i dated two people before i found put i was aro. It was suffocating and painful. I felt so unbelievably trapped and just seeing them would make me spiral. But despite all that i went through i feel so guilty about how i made them feel. I hurt them so much because i didnt know myself well enough to be in a relationship. I think this is something that many of us go through lol. This want almost need for a romantic relationship because we are taught that that is the only fulfilling life long relationship out there, so we put ourselves through hell to achieve something that isnt meant for us.
i dated two people before i found put i was aro. It was suffocating and painful. I felt so unbelievably trapped and just seeing them would make me spiral. But despite all that i went through i feel so guilty about how i made them feel. I hurt them so much because i didnt know myself well enough to be in a relationship. I think this is something that many of us go through lol. This want almost need for a romantic relationship because we are taught that that is the only fulfilling life long relationship out there, so we put ourselves through hell to achieve something that isnt meant for us.
If you want a weird piece of advice on how to treat trans men and transmasc people you know... I think my piece of advice is to hold off on calling us things like "cute", "twink", or anything adjacent to these if it hasn't been made clear that a person is okay with being described in that way. I promise, it's better to ask than to assume we're all the same, because it genuinely sucks when people make the assumption without even caring.
Actually annoying that whenever a transmasc tries to get attention to Transmasc issues they are always told they are ‘talking over Cis Women’ or ‘trans women have it worse!’ and whenever a transfem tries to get attention to trans fem issues they are always told that they ‘are taking away attention from Cis women issues!‘ or their post gets derailed to be about ‘pissing off terfs’ instead of about issues facing Transfems.
Like can trans people talk about their issues without being ignored and told they ‘dont have it that bad’ . Someone speaking about how an issue effects a certain group they are apart of isn’t talking over anyone.
the word empathy is WIDELY misused, even in mental health spaces.
empathy:
is responding to a person’s emotions by experiencing the same emotion as them (i.e. feeling sad when something sad happens to that person, or happy when something happy happens to that person.)
is an automatic response that cannot be controlled
cannot be learned
sympathy:
is recognizing that another person is in pain, even if you do not experience that pain, and offering comfort to that person
is something a person must actively choose to do
can be learned
compassion:
is showcasing care and support via words and actions
is something a person must actively choose to do
can be learned
if you need an example of a person with no empathy who practices sympathy and compassion, look no further than data from star trek: the next generation. he doesn’t have emotions at all, but he’s still kind to people and wants to help them.
stop telling people that they’re evil because they don’t experience empathy. stop equating empathy with morality. stop equating empathy with caring. stop saying that cruel people “lack empathy.” stop throwing neurodivergent and mentally ill people under the bus.