I just realized I've never responded to this thread! Oops! Well, here we go.

Cat:

My therianthropy is deeply both psychologically and spiritually rooted. I'll start with spiritual, since that came first.
I believe in a past life, I was a cat. There's no reason to put the few unconfirmed details about that life that I know. What's most important was that my soul or consciousness originally was within the body of a cat. I died somehow in a way I don't remember, was reincarnated, then died, and was reincarnated once more as a human.
That was the spiritual bit, but here's the psychological part. Through slight neglect from my parents, a childhood cat who raised me, and lots and lots of exposure to wildlife as a very small child, I believe I retained my cat identity, instincts and behaviors. I'm guessing these would have faded throughout time if I had had a normal human childhood, however because of the specific events that happened I kept that part of my myself from back then. I'd also like to add that animalistic behaviors, games and expressions of creativity were very much encouraged in my house. My mother is both an artist and a teacher; she wanted us to be creative and express who we were, even if it meant drawing or painting animals everywhere and pretending to be them. I don't think my cat theriotype could exist without the existence of both my past life and childhood experiences.

Coyote:

We'll start with the spiritual bit on this one too. I was a coyote in my past life (I think) after I was a cat. Again, no miniscule memories and details about this one either. But I was reincarnated as a human after this life.
I don't think I would have retained this part of my identity either if I didn't grow up with the sister I had. My older sister had one of those "wolf phases" from the time she could talk/walk in any meaningful way to when she was 12 or so years old. Because she wanted to play wolves every day, I was able to continue to express my canine behaviors through the games we would play. I have some drawings from when we were younger, and I notice that my wolf was always light brown and gray, following the color scheme of coyotes.
Again, I doubt I would be a coyote therian if it weren't for both my spiritual and psychological development that involved them.

Other:

I'd like to include that I have a theriotype that I have absolutely no idea where it comes from. Just as an example that, while there are perfectly reasonable explanations for some theriotypes, there are others that just don't make any sense.
The theriotype in question I believe is an otter or another type of semiaquatic mustelidae. Behaviors I experience from it include aquatic, burrowing, fishing, clamming, and other basic otter behaviors. I can't even begin to understand this potential theriotype. It's also a way, way, way less dominant one, I rarely notice it usually unless I'm around/in water or in a place where I can burrow.


Maybe later I'll add more to this with a kintype I'm questioning and my kithtype.... We'll see what I have the motivation for though haha. Cool thread idea, this was fun to write!

(2024-10-22 18:21)Honeymala Wrote:  (Rewriting this because my perspective has slightly changed)
Honestly, I don’t think there’s been a single moment in my life where I’ve felt connected to the human race.

This is pretty much how I felt and feel now. While I was very much attached to my parents I never felt a connection to others in the mere sense that they were human. I live in a human society but I never felt really like I was truly one of them. This may explain why I never really had any friends nor any desire to go out and make friends; I just couldn't tune in with the general mode of thinking.

However in answer to the question which I posted in previously, I don't want to 'believe' that I am therian..for the time being I can only observe how I feel and perceive and for the time being my observations lead me to think that I am therian; this could, of course, change at some point though now that I am older and more mature mentally and psychologically I doubt that this will change.

(Rewriting this because my perspective has slightly changed)

Honestly, I don’t think there’s been a single moment in my life where I’ve felt connected to the human race.

As a cub, I never felt this connection at all. I barely felt connected to my family, watching cartoons with humans in them felt odd, and no matter what, I just couldn’t make friends with humans. I remember at family parties, I would even prefer to be in the room with the dogs in them instead of playing with my cousins. Being alone or being with animals was always my preference, I was always happiest at those times...not to mention how much I loved the outdoors and loved looking at nature even when I was a silly cub.

And then...ever since my day of awakening, the fateful day that a vision of my true self appeared in my mind...it all suddenly made sense.

Why I never got along with humans, why I was always so content with being alone, why I felt so deeply affected by nature compared to others, why I started feeling too stupid to understand subjects in school, why I never felt attraction to many human beings, why I never understood a lot of their culture, why my brain feels so different from everyone else’s, why I felt more at home in the midst of nature than in my own home surrounded by family.

Because I was never human in the first place.

