Therese:
Glad that you found us and I hope that being here will prove to be a good experience for you. One of the most important aspects of this site is to let people know that they are not alone and that there are many others that share similar paths.
I am sorry for the experiences that you lived through, but the significant thing is that you survived. If not, I wouldn’t be writing to you and happy that you found us. However, while we can’t change the past, we can understand it and use that information going forward. Even though bad things do happen, it still has the power to inform and educate us.
As you will see from reading the stories of members here, some come to the realization at fairly young ages, but there are others for whom the revelation comes much later and others still somewhere in the middle. There is no set path and no set way in which we learn about ourselves. Stuff just happens is all I can say.
Glad that you are working with a therapist. Many members have found that to be a very helpful thing to do for multiple reasons. There’s a lot that most of us don’t know about how our minds work. When we consider possible decisions that have the power to completely alter our lives, it is hard to stay focused on them. Our minds will want to defer to a calm place with no stress and discomfort, but considering that one is transgender and thinking about transitioning is anything but low stress. It is also helpful to work through ones issues in some orderly and deliberate fashion and to take time to process learnings. On our own, these are very difficult things to do.
I see that you have done a lot with your Profile page. I encourage you to complete it. It provides helpful information to other members and will always be available if you wish to update it.
You may search for other members near you by clicking on Social in the menu and then Member Directory.
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