This is an excellent essay. I wish more clinicians and others in positions of perceived authority understood this issue as well as you do. Very few of them note the role OCD plays in not only adolescent transgender ideation, but possibly in adult AGP as well. Rather than normalizing something that can be harmful to those who suffer with these ruminations, as well as society at large, why aren't we looking for treatments that can help them?
I think the problem lies in the fact that the treatments that work - Cognitive Behaviour Therapies and similar - rely on buy-in from the patient. When the patient has convinced themselves that they have nothing wrong that needs fixing, then they are reluctant to pursue those treatments. In that regard, normalising transgender ideations is just as harmful to the afflicted patient as to wider society. We need to convince them that they are sick, only then they can seek appropriate help.
This is an excellent essay. I wish more clinicians and others in positions of perceived authority understood this issue as well as you do. Very few of them note the role OCD plays in not only adolescent transgender ideation, but possibly in adult AGP as well. Rather than normalizing something that can be harmful to those who suffer with these ruminations, as well as society at large, why aren't we looking for treatments that can help them?
I think the problem lies in the fact that the treatments that work - Cognitive Behaviour Therapies and similar - rely on buy-in from the patient. When the patient has convinced themselves that they have nothing wrong that needs fixing, then they are reluctant to pursue those treatments. In that regard, normalising transgender ideations is just as harmful to the afflicted patient as to wider society. We need to convince them that they are sick, only then they can seek appropriate help.