Gender Dysphoria

Gender Dysphoria
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Gender Dysphoria
Gender Dysphoria refers to a condition in which one experiences psychological discomfort associated with an experience of an individual feeling to be of opposite not his or her biological one (Nadal, 2017). It is important to note that not all transgender people are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The symptoms of the condition vary depending on the age of the individual. Children often identify themselves as representatives of the sex opposite to their biological sex, and lean more on friends of the gender they associate themselves with and try to get rid of their natural genitals. As they grow, their hope is that as they grow, they will resemble and fit in the opposite gender. They also experience distress from the body changes that occur during puberty.
For adolescents and adults, the symptoms include finding their own genitals disgusting which may push them to neither changing their clothes nor showering. In extreme cases, they possess a strong urge to alter their sex traits and getting rid of their genitals (APA, 2016). They tend to possess a strong desire to be treated as individuals of the other gender and they are strongly convicted that they are part of the other gender contrary to their biological identity.
The difference between Gender Identity Disorder and Gender Dysphoria is that the former addresses and categorizes these people as mentally ill and as those who require medical help while the latter categorizes them as people who may suffer psychological distress and not mental.

Gender dysphoria emphasizes on psychiatric help to do away with the psychological stress, which in most cases is caused by the cultural and social stigmatization of the individual, and not by how they personally perceive themselves (Gibbons, 2016).
References
APA. (2016). What Is Gender Dysphoria? Retrieved from https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria
Gibbons, S. (2016). Gender Dysphoria (first Ed.). New York: University at Buffalo. Pp. 7
Nadal, K. (2017). The SAGE encyclopedia of psychology and gender (1st ed., pp. 651-654). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.