Choosing and working with a therapist

[gymx.livejournal.com]

From time to time there are questions about therapy and therapists from folks who want to go to therapy but are not quite sure how to go about it or what to expect. Here are some guidelines that pertain to individual therapy (not couples or family therapy).

( See below )

Testosterone link to aggression 'all in the mind'

[ftmichael]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8400172.stm

Testosterone link to aggression 'all in the mind'

Giving women more of the male hormone testosterone can turn them into fairer and more amiable game players, according to tests.

A single dose of testosterone was enough to have this effect, European scientists found, but only if the woman was oblivious to the treatment.


Hormones may dictate only a small part of our attitude

If she realised she had received the hormone and not a dummy drug, she turned to greed and selfishness.

The work in Nature magazine suggests the mind can win over hormones.

Testosterone induces anti-social behaviour in humans, but only because of our own prejudices about its effect rather than its biological activity, suggest the authors.

They believe the same is true in men, although they only studied women.

Power of suggestion

For the study, they asked more than 120 women to pair up and play an "ultimatum" bargaining game with real money at stake.

In the game, one of the pair is the "proposer" and is tasked with suggesting to the other player - the responder - how to split the money between them.

The responder can then only accept or reject the offer.

This puts hormones in their place. Hormones provide a basic backdrop, but changes in levels will do little to behaviour compared to personality, culture and society
Endocrinologist Professor Ashley Grossman

If they reject it, neither of the pair gets any of the cash.

The researchers gave the proposers either a dummy pill or one containing testosterone, but did not tell the women which pill they had been given.

Once they had played the game, the proposers were asked to say which pill they thought they had taken.

Those who received testosterone behaved more fairly, had fewer bargaining conflicts and were better at social interactions.

However, women who thought that they had received testosterone, whether or not they actually did, behaved more unfairly than those who thought that they had received placebo, again whether or not they actually did.

The researchers, led by Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, said the results suggested a case of "mind over matter" with the brain overriding body chemistry.

"Whereas other animals may be predominantly under the influence of biological factors such as hormones, biology seems to exert less control over human behaviour," they said.

UK endocrinologist Professor Ashley Grossman said: "This puts hormones in their place.

"Hormones provide a basic backdrop, but changes in levels will do little to behaviour compared to personality, culture and society."

My Own Introduction

[jitusk.livejournal.com]

I've been a member for a fair bit now, and figured I should go ahead and give myself an introduction here.

I'm Ji. I am 20, bigender, and seeking to transition into what I can only think to describe as an androgyne (or combination, in another manner of description) body. I live in the Netherlands at current, which is an extremely liberal and accepting place. I believe I am very fortunate with that. However, I was born and raised in the United States, so for me I am still coming at all of this from that kind of direction.

On top of that, I only understood myself in this manner recently; after I married a cisgendered man. This, undoubtedly, provides some rougher spots than if I had come to understand this before getting deeply involved with another person.

In any case, my husband claims to be perfectly okay with me being bigender; what he doesn't accept is the way I want my body. I'm not sure if this is because it allows him to overlook and forget the fact that I identify as male as well, but it's always been his thing to look down upon any sort of modifications to ones body. As he tells me, I should accept myself mentally as bigender and physically as female, and that they should compliment each other instead of try to influence each other.

Kind of a conservative, cisgendered way to look at it.
I can't really say anything to alter his perception or get to realise that he's still approaching the whole thing from a fundamental viewpoint that I do not think applies to me.

At the very least, he's told me that even if he dislikes my wishes with my own body, he won't dislike it enough to divorce and leave because he fell in love with me and not my body alone.

I'm now at the point where I'm trying to find a way to tell others; specifically, my own family, who are not from such an accepting culture as my husband's. Although his own family is Dutch, I still am nervous about coming out to them as well.
I'm also trying to find a gender neutral name that works for me, and get the courage to make the change legal. And although it's still too early to make a clear judgment now, I think it will indeed be my goal to get top surgery.

- Ji