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[–]fuckingsealions 39 insightful - 2 fun39 insightful - 1 fun40 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

Hi instantlymidnight, I can't imagine what you're going through but I'm glad you're here. It must be really scary and hard to have your worldview shaken like this.

I don't have detrans specific resources for you, but as person who has worked through trauma, please try to be gentle with yourself and your reactions right now. From your post this all sounds super new. Reading, questioning, and understanding is important, but don't forget to step away and have some downtime to care for yourself. Exercise/walk if you can, watch or read something fluffy, write about your feelings, and talk to supportive people IRL.

It's intense, but it was helpful for me to read "The Body Keeps the Score." I was turned off a bit at first because it starts with the author's work with male veterans, but it's good for understanding trauma and there's a lot of resources in the back about how to work towards recovery.

This is kind of a little thing, but I was surprised how much it helped me when I was working through PTSD and feeling overwhelmed: https://yogainternational.com/article/view/soothe-your-nervous-system-with-2-to-1-breathing

It's good for anyone who is experiencing stress and overwhelm from their thoughts to calm your body from doing that fun fight or flight stuff.

I don't know if this is accessible to you or desirable, but psychology today magazine has an online search/filtering function and many providers are all set up to do online counseling now.

Anyway, I'm very glad you're here. You're important and your voice is important.

[–]fuckingsealions 30 insightful - 2 fun30 insightful - 1 fun31 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

One more thing... Please try to do what's right for you right now. Give yourself permission to ignore anyone who wants to argue with you, sap your energy, etc. It's always ok to withdraw and just take care of and protect yourself until you are stronger. <3

[–][deleted] 24 insightful - 1 fun24 insightful - 0 fun25 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I want to second the Body Keeps the Score - it seems you can get it online free here (though I haven't downloaded and can't verify the site - your local library will definitely have this one) As a follow up, The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke is a really good read about childhood trauma.

OP, I know a lot of trans people reject the idea they have any trauma in their lives - thinking physical/violent trauma is the only trauma - but even if you don't have emotional abandonment or a parental divorce in your past (or something people might be inclined to reject as trauma as it's not "traumatic" enough), there is a lot of trauma around being raised female in the patriarchy. Andrea Dworkin's works - specifically Pornography - helped me a lot with that. Her entire catalog is free online [here](radfem.org/dworkin/). (I have downloaded these, and the are fine) A warning about Dworkin, though, if you've never really looked at the trauma around being female in our society, her work can be very emotionally draining to read. It can be really hard to see it so bluntly described, when it is also so deeply personal.

[–]fuckingsealions 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks for mentioning The Deepest Well. I haven't seen this one.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You're welcome! I highly recommend it. She focuses a lot on the ACE test (which I don't remember being talked about in van der Kolk's work) and its link to predicting mental and physical illness later in life. She also discusses epigenetics more (if I remember correctly - it's been a couple years since I read them both, but they were both equally valuable to me in understanding my own childhood trauma).