Why isn't "transgender" a mental problem?

What if I'm interested in saying I'm a 6'5 black woman instead of a 5'10 white man? It's PC to let me tell myself that I can appoint my own gender, but not my own height and race? There are a variety of mental delusions that people can feel very strongly are true, but PC rules don't always say that it's healthy for peers to reinforce these delusions. If a man thinks he is a woman, wouldn't it be more healthy to try to help him cope and be comfortable with his own genetic reality? I'm a white guy, 27, and not a pro athlete. If I wish I was younger and athletic enough to win Wimbledon, I still just need to accept the fact that I don't have a 23 year old body that can compete with the top 0.001% of my sport. I also can't ever change the fact that I was born in 1987.

I just don't see how denying biological reality is helping anyone. It makes perfect sense to me when homosexuals are encouraged by peers to pursue a homosexual lifestyle. Physical attraction is pretty undeniable, you like who you like and nobody is in a position to change that. I also get that people should dress how they want to. I just don't get why I should encourage such mindsets by saying, "Yes Fred, I'll call you Sally from now on and refer to you as "her" rather than "him" if it makes you happy". That seems condencending, like "Sure, sure, you are 10 years younger than your birth certificate says you are."

I can be swayed in either direction on this issue from a social standpoint, though not on a legal standpoint because I'm as libertarian as they come. For example, if I want to open up a gym it's up to me how the locker rooms are divided. It would be my property, and if you don't like it go someplace else.

 

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Gender dysphoria is a mental condition thought to be caused by having the brain chemistry of the opposite sex. Transitioning from one sex to the other is the treatment

 

That's a helpful answer and that line if thinking may sway me on the issue but I still struggle with that treatment. There are a variety of other delusions that come from other mental conditions. Denying reality seems like an uncommon treatment.

 

There's no delusion involved with being teams. They understand the situation perfectly, they just feel miserable with their birth gender.

 

I tried reading viewpoints from transgendered people and they want to be clear that they really are the opposite gender that their genes say they are. That's where I interpreted delusion, and that's where I think that legit pain is being dealt with in the wrong way.

 

ive thought about this.

why isn't being gay considered a mental illness?

why not transgender or transexual?

i think part of the issue is whether or not the condition actually causes harm to the person.

being Gay, doesn't neccessarily cause anyone any harm.

nor does beint transgender.

it may be "odd", and "strange", but its not like being bi-polar, schizophrenic, etc etc.

 

The treatment doesn't do any harm tothe person, thus it may be controversial but it is ethical.

What would you suggest for treatment?

Frankly it can't be defined as a delusion. A delusion would be a denial of reality. Trans people realize they are the sex they are, but feel like they are the opposite sex mentally. If they were delusional there would be no need for reassignment surgery.

They don't deny reality, they just aren't comfortable with it. That is why it is called disphoria and not a delusional syndrome.

 

It has been my experience that laymentitle things that are unusual or even strange as mental disorders without even knowing what mental disorder means. It's that it is so repulsive or bizarre or foreign to them that people have to be crazy to do it.

Personally I find sushi with raw fish to be disgusting, eating it puts you at risk for several pathogens. If I didn't understand mental illness, I could easily consider a pallet fire sushi to be a mental illness.

 

I don't think being gay is the same though. I'm a guy, that genetic makeup can't change no matter what. However if I were to tell you that I'm attracted to a particular group of people, that's just a physical reality. Whatever happens to the body when people feel attraction happens to gay people when they feel attracted to somebody.

But you're right that it causes no harm for transgendered people to identify themselves as whatever they please, it's not immoral.

 

Who cares what you do with your time? If you want to do something, you should do it.

 

however, one could argue that there is something to be said about someone being comfortable with their own reality.

men are designed to have sex with women.

a mental abnormality that works against this, isn't such a great thing.

nor is thoughts making a man want to be a woman, as he can't really "become" a woman.

being Gay and transgender isn't an illness, but they are syndromes...in my view.

 

I don't have a better treatment in mind. Maybe changing gender identity really is the best, I'm just still highly skeptical. What I've interpreted was a perception of both biological gender reality that obviously transgender people aknowldge, and cultural gender identity.

 

Sure, but this has nothing to do with what I find repulsive. If you are at the DMV or some other job where you have to document physical attributes of people, would it seem mentally unstable if your 5'10 client corrected you and said that they are actually 6'10, and that their mind and body were simply at odds with each other?

 

Illness can be hard to define sometimes. Homosexuality isn't considered an illness by the mainstream anymore, but maybe that is a concession of the fact that gay people aren't hurting anybody and they can't become straight anymore than I can become gay. But because Pedophiles would hurt others if they acted on their attractions, we say that they are sick and need to seek help.

 

I don't really feel that way. Yes if you want to do something that doesn't hurt anybody else, I have no right to stop you, but that doesn't mean you should do it.

 

According to you?

 

It would be according to my opinion (that I may or may not share depending on the personal relationship), and you could then do whatever you wanted.

 

So why have that opinion in the first place?

 

The issue I see that people have with transgenderism, is that people believe that there is a strong link between mental sex and physical sex. Scientifically streaking the only link that exists is emotional. Some may disagree, but I invite them to produce research

 

I'm still trying to form one, as I tried to make clear in my first post and a few other times in this topic. I'm curious about the subject, and I have doubts that the current approach to this condition is ideal for people struggling with this.

 

What are you calling "mental sex"? Cultural norms involving roles and fashion?

 

Thank you for being honest. That being said, it is the best approach. Imagine every day you live a lie but one day you want to start telling people the truth. That's what coming out for a transgender is. It's about being honest with themselves and presenting themselves as who they are.

 

Well I do agree that the struggle is very real, and needs to be met with compassion.

 

But you still wonder if this is the best approach.

 

Mentally unstable, not necessarily, I wouldn't have enough info to make that assessment. But certainly not delusional.