So, this is a bit of a weird post. I think many of us are in agreement that things such as trauma and mental illness can influence the development of therianthropy, yes? Well, isolation is something that I believe played a large part in mine. I didn't know how to interact normally with other children and I always felt odd and disconnected. It makes sense that I may have begun to see myself as something else when I didn't fit what I saw humans being, and frankly didn't want to. I also spent a lot of time in my head, daydreaming myself as an animal, which probably wouldn't happen if I weren't so isolated.

However, things have been changing recently. I've found some people that I feel connected to. I feel less lonely. For the first time in my life, I have people like me. I've noticed some changes that come with this, and definitely some in relation to my therianthropy. Feeling less like an outsider, or even almost feeling more human, makes my therianthropy a whole lot less conscious. I'm noticing fewer urges in social situations. I'm noticing that I spend much less of the time dreaming of being an animal. These are relatively new changes and I'm still very far from an average social life, so I'm not sure how this will develop in the future.

Do I feel less like a therian than I did before? Well, that is the question. If you ask me if I still feel like a fox, I will say yes. I don't think that being a human feels correct and fox feels wrong, but I'm almost concerned I may be heading in that direction. Is it possible that this can be healing to the human side of me without detracting from the fox side of me?

If your therianthropy is a response to environmental factors such as isolation or trauma, do you think it can almost be healed? If the underlying issues are ameliorated, will the animality lessen? I don't know the answer to this. I would appreciate if anyone has any insight to share. I'm a bit afraid of becoming human.

So, this is a simple yet somehow complex theory i have.

Basically, i believe alterhumanity doesn't have an exact "source". There's a thousand reasons someone may end up being an alterhuman. It can be spiritual, psychological, biological- all theories on alterhumanity are right, as at least one critter believed and experienced it. This is VERY short, i hope it isn't too surface-level.

@ouch

Gotcha. I’m glad you took my reply in the spirit I was offering it, and I’m glad you found it useful.

I think you’re on a good track. It’s very plausible that in some past circumstances therianthropy could have offered some survival advantages, similar to ASD and ADHD. Not to the point of outcompeting those without them, obviously, but they haven’t died out either

(2026-02-03 17:37)Parthias Wrote:  @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

What I was meaning was that all mental illnesses are like evolutionary in some way. Autism and ADHD are inherited biologically, yeah. But they were caused by things in nature happening to humans and us evolving to adapt to them. That's what I was trying to get across with the "trauma based" thing but I know I'm not very good at getting my point across haha. I was suggesting therianthropy could work in the same way but I agree that its still a bit reductive. Thanks for the thought out response though its making me think.

(2026-02-07 11:19)Hemlock Wrote:  I may be simplifying a bit too much the actual papers, so I'll try to dig em up later.

Thanks, I’d appreciate that!

(2026-02-07 13:40)Observer Wrote:  I also spent all my free time with cats growing up so if it was imprinting, I'd be a cat or at least some sort of feline, not a theriotype I used to mildly dislike. I feel like otherhearted fits the imprinting theory better than therianthropy.

Interesting. When I was about 5 or 6 I had a bad experience with a cat that left me sour on them until I met my now-wife when I was 19. And here I’m a feline that I didn’t even know existed fo most of my life. I’m sure there are plausible explanations for developing an identity as an animal that you don’t particularly care for, but it does seem a bit odd.

Identifying as an animal that you didn’t know about seems a bit easier, as it could simply be that when you find an animal that closely aligns with your experience you have a post hoc reinterpretation or realignment of experiences to better fit the type in question. I’m not saying this would be the case for all or even most therians, just a possibility for some. I’ve often wondered if it happened with me, that I felt animalistic or at least partially nonhuman, and the exact type or nature of it didn’t become concrete until I found the Canada lynx.

(2026-02-06 21:20)Observant Demon Wrote:  

(2026-02-05 23:45)blackfurclaws Wrote:  I would love to know more about peoples experiences with there therianthropy and how they feel about it

The problem, however, (at least for me) is that I am never really certain if what I think I feel is legitimate or is just a coping mechanism for something or if it is wishful thinking or some other thing. I have really nothing concrete to compare it to as all I have to go on is vague dreams and memories and since memories are notoriously unreliable I am left to constantly wonder if all my life it is just mechanism to shield my psyche from this bizarre human world.

