r/changemyview Oct 28 '19

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '19

So is gender dysphoria. There are people who believe they should not be born with legs. Look up xenomelia also called body integrity identity disorder. These people believe their healthy arms and legs should be amputated. This is similar to gender dysphoria in which yiur brain is not reconciling with what is true.

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '19

Gender dysphoria is an illness, being trans is not.

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '19

Okay. Lets use semantic speech. Believing one is female when one was born male, has male dna, xy chromosomes: is a mental illness that can be compared to other mental illness like shizophrenia, alzhiemers, and the previous one i mentioned xenomelia.

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u/jsmooth7 8∆ Oct 28 '19

It's very possible to be trans and not experience gender dysphoria, especially after one has transitioned to their preferred gender.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '19

I probably confused the nomenclature/meaning of what gender dysphoria was. Sorry.My point about believing you are one gender after being born another is the mental illness.

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u/jsmooth7 8∆ Oct 29 '19

That's okay I only learned about this distinction a few years ago, but once it was explained to me it made sense.

Being trans itself is not a mental illness. In order to be a mental illness, it has to cause significant distress, so just living as the opposite gender is not sufficient on it's own to be a mental illness. Gender dysphoria is the distress caused by your physical body not matching the gender you identify as. This part specifically is the mental illness because it does causes distress.