Reply To: Did your dysphoria and self loathing get worse before coming out?

[Andrea Moss]

Anxiety, depression, and self loathing have been constant bedfellows of mine for over 30 yrs, and have only recently been alleviated by my acceptance of the real me. But, to answer your question, during the period last year when I was dressing up in secret, I did suffer with additional anxieties about my dysphoria, wondering if I was just doing it as a fetish, or was my mental illness getting worse. Part of it was guilt that I was hiding something from my wife and family.
I only truly accepted myself as Andrea after I’d came out to my immediate family, which I’m sure is an experience many of us have had.