Transgender isn't considered a mental illness because it's an issue of being unhappy, not mentally ill.
Out of curiosity, is clinical depression not considered to be a form of mental illness? I believe it is. Then we can easily say that being clinically depressed is an issue of being chronically unhappy in its most basic explanation. In other words, I could describe that form of mental illness exactly how you described being transgender in short.
I'm really not trolling here, I believe it is undoubtedly a mental illness.
People raged so hard in that thread that they missed that we weren't advocating for pedophiles, we were saying that more needs to be done to understand why they think the way they do in order to prevent innocent children from being hurt. That researching the subject is too taboo and even if an author is willing to put their name on the paper, people are so blindsided by the perception that they are horrible people who set out to purposely hurt others they wouldn't listen to studies suggesting other wise. Similar to how being gay was vilified not all that long ago. And the same reason why they don't conduct heavy research into things like transgender etc. In the end people care more about seeing their names in a good light than they do about truly understanding how the brain really works.
Lol not getting into this discussion as it is unrelated I'm just saying this: The issue I had, is not about being close minded. My issues were how would you ever know if a pedophile was recovering or whatever the term would be for that? By putting children at risk to be around them unsupervised? I don't mean to laugh but that is the only way you could learn for sure.
Secondly, these "outlets" you thought could help, would more than likely cause their appetite to grow, creating a bigger space they need to fill in order to feel satisfied. Then spending all that money on time and resources to find out what we already know: Pedophiles can not be rehabilitated.
Lastly, that's what I mentioned earlier in this thread. I believe there are plenty of "pedophiles" living in society that don't act on their urges because they understand the damage, consequences, etc. that come into play once they act on it. Like you mentioned it being so taboo, nobody is going to come out and say "Hey! I'm attracted to kids but I don't act on it!" because people will still look at them like sickos. I'm sure there are plenty of people that would take pleasure in killing people too that don't act on it. The ones that do... are pedophiles and serial killers and they can't be rehabilitated. They selfishly crossed the line knowing everything it entailed but they only cared about themselves. Many are sociopaths I'd assume.
You can PM me your responses to those issues if you'd like but I was just putting them out there so you realize it has nothing to do with me burying my head in the sand and screaming "Kill them all with fire!" without putting any intelligent thought into it.
Here's an interesting thing to think on. Mental illness doesn't happen out of the blue. It's not something you acquire as you grow older. If you have mental illness you are born with it (not counting things caused by external sources outside of the body). It may not rear it's ugly head until you are older, but that defect was always there. Why children aren't always diagnosed earlier is because it's very hard to test for anything in small children.
I'll post a link for you but I think you are wrong. You are mistaking being genetically at risk to being mentally ill. Some I believe are probably born with it regardless like you say, but others are only born with genetic factors that put them at risk to becoming mentally ill. Then environmental factors and life experience do play a big part in becoming mentally as well as the course the illness takes. I can only speak for bipolar disorder as I have researched it extensively and don't have any in depth knowledge about other forms of mental illness except for antisocial personality disorder(sociopaths).
Not to mention that bipolar disorder is a form of depression aka feeling
unhappy but also includes the manic elevated phase that makes it very different from typical depression. You tried to sum up your lengthy write up with one sentence but it couldn't have been more poorly worded. Why children aren't tested when young is because like you said it is hard to test a child for anything with how much development is going on at that point in time. For example, pretty much every child is bipolar. You take a toy away and they go into full blown spaz attack meltdown mode and then if you gave it back to them... they forget they were upset in the first place... back to smiles and giggles. They only have those two extreme responses lol(ETA: just noticed I cut that part of your quote out... yes all children can appear mentally ill at some point lol)
If, this is a hypothetical if and me playing devil's advocate, transgender was a mental illness it would manifest in small children and not just adults. The reason you see more children identifying as transgender at really young ages is because of the PC era. Parents are simply more comfortable letting their children be who they want to be vs the parent deciding who they should be. And if you aren't comfortable with it, the community around you will shame you into at least pretending you are.
The PC era? Really? I don't mean to laugh but how convenient! You'll just completely wipe out that very good comparison I made to mental illness? Awesome! I don't mind because it doesn't leave me empty handed. So at the very least, you agree that these parents are doing their kids a massive injustice for their own selfish agenda? I'll take that, because it is disgraceful parenting whether it is mental illness or not...
Now for the non devil's advocate stuff. As offensive as it is to some, Jake asked a valid question. There are many, many mental illnesses that center around people not liking the bodies they are born with. Body dysmorphia is a certified mental illness and not all that far off what transgender people say they feel is wrong with them. It's valid to ask why one group is considered mentally insane for not liking their hair, nose or stomach but its perfectly fine if another doesn't like their sexual organs. The issues with body dysmorphia are just as real to them as being the wrong sex is to someone whos transgender. They also have really similar mental fallout.
In technical terms transgender is gender dysphoria. Body dysmorphia means you see your body in a way that might not be true or over exaggerated. Gender dysphoria means you are unhappy about your gender. Why body dysmorphia is a mental illness and gender dysphoria isn't simply comes down to how they can treat it at the moment. If you actually delve into the studies behind you will see that dysmorphia can generally be treated or lessened via treatments (drugs, counseling etc), while dysphoria does not react to those treatments. In short: you can make someone see themselves for who they really are, but you can't force someone to be happy, no matter how much treatment you throw their way.
The medication was something I wanted to delve into. So they have experimented treating gender disorder with medications to no avail? That doesn't mean shit to me mind you as there really aren't any medications that work for a sociopath and that is mental illness obviously. Here's a scary thought: Therapy generally doesn't help sociopaths and can actually make them worse. They learn more about how our emotions work and how to manipulate them with greater success. Scaaaarrrrryyyyy. See? As bad as sociopaths are... bipolar people are almost the complete opposite! That means that I am incredibly good! So ha!
All kidding aside, it really sounds like a mental illness. Even in your wording, the difference appears to be so subtle that it winds up looking like someone had to go out of their way to NOT label it a mental illness. The funny part is that I look like a small minded twisted little creep lol because of that PC era you mentioned. When I have made better points for it BEING and NOT BEING a mental illness than the people that want to get all angry and call me names lol...
Anyway, thank you for your intelligent response(I also knew that it was you and Athena in the pedophile thread... I just didn't see the sense in "outing" somebody for having views that might make people side eye them for no reason). The crazy guy has a better memory than the evil witch too... somebody should get diagnosed already and it ain't me- I know what I am.
@McDanel Thanks for the link, will read it! It might help clear up my confusion. Oh and I'll post the link I mentioned once I get a chance to find it...
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@Sudonim Also you're not born a sociopath to my understanding. That is a mental illness that has almost everything to do with environment and life experience. It is also one of the most serious forms of mental illness. I'm sure there are genetic risks but it is mainly society and poor guidance that creates sociopaths...
ETA Technically we are all born sociopaths lol, poor choice of words but obviously I mean the actual mental illness.
