I want to take a moment to thank you for writing this! It really is so very frustrating to have a condition that is perceived by others to be unimportant or not of concern. In my own situation, I was diagnosed as being transgender with medical support to back it up after so many years. For others who see me, they could not understand the pain or struggle of having to live with a secret which no one could understand except for yourself - and to fear to bring it out into the open for fear of ridicule. Even with having the knowledge of the cause of how I developed this way (in my case it is also an intersex condition and was born variant), society still generally can not understand it and because I appear to be healthy and successful in life and career otherwise, I should consider others with "real" issues (eg., ones that can be seen physically) as having precedence. I came to the point of nearly calling it quits in my early 20's while still in college and pursuing a computer science degree at the time - the stress of having to live with the secret and the social stigma of this was almost too much to bear.
I thank my spouse for being understanding and for helping to allow me to understand this and myself more over the years. And yes, I can understand how the things unseen by others can take their toll on one's entire sense of self, being and their life.
We are all human and we all have self worth. We should all encourage each other to bring out the best in us all and to support each other!
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I want to take a moment to thank you for writing this! It really is so very frustrating to have a condition that is perceived by others to be unimportant or not of concern. In my own situation, I was diagnosed as being transgender with medical support to back it up after so many years. For others who see me, they could not understand the pain or struggle of having to live with a secret which no one could understand except for yourself - and to fear to bring it out into the open for fear of ridicule. Even with having the knowledge of the cause of how I developed this way (in my case it is also an intersex condition and was born variant), society still generally can not understand it and because I appear to be healthy and successful in life and career otherwise, I should consider others with "real" issues (eg., ones that can be seen physically) as having precedence. I came to the point of nearly calling it quits in my early 20's while still in college and pursuing a computer science degree at the time - the stress of having to live with the secret and the social stigma of this was almost too much to bear.
I thank my spouse for being understanding and for helping to allow me to understand this and myself more over the years. And yes, I can understand how the things unseen by others can take their toll on one's entire sense of self, being and their life.
We are all human and we all have self worth. We should all encourage each other to bring out the best in us all and to support each other!
Hugs,
Christen
May 13, 2011 - 11:14amThis Comment
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