I can't really effectively explain my reasons for feeling the way I do because, quite frankly, I am not sure of how I feel anyway.
Is it merely a psychological hiccup? Am I perhaps compensating because I feel different from most others? Do I assume I am therian because I don't understand myself or how humans really are? There are far more questions and uncertainties than there are actual answers and it is like there are two sides of my mind battling one another; waffling between 'I am a demonkin/demon therian' and 'This is silly, I am just a simple, introverted human who is still trying to figure out who she is.'.

This is not meant to insult anyone but merely trying to put into words how I feel albeit rather poorly.
Maybe I have -perhaps temporarily- adopted therian because I was always different from others; even as a kid I assumed that the other kids around me were aware of the same things as I was or had a similar horizon but I realized they did not.

I really don't know and sometimes I wish I had a more solid concept of my nature and how far it goes then thee are times I just wanna shrug and say 'What does it matter? I try my best each day to get along and that is what matters.'.

I don't know...all I know is right now I am tired and need to go to bed soon.

It's hard to pinpoint it for me, I know that it was definitely there from the start. Lots of childhood stories, so far back that I only know them because my mom told me.

I was always interested in animals, humans not so much. Learned to walk first and switched to crawling afterwards. Animals were drawn to me as well, even the ones that didn't trust people or kids normally.

I remember having a facination about animals and everything they did. Would often imitate it to understand it and I just didn't see myself in humans. They just kind of were there and did stupid stuff I didn't care about.

Since my childhood was a disaster I eventually ended in an escapism phase that had to do with a nonhuman identity. This got me wrongfully diagnosed with autism and with that everything got even more hellish. So I ended blaming myself for it and pushed everything remotely weird away. It caught up to me eventually though...This simply is what it is. Odd animal behaviours, a draw to ferrets that didn't feel like a favorite animal. Eventually I started googling.

I was blissfully unaware of the obvious dog stuff, partially due to Cletus being canine. With the answer to my theriotype questioning came a lot of childhood memories that were completely buried. And I'm glad that I finally was able to deal with them. It's like I have my soul back to be honest.

This doesn't really explain why I'm a therian exactly. Maybe it's brain stuff, maybe it's spiritual, in the end only nature knows that one. I just know that the experiences are real in some way. Whether it's mental-shifts, any interaction with dogs or ferrets that ends up teaching me something about myself. Or even just getting awfully emotional from looking at the stars. It's all the proof it needs for me.

(My diagnosis ended up being PTSD as well, so same boat there.)

Belief in my therianthropy is based on my past.

I regularly question my therianthropy. Ever since the "click" in my mind at the age of 13, my animal side has been going away and back, sometimes with renewed vigor. There was a period of 2 years when it did not return at all. Most likely it was due to global changes in my life.
I don’t know how much this is connected (and whether it is connected at all), but when in 2020 I suffered a form of covid, the species dysphoria returned, introducing new shifts, and the wolf was firmly entrenched in my mind and has not left me since then.

Back to the question:
What Makes You Believe You Are Therian? That my beast always comes back.

Now I'm not a therian but I'm still kin and non-human so I think that I can answer this as well.

I feel as though my non-humanness has always been with me my whole life. When I was a kid I would act out more animalistically than my peers. Then around puberty I experienced early signs of species dysphoria. I'm not a spiritual creature in the slightest. I don't believe in spirits, souls, gods, afterlife. Any of that. It is purely psychological for me. There's something "wrong" with my brain and its wiring. Now I am autistic. Which some might say that's the reason why but I think that it's more of a correlation and not a causation for my non-humanness. They're connected slightly in a way for me but me being autistic did not cause my otherkinity. I think that if I were to explain it to someone who was non-kin I would mention me being autistic because they might understand that but again, it's more of a correlational thing. Not something that caused it. I only know how my brain works. No one else knows what I'm feeling nor thinking but I know that I'm not human.

So overall, for me, it's purely a psychological identity that probably resulted from general brain wiring and the disconnections from society and societal "norms" as a child. Aspects such as species dysphoria also probably caused me to identify this way because why else would I feel as though my species and my body feels inherently wrong. So me being kin just makes sense to me. It's the best way to describe my animalistic nature, my cravings, and my dysphoria.

(2023-06-09 18:14)PrimatewithCoffee Wrote:  … when I pondered on why God made me a Therian, why did He make me feel so other-human? It's because I believe I have a purpose that isn't so defined yet. But to be a healer, a changer in people's lives. I have seen my actions, both good and bad, affect those who need it the most. It's an odd thing to think of, and it goes deeper. I'm not putting myself on a pedestal either. But I believe that my detachment from the human world is part of my purpose, to not be tied too deeply in earthly thinking so that I may have an outer perspective of things. To be Therian is to have that sense, but to also have an understanding of animals more deeply than those not spiritually, religiously - or whatever you would call it - intuned with the universe. Of course, it's not to dismiss my human form, I recognize that I'm permanently stuck with earthly issues, inside and out.

Though that's what I think of when I wonder why God made me the way that I am, and will continue to do so until I pass. That's why I believe I am a therian, I have this unexplainable purpose that ties into my therianthropy. Perhaps my trauma, my condition, is just what ushers that destined purpose. What if I didn't have trauma? Or autism? Or the past that I have? Would I have experienced divinity from deities or understood the world in a more open way?

This is one of the most beautiful, thought-provoking replies I’ve gotten to Any of my posts. Detachment as purpose, healing as progress, therian as counterpart — even friend — to humans and other nonhuman alike.

I am ‘Niish Manidoowag’ — in my paternal culture, we 2-spirits are chosen as healers and scholars, assigned greater purpose and connection to man and woman alike, to man and nature, to living and dead, to beasts like & unlike ourselves … a sense of grounded, definite Reason for existing the way that we do. Being the way that we are. It’s not dissimilar to what you describe feeling, and I find it lovely that, from two entirely different walks of life, we’ve come away with such specific spiritual parallels (for lack of a better turn of phrase).

