Isn't dysphoria literally thinking they're [opposite gender] in a [actual gender]'s body?
Gender dysphoria is
feeling discomfort (from mild to extreme) with one's own gender. And that's it. That's the basic medical definition of the condition.
The related emotions that it manifests can vary wildly from individual to invidual. Some can just ignore it. Others become depressed. Others mentally dissociate and create personas of another gender to live vicariously through. Others self-harm or even attempt suicide. Others overcompensate hard in the other direction and attempt to be hypermasculine/hyperfeminine. Etcetera, etcetera. The human brain is amazingly complex and any minor chemical malfunction can result in major behavioral changes.
Either way,
it doesn't mean you think you're the opposite gender. In fact, in most cases they're entirely (and painfully) hyper-aware that they're male/female, and that's the entire problem. The whole thing with a triple-chinned incel neckbeard with purple hair and an undercut deluding themselves and going
"I'm a real girl, I swear!" is just that: a delusion. It's fueled by this ridiculous current attitude of never questioning anything related to "self-identification".
In fact, that shit can make dysphoria
worse, because the more validation that yes they're totally a pretty princess someone gets from other people, the higher it builds up the pedestal... so when someone comes in and knocks them off that pedestal by misgendering or insulting them,
the harder they fall. So you get them bawling their mascara off on twitter because someone called their waistless 250lb frame with a five-day beard a "he" instead of a "she" despite the pretty pink bow they had on their hair.
There's a reason why transition
was the last resort before this glut of self-identified or doctor-shopping troons showed up. Even in difficult cases where nothing else worked, a competent therapist would hesitate to recommend transition to someone who
clearly wouldn't pass. Those people would usually get stuck with therapy and antidepressant (and possibly antipsychotic depending on their other conditions) medication. The ones with the fortunate genetics to pass with enough makeup or surgical interventions were the ones who transitioned. You can tell because those people who transitioned 10+ years ago usually look at least a bit like women. Ugly women, sure, but none of the hulking brick shithouses in a dress that we see nowadays.
Transition is attempting to treat the symptoms because therapy couldn't sort out the causes.
Either way the person still has a mental condition that has to be managed. I suspect one of the reasons why post-transition suicide rates are so high is because the definition up there is actually correct: they feel extreme discomfort towards their gender. So if they change genders and adopt a new one, guess what happens? The discomfort applies to their new gender as well. Managing mental stability and avoiding self-harm becomes the most important part of treatment at that point.
Holy shit,
what is wrong with her eyes?!