And ever since coming to this conclusion...everything just suddenly feels right. So, now I’m playing catch-up. Letting myself live as my true self for as long as I live to make up for 20 years of living “human”

I believe I'm a therian for several reasons.

As long as I can remember, cats have been my "favorite animal". My family used to say I was obsessed with them. I remember this one memory of when I was very young, and we had these colored balloons with stickers. My favorite color at the time was pink, but that sticker was a pig. I always went with the light blue cat one. Every time.

When I was a bit older, or maybe even way back then, I used to say to my parents "I am a cat." This is long before I discovered therianthropy. I used to crawl around on the floor, meow (oh how I meowed) and generally act like a cat.

When I finally learned of therianthropy and TG, I knew immediately: this is me. This is who I am, this explains why I'm so strange, why I don't fit in.

I don't know. I was just born a human with a piece of animal in my body. I'd say that over time, the animal part was sculpted into a wolf form. But ever since I was a little girl, I've had a little dog in me. I had a tendency to growl when I was a kid, and I acted much more like an animal in general. Ever since I could walk, my mother says my favorite place to be was in the woods. I've been called a woodswoman by my friends. As I've gotten older, it's only become more apparent. I'm more intergrated with my wolf. Other people can tell, I have a different energy. Sometimes I just go to school and feel like I don't belong. It's like I'm completely different and I just fit in. I'm most excited about being alone in the woods, exploring all kinds of things or just sitting and enjoying the atmosphere. Also, needless to say, I have animal behavior and instincts and occasionally I have a shift.

well I can't really explain why, it just happens over a course of time for me in some case. I was never like into playing as a animal as a kid but overtime in secret I would be one mentally, Im sociable or not shy at all but in middle school and elementary school I was very quite. Now right now I don't have any proof it just fits.

I am on there and am apart of it but I do the videos for fun and info. I also make sure to inform every person I see that calls themselves a therian what it really is cause the definition has been so messed on there.

(2024-09-02 1:27)Glory Wrote:  

(2024-09-02 0:00)grays Wrote:  I get wanting to be yourself, or wanting to sell your cool masks, but because people on social media are so shallow they can't see past one small association they've made therianthropy seem like something it isn't. And then of course it's literal children hearing about it and thinking "ooh i get to be an animal and its silly".

^^^
This is why I don't get on therian tiktok. Tiktok is great purely for entertainment purposes but it doesn't foster in-depth conversations about things. It's designed to feed content to peoples' brains in short clips at a fast pace to maximize "interaction" (likes) and dopamine hits- this way the company makes more money. The vast majority of people who happen to scroll across therian content in their feed aren't going to engage in in-depth thinking or self-reflection. They're just there for that dopamine hit. So of course they're going to see one person's expression of their therianthropy and not dig deeper into it.
Not everybody deep dives into all the interesting topics they find on the internet.

Also, tiktok is made to cycle the types of videos you haven't scrolled past back into your feed. So if a kid happens across therian content on their feed, the algorithm is likely to keep showing them more. That could possibly lead to young people becoming more misinformed about what therianthropy is.

Exactly. Tiktok is going to be the death of intellectual conversation and in depth thinking, and this hurts niche communities like ours.

(2024-09-02 0:00)grays Wrote:  I get wanting to be yourself, or wanting to sell your cool masks, but because people on social media are so shallow they can't see past one small association they've made therianthropy seem like something it isn't. And then of course it's literal children hearing about it and thinking "ooh i get to be an animal and its silly".

^^^
This is why I don't get on therian tiktok. Tiktok is great purely for entertainment purposes but it doesn't foster in-depth conversations about things. It's designed to feed content to peoples' brains in short clips at a fast pace to maximize "interaction" (likes) and dopamine hits- this way the company makes more money. The vast majority of people who happen to scroll across therian content in their feed aren't going to engage in in-depth thinking or self-reflection. They're just there for that dopamine hit. So of course they're going to see one person's expression of their therianthropy and not dig deeper into it.
Not everybody deep dives into all the interesting topics they find on the internet.

Also, tiktok is made to cycle the types of videos you haven't scrolled past back into your feed. So if a kid happens across therian content on their feed, the algorithm is likely to keep showing them more. That could possibly lead to young people becoming more misinformed about what therianthropy is.