This is a thinker of a question.

There are about.. two things I can tie into my belief that I am a Therian. One of which I won't go into deep detail. Not because of sensitivity, but because it is something I've already discussed, and something I am positive a lot can immediately understand.

Trauma is something that affects us deeply, in ways we don't recognize until it is pointed out. I like to think of trauma as a woven basket; each straw is to be picked, and there can be many straws to pick out to unwind the basket. To sum it up, however, humans hurt me as a child, so I gravitated toward the comfort of animals. Soon enough, that just became- me. Autism, trauma, and the general self - are all contributing factors to feeling alter human. I don't belong in this human world, and that's just a fact I know won't ever go away.

But, there is another factor. I am a child of God. I'm a Christ-centered Quaker, so I do not follow strict Christian dogma, but I am absolutely in contact with and adoration of Jesus Christ, and I believe in the Trinity. He is everywhere and in everyone. He is very much real in my universe, and there is nothing I would do to trade off the relationship I have with Him. He is both parent to me, and a guidance in my life. He is just everything to me. I believe that He knows my past, present, and future; He created me with all the detailing one would make, from the beginning of time to now. Evolution and all.

How does this relate to my therianthropy? Well, when I pondered on why God made me a Therian, why did He make me feel so other-human? It's because I believe I have a purpose that isn't so defined yet. But to be a healer, a changer in people's lives. I have seen my actions, both good and bad, affect those who need it the most. It's an odd thing to think of, and it goes deeper. I'm not putting myself on a pedestal either. But I believe that my detachment from the human world is part of my purpose, to not be tied too deeply in earthly thinking so that I may have an outer perspective of things. To be Therian is to have that sense, but to also have an understanding of animals more deeply than those not spiritually, religiously - or whatever you would call it - intuned with the universe. Of course, it's not to dismiss my human form, I recognize that I'm permanently stuck with earthly issues, inside and out.

Though that's what I think of when I wonder why God made me the way that I am, and will continue to do so until I pass. That's why I believe I am a therian, I have this unexplainable purpose that ties into my therianthropy. Perhaps my trauma, my condition, is just what ushers that destined purpose. What if I didn't have trauma? Or autism? Or the past that I have? Would I have experienced divinity from deities or understood the world in a more open way?

(2023-06-08 19:01)Saoirse Fiain Wrote:  I interpreted the title as: what attributes do I have that are therian-like, but the responses seem to be answering the question of: what do you think caused your therianthropy?

For the former, It's because my thought patterns and urges have wolf-like attributes. What I experience/need doesn't really fit well with what other animals do naturally. Including humans. The wolf is the closest match.

As for what causes it, I- have no idea. I've always kinda been tomboyish in my childhood, I liked to be outside, mucking around through the woods, hands on, the whole nine yards. Plenty of people were like that who didn't turn out to be therians, though. I hardly think that's a cause.

The one that makes sense to me is that humans are naturally very wolf-like. With our social needs and all. Humans and dogs practically grew up together, we are brothers and sisters to our canine companions. We've been hanging around each other nearly since the dawn of our existence. It's hard not to think that they wouldn't tamper with human evolution in any way. We tampered with theirs after all. Maybe it's something that's dormant within all humans. But only comes out in very few. Though, more than you might think.

I dearly wish I had more time to reply to this — just know I appreciate you sharing your perspective! I love the idea you propose in your last paragraph about the possibility of a dormant connection. If we are just the few whose synapses fired this way — (who knows!) — then I would consider us lucky for having found our roots. Whatever it is, it’s a theory I’ll be chewing on!

I interpreted the title as: what attributes do I have that are therian-like, but the responses seem to be answering the question of: what do you think caused your therianthropy?

For the former, It's because my thought patterns and urges have wolf-like attributes. What I experience/need doesn't really fit well with what other animals do naturally. Including humans. The wolf is the closest match.

As for what causes it, I- have no idea. I've always kinda been tomboyish in my childhood, I liked to be outside, mucking around through the woods, hands on, the whole nine yards. Plenty of people were like that who didn't turn out to be therians, though. I hardly think that's a cause.

The one that makes sense to me is that humans are naturally very wolf-like. With our social needs and all. Humans and dogs practically grew up together, we are brothers and sisters to our canine companions. We've been hanging around each other nearly since the dawn of our existence. It's hard not to think that they wouldn't tamper with human evolution in any way. We tampered with theirs after all. Maybe it's something that's dormant within all humans. But only comes out in very few. Though, more than you might think.

(2023-06-08 6:35)House of Psychos Wrote:  Originally I throught it was because of reincarnation, but looking at my kintypes... I'm not that sure about it anymore. I'm starting to think it's more psychological.

To be honest, I don't really have an explanation for my therianthrophy, because every theory I've heard about doesn't explain everything. Maybe I was just born this way and am supposed to be like this for no logical reason...

Believe it or not, “I don’t have a particular reason” is the most common reason I get when I ask this question — so you’re definitely not strange for that, nor alone in feeling it! I don’t think any one theory ever will explain everything; at least, not outside of very small groups of therian who happen to have concluded upon a single ‘source’ for themselves. Most of us contain multitudes, and most feelings & behaviors come from more than one place. ^^ At least, as far as I know.

Originally I throught it was because of reincarnation, but looking at my kintypes... I'm not that sure about it anymore. I'm starting to think it's more psychological.

To be honest, I don't really have an explanation for my therianthrophy, because every theory I've heard about doesn't explain everything. Maybe I was just born this way and am supposed to be like this for no logical reason...