By August Reid (they/he), Services Manager, The Clare Project
As trans people, we often have complicated relationships with our bodies. Many of us experience extreme lows of gender dysphoria at times in our lives. Realising that there’s some aspect of our physical body which isn’t right and needs to change is what helps many of us to realise that we’re trans.
Growing up, few of us will have been aware that what we were experiencing had a name: dysphoria, and that it didn’t have to last forever. A lot of trans people figure out ways to cope, before they discover that medical transition is an option. Some people become immersed in intellectual or creative pursuits, finding that focusing on their mind rather than their body gives them a break from the discomfort. Others might bury themselves in work. And for some people, seeking distraction, substances can become part of that picture as well, and for some of those people, substance misuse can end up contributing to the problem, even if it started as a way to seek a solution. There are also lots of trans people who attempt to change their body, for example, through exercise and diet, which isn’t always problematic, but it can contribute to the higher levels of disordered eating and body image problems in the trans community.
Eventually, most of us come to discover that there are options for changing our bodies, maybe not as soon as we would like, maybe not as affordable as we would like, maybe not as painless as we would like, but there are options. And it’s at that point that at The Clare Project, we often come across people who know that there are some options, but they need help navigating them, choosing between them, working out what is possible for them.
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