That's the main thing about us alterhumans experinceing,we are not too for sure if it has to do with us being a coping mechanism or it's something our brains had put together in order to feel like we belong/don't belong as one.

The main part is that what you might be saying could be altered to Imposter Syndrome,something that many humans experience and especially alterhumans in advance. Sometimes we may even think we aren't 'real' alterhumans and we are just confused about the whole awakening part of becoming one.

That could very much link to what your viewing on your point of view and in that case it is normal to see it that way!


And Observant Demon, I'll keep that in mind! Sorry for that haha ^^

(2026-02-07 0:57)Parthias Wrote:  

(2026-02-05 22:46)Observer Wrote:  However, in the grand scheme of things, perhaps the real answer isn't going to be nearly as interesting as anyone would like.

I don’t know about that lol. If research was to turn up an overarching psychological or structural cause(s) of therianthropy, I think that would be absolutely fascinating.

I personally have two theories for why I’m an animal and a human: a spiritual one that I would like to be true, and psychological one that I think is more likely. If my psychological theory is more accurate, I’d really like to know the mechanism behind it. I’m apparently something of an outlier in therian circles since I’m a cishet male, although I am neurodivergent (ASD and ADHD). I haven’t experienced any significant trauma in my life. The commonly trotted-out psychological reasons wouldn’t seem to apply to me, so I’d be very interested in the actual mechanism.

Most of the explanations offered also don't apply to me either; I do have trauma and did have a rough upbringing but my therianthropy presented itself before all that. I also spent all my free time with cats growing up so if it was imprinting, I'd be a cat or at least some sort of feline, not a theriotype I used to mildly dislike. I feel like otherhearted fits the imprinting theory better than therianthropy.

Since we all have have experiences in common, there also has to be something in common we have in our brains or perhaps DNA, or mix of both. What I meant by what I said is, I don't think it's going to be anything crazy if we ever do find out... fascinating, yes, since I spent all this time wondering, but probably very mundane at least by my standards. All the psychological theories we do have so far are pretty mundane.

As for the spiritual side of the argument, while I don't explicitly believe in it I don't disbelieve either... that one has actual potential to amaze me, but I feel like collecting objective proof would be rather difficult.

(2026-02-07 0:57)Parthias Wrote:  

(2026-02-05 22:46)Observer Wrote:  However, in the grand scheme of things, perhaps the real answer isn't going to be nearly as interesting as anyone would like.

I don’t know about that lol. If research was to turn up an overarching psychological or structural cause(s) of therianthropy, I think that would be absolutely fascinating.

I personally have two theories for why I’m an animal and a human: a spiritual one that I would like to be true, and psychological one that I think is more likely. If my psychological theory is more accurate, I’d really like to know the mechanism behind it. I’m apparently something of an outlier in therian circles since I’m a cishet male, although I am neurodivergent (ASD and ADHD). I haven’t experienced any significant trauma in my life. The commonly trotted-out psychological reasons wouldn’t seem to apply to me, so I’d be very interested in the actual mechanism.

You may think that, but from what we currently have, you may actually very much fall in! What research has turned up so far is that therianthropes are more likely to be on the autistic spectrum or display schizotypy (my case, doesn't necessarily means a schizospectrum disorder though, some schizotypy happens just in non disordered people).

From what we know (from what I recall), therianthropy in people with these appears to lead to higher quality of life, interestingly enough, so the simplest explanation could just be that it's one way for the brain to make sense of a feeling of alienation (even slight!) from very neurotypical peers, building on it and leading to animal identity. I very much believe furries and people with other strong association to animals also fall in these, since they display similar traits, therianthropy would just be a very anchored version of it.

I may be simplifying a bit too much the actual papers, so I'll try to dig em up later.

(2026-02-05 22:46)Observer Wrote:  However, in the grand scheme of things, perhaps the real answer isn't going to be nearly as interesting as anyone would like.

I don’t know about that lol. If research was to turn up an overarching psychological or structural cause(s) of therianthropy, I think that would be absolutely fascinating.

I personally have two theories for why I’m an animal and a human: a spiritual one that I would like to be true, and psychological one that I think is more likely. If my psychological theory is more accurate, I’d really like to know the mechanism behind it. I’m apparently something of an outlier in therian circles since I’m a cishet male, although I am neurodivergent (ASD and ADHD). I haven’t experienced any significant trauma in my life. The commonly trotted-out psychological reasons wouldn’t seem to apply to me, so I’d be very interested in the actual mechanism.