Gender identity dysphoria is something I have struggled with all of my life. Some of my earliest memories in life (I don't have a lot) revolve around feeling that I should have been, wanted to be, a girl. I have sometimes described it as a compulsion. (I never did anything about it. For most of my life I didn't even realize there was anything I could do except hide it out of fear & embarrassment.) I know the current thinking with regard to GID suggests that it is caused by neurochemical imbalances in utero. And I'd dearly love to believe that. Because that would mean it wasn't merely some icky Freudian complex thing. But I have to admit I wonder.

I don't read the newspaper. But my wife does. There's a column in our local rag titled: "News of the Weird". And my wife was telling me, this morning, she read in that column about a man who believes he should have been born a dog. (I can only assume he is serious about it.) I don't know the details, but apparently he has organized his day-to-day life in such a way that he is able to spend as much of his time as possible presenting as a dog. This apparently includes several dog costumes he wears.

I recall, quite a few years ago now, watching a TV news magazine program (I think it was ABC's 20/20) where several individuals who had serious mental health issues were profiled. And I recall one of them was a man who said he always believed he should have been a double amputee (legs.) He apparently tried to find a surgeon who would amputate his legs. But, when he could not, he drove to a hospital, parked in their parking lot, packed his lower legs in dry ice until they froze, & then in some way or another got himself into the hospital where they had to amputate his legs. During the program, he was interviewed sitting in his wheelchair.

So does this mean that neurochemical imbalances in the brain could cause a person to identify as a dog... or as a double amputee? Does it call into question the idea that GID is the result of neurochemical imbalances in the brain? I don't know. And I guess it doesn't really matter to me in any practical way at this point. But even at this late stage in my life, I would still love to know where it all came from. What do you think?