transfem and cis male folks, but I do wonder if it's caused by the kind of mixed origin of dragon communities with dragon furries. (draconity.org was pretty equal furry and dragonkin, and this repeats in a lot of draconic spaces)

(2026-01-27 19:43)Lopori Wrote:  Re: subcommunities that lean amab, I was just about to answer that with dragons and then you already noted that yourself a few lines in. So yeah, seconding you on dragons. No idea why that is, I guess dragons are a bit masculine coded? RAWR FIRE BREATHING DRAGONS AND KNIGHTS AND SWORDS. Toy dragons tend to be sold as "boys' toys" more often.

As for the tiktok stuff, the first thing that comes to mind is how it caught on that might explain the afab lean? Teenage girls are the arbiters of what's cool, they're trendsetters, ideas spread like wildfire via them. Maybe it's partly that? Despite the similarity to furry. And interestingly, animal media like warrior cats appeals to girls for some reason.

I can also envision the gap closing somewhat over time because of exchange with furries.

Edit: the dragon thing got me really curious now about the gender distribution of soecific kintypes

Greetings... Draconity.org staff member and general dragon representative here....

I have met many, -many- dragonkin enough to confidently say what their common characteristics are. They are indeed some of the poster children of otherkin-ity, but they are also overwhelmingly AMAB. There are indeed trans female dragonkin (and I know more than a few) but not as much as you would expect from that high of a population (there's wayyyyy more for mammal/furry species). I also know some trans male dragonkin despite the tiny afab dragon population so... I would say it is also unique in that it is highly gender-dependent as well.

Older, more mature dragonkin tend towards traits most would associate with dragons... that being confidence, intelligence, isolation, self-reliance, and almost always a deep understanding of the world, including from a metaphysical standpoint. Elder dragons are almost always what would be considered "spritual" otherkin (and the most potent practitioners of such I've found to be dragons). This collective group of traits, this -power-, are extremely masculine from most human standpoints. What is interesting, though, is that such dragons are -not- performative and the thing that will get their attention the most and earn the most respect is to have deep discussions on the nature of things, including huge amounts of introspection. Don't get me wrong, they tend to not show emotions much at all as per the masculine norm, but introspection and love for deepness over activities is a common trait.

What largely unites both of the young and elder dragons, though, is an affinity for science. Younger dragons tend to have scientific backgrounds/jobs, with engineering and formal sciences being extraordinarily common. The "usual" dragonkin life path starting out as an intelligent individual who is good at math or science, pursuing that as a career path along with picking up many other interdisciplinary subjects along the way, and then eventually ending up pushing hard into metaphysics (especially things like philosophy, but also deep spirituality and more "solid" magical practices such as hermeticism as opposed to things like shamanism).

Oh, another thing, dragon artists tend to be overwhelmingly male as well. It does not have the largely AFAB art tendencies that both the furry and therian communities have.

This is a very interesting perspective, and I do enjoy discussions of such things! Your evolution theory does admittedly remind me a lot of many explanations I've heard from those who describe themselves as physically alterhuman, or more specifically capable of physically shifting. I do not personally have any opinion on either, though it is curious to me how this sentiment seems to be shared, or at least considered at some greater scope. As you said yourself there is no true evidence for this though, albeit it is an interesting thought.
Although I agree that some degree of alterhumanity can psychologically come from trauma and mental disorders ( speaking myself as someone with audhd, p-did and psychotic depression ), but I do have to agree with what everyone else is saying in mostly that ultimately, I'm not sure this is something you truly precisely pinpoint because we're so diverse as a community, and also because everybody experiences everything super differently lol. It'd be nice if it was easier. I love discussions like this tho

@ouch

I’d like to point out that not all neurodivergence and not all mental illness is rooted in trauma.

While this theory isn’t without merit, I think it’s a bit reductive. Not all therianthropy is rooted in trauma either, and while I’m sure that therianthropy as a defense or coping mechanism certainly exists, I think there’s also a lot of therians for whom that isn’t the case. Take me as an example: I have ASD and ADHD, both of which are biological in origin. My mental health issues, mainly compulsive behavior, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and depression, are all primarily rooted in my AuDHD. Not to say there aren’t other contributing factors, but that’s the primary cause. While my lynx-self could absolutely have developed as a response or coping mechanism to that, there are several other equally plausible explanations, and in any case there’s not really any trauma for it to be caused by.

And, as @Thorn pointed out, the sheer variety of animal instincts experienced by therians is a bit of a roadblock for the theory. Many of the instincts and instinctive behaviors that therians experience are from different evolutionary lines and would have no biological mechanism for existing in a human brain.

I’m really not trying to crap on your theory, I just think it needs some more work. Hopefully you can think of a way to reconcile these issues

This is a very interesting theory, thank you for sharing, love reading about stuff like this

I really like this theory and how it connects to mental illnesses. At their most fundamental level, mental illnesses are just instincts (either developed during ones life, or developed by their ancestors and passed down) made to help people survive. Obviously they cause harm but the reason they develop at all is in response to trauma and trying to survive that trauma.

I agree with @Thorn on the range of therianthropic instincts making it unlikely that they would originate from some same instinctual baseline that all humans have. But there is something to be said about therian instincts developing much in the same way mental illnesses do, as a defense mechanism.

No two traumatic events are the same and that is what leads to the range in neurodivergent experiences, I see no reason why the same wouldn't apply to therianthropy.

@KeweyTanuki for me, linkremoved.net has a really good dictionary


Idk if thats helpful still, but yeah…

(2026-01-30 18:27)Evi Wrote:  Not sure how much you have in, but when I was poking around where my little sib interacts with other therians, I found this dictionary. It seems very well-thought out with a whole lot of terms, both genuine and fanalune. It also has sources (lots of tumblr but there’s a few genuine sources, even TG!).

Thanks Evi! There's a therian-specific version here too.