Went to my first gender therapy session yesterday. I think it was a good start. I was really nervous and excited. Wasn't sure if he was going to take me seriously. That would have been my biggest fear no matter who I saw. Last time I was in regular therapy was roughly 6 years ago. It wasn't long after my mom passed away. That's a long time. Wasn't sure what to really expect with this kind of therapy. Felt like I talked too much...He said that was normal. I didn't like that the intake forms only had the options of male or female. Off-putting when you're neither.
He said in order for my insurance to cover it, I had to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. It used to be as gender identity disorder. He feels strongly against calling it a disorder, which was good to hear. He started going through DSM-IV, and realized it had really binary language. Then, he realized he was wasn't looking at the DSM-5, then went through that instead. The language was a lot better (still had to reword some things), and I've related to a lot of it. We spent a while on each criteria, since he wanted details on what I brought up.
He was a little odd about my romantic/sexual orientations. I think he was just new to them. Especially so when I brought up platonic attraction and qpr's. I said it probably sounded weird. He said he'd like me to not say the word 'weird' when relating to myself. It's self-judgmental and it might be out of the norm, but they're learning more about this stuff. Society doesn't like diversity and 'new' ways of thinking about things like relationships. So, things might seem 'weird' through society's eyes, but they really aren't. Next time, we'll go over more of the criteria, 'diagnose' me, and start going over a bunch of stuff that I brought up. Should be interesting.
It was a bit weird that there was no receptionist and a number code for the door. I thought the door could only be opened by staff or something. Someone came by, opened it for us, and found his door. Since there's no receptionist, he has to give you the intake forms. There were a lot of them. A lot to read. Hopefully, I filled it out right. The waiting room was nice. His Silverdale office has a receptionist.
Got a call from a receptionist there today saying that I needed to authorize my first session with my insurance. I thought I had messaged Ashley (social worker in my insurance's Gender Health Program) about the appointment when I made it, but didn't. She had asked me if the therapists were going to work out that day, so I immediately replied back about this appointment. Didn't get a response back on it. I messaged her today about the call, she quickly got back to me, and said she was able to authorize it immediately yesterday. Both them and I will get a referral letter soon authorizing it. She gave me a code so I could tell them about it before they got it. I called them back and gave them the code. Now, it's out of my hands. I did what I could. We should get it soon. I'm impressed with how quickly Ashley did all this. I feel bad I didn't tell her about it sooner. I'll try to remember in the future.
With this, I feel like I can finally start transitioning and get help with figuring out what I'd need to do. I have somewhat of an idea, but many things are still vague. It's a bit overwhelming. I'm excited for the future, though.
It's upstairs from Kachai Thai Kitchen, conveniently. So, we (my parent was with me) went there after dinner. There was a weird thing where they asked us if we'd take longer than 1 1/2 hours to eat. They also gave us only the Valentine's Day special menus. I had to ask for the regular ones. Really awkward. I think they were giving those out to every party of 2, though. I already don't like the holiday. (Only thing I like is the candy/chocolate, and those are on sale the next day.) Let's shove it in people's faces...Besides that, it was really good.
The snow is finally melting. Yay! I think we lost the most today. It seems like it'll continue to be warm enough to melt the snow for now. The forecast for towards the end of the week is showing more snow. I really don't want more, and many people are sick of it.
Youtube:
One Piece (the first one's on Brook's past. One of the saddest backstories in the series):
(This one's on Luffy's most recent fight. It's very fitting.)
Black Clover:
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
Mob Psycho 100:
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