One of the aspects of realizing I was trans at 19 is the grief of not just lost social opportunity and other things about not having tween/teen years that weren't swamped in massive constant dysphoria, is that it numbed the shit out of my senses, including emotional ones. This meant that I actively pushed away parental affection as well as didn't feel the plenty I got, leaving this large hole it feels like when I read stories with maternal or paternal affection because dysphoria robbed me of that. Such relations require reciprocated attention and I was just so much internally in pain I could focus on nothing else, and constantly doing whatever I could to place walls and numb it. It hurts and is unbelievably frustrating and also why I want to take care of others and dote so much because I don't want anyone else to feel this.























