Okay, so before I start writing this, I just want to let everyone know that I am purposefully splitting today's entry into two separate entries. The emotions that I felt during the two distinct parts of today were SO far apart from each-other that trying to combine them into one entry somehow just would not do these emotions justice whatsoever. As far as I'm concerned, this was two separate days, even though it all happened within one cycle of the earth's rotation. So I'm going to start off with the "lack of hormone-replacement log" part of it, during the part of the day where I felt so absolutely miserable that I can hardly even describe it, and then the next entry will be the "hormone replacement log" part of it, where this mood abruptly did a complete 180 for no adequately-explained reason. So here goes! Hold on, because this first part of the entry is REALLY terrible. You've been warned. This started off as one of the absolute worst days of my entire life.
IVE: (day twenty-six since I first started)
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold." That is a quote by the great JRR Tolkein, written for the ending of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, for when Frodo returns to the Shire after his unbelievable journey, and yet even though the Shire has been saved, he realizes that he can never go
his journey. His journey has completely changed him. There is also a brilliant scene in the Lord of the Rings movies, where the four hobbits are sitting at the Green Dragon, and all around them are the sounds of merrymaking hobbits, hobbits who have never had a care in their lives, going about things as normal. And the four heroes quietly clink their mugs together, clearly feeling a sense of heaviness as they realize that they can't really relate to that kind of mindset anymore, that after all they have seen and been through, that they will never have that same kind of innocent carefree glee back. Why do I bring this up? Because that is what I have really felt
EEPLY changed me. For the very
have experienced true happiness. I have experienced what it's like to have a true sense of self for the very first time, what it's like to FINALLY feel like I was starting to like myself, and feel like the thoughts in my head were correct, and my personality actually matched the thoughts up there. What an AMAZING experience. It's been three straight weeks of almost consistently being the happiest that I've ever been in my entire life. And what an absolutely AMAZING thing it was to finally have a "girl mode" for the very first time. But now, five days without estrogen later, it's completely gone. Today, I realized that I was starting to once again feel almost exactly like I had felt for virtually every single day of my life before I ever started this trial... "dull gray drear" mode. A "meh" mood where I just couldn't seem to get excited about anything, and where I no longer had that sense of self, and once again felt "masculine" in the brain, where I just didn't seem to care about anything, and slog through life. But although this mindset is familiar, and is the same as it always was, it is not the same. I used to be able to put up with it relatively well, because I didn't know any other mindset, and had never really felt anything else beyond my little zone of mental familiarity. But now being back in this mindset, it feels like absolute torture. Because now I HAVE experienced true happiness. And I HAVE experienced something different... a true sense of self, a true feeling that my mind finally was working right. And as such, I've realized that now I can never go back to the way things were. Now that lack of emotion that I had become so used to, feels like I'm emotionally dead inside. That lack of feminine happiness feels like all of the life and vitality has been sucked out of me. And I'm feeling so completely and utterly depressed now that I can't even recall what that happiness felt like, let alone how to get it back. Being back in this mindset suddenly just feels completely hopeless, completely life-sucking, and like absolute torture every single minute that I still have to be stuck in it.
My anger is back. In a big way. Last night, while I was playing my PS2, suddenly my anger response to every single little thing that went wrong just absolutely exploded. I broke out into fits of terrible swearing, yelling at the TV, yelling at the inanimate commentators in the game, just feeling aggrivated and irritated by EVERYTHING. And this only got worse this morning. Before I left for work, still feeling absolutely terrible, I actually sang the entirety of the "Uncle Fucka" song from the South Park movie. (which meant that I said the word "fuck" a whopping 31 times. And I was STILL angry even after that.) I was yelling at cars the entire way to work, and at the same time I was just crying out to God in complete and absolute misery, asking Him "WHY???? WHY????? I NEVER wanted to experience this mindset again as long as I lived!!! I thought I was past this! This isn't me!!! This is the exact OPPOSITE of me! WHY!!!??? WHY?!!!!! THIS ISN'T FAIR!!!!!!" And I felt like crying, and felt like absolutely giving up. EVERYTHING annoyed me, EVERYTHING made me feel completely hopeless, and there just wasn't an ounce of happiness to be found ANYWHERE that I looked today. Listening to music didn't make me happy. Watching the snow didn't make me happy. Playing games, and writing, and a hundred other little things that I usually look to for happiness, not a single one of them did me any good today. They all just felt like a chore. I just couldn't escape the feeling of complete and utter depression, feeling like I wasn't myself anymore, feeling so hopeless and bitter about my situation, and just wanting to throw a chair over because I was so upset about this whole thing.
It has been a VERY long time since I've felt this miserable. The last time that I felt this bad was back in high school, and my first few years of college, during which I really did feel like I had no hope at times. And I'd cry myself to sleep, thinking about how there was no hope for resolving my gender situation, no hope of ever finding love, no hope of ever succeeding in school, and every single little thing in my life just made me feel bitter and angry. That feeling was back today. For the first time in at least 7 years.
The only positive thing that I can say about this kind of sheer and utter misery, is that it really does make you think. I thought back, when was the last time I felt this lousy? And I kind of realized something. I used to feel this miserable all the time. And the thing that finally stopped making me feel this way was when I met Jenny. I remember that back when I first started talking to her, I was still an absolute emotional wreck. I remember how nervous I felt trying to explain to her that I had tran
hen I had to explain to her that I was one semester away from failing out of college. And then something happened. She was okay with it. And for the first time in my entire adult life, I felt true love. And just like that, suddenly everything started getting better. I felt like I had a future again. Suddenly I was able to put up with my transsexual thoughts better, and I started getting decent grades in school again, and I stopped relying on playing poker for my moments of temporary happiness. And that happiness has stayed with me all these years. Until, that is, now. Because as of now we're officially broken up. And after 6 straight years of being able to see a potential happy family just around the corner, suddenly now that feeling is gone. And even looking back into high school, I really suspect that the only reason I survived 10th and 11th grades were because I started falling in love with girls, and it took my mind off of my own problems. When you really think about it, I have NEVER been happy in my entire adult life without a romantic relati
This hormone trial, where I admitted that I was transsexual and started on HRT, was the first time in my ENTIRE adult life where I was actually happy without a romantic relationship. (She broke up with me about a month before I decided to do it.) But now that the HRT is gone, and I'm feeling so down on myself, now I'm right back to feeling what really is my default state of existence as a guy: complete and utter misery.
So this total depression today has certainly convinced me of one thing: I can't ever go back to being a "normal" guy now. Ever. Because now, knowing what I know about how happy I am on estrogen, and knowing what I know about what my true default mental state as a guy is when I'm not blinded temporarily by the warm glow of love, I really am not ever going to be able to go back to normal. (Love is not an answer, because that is all-too-often temporary. And once it's gone again, I'll be right back to feeling depressed and unsatisfied.) So I really have lost something now. I have now completely lost my old self. That Charlie that I thought I knew for my entire life, that I thought was me, I can't ever go back to being him. My life has been changed forever, and all that is familiar, all that I knew, it's never going to be able to return to normal. There are some hurts that go too deep, some things that time cannot mend. NOTHING in guy mode will ever be able to replace the emptiness in my heart that I now feel because now I actually know what it's like to have that emptiness filled for the very first time. My old self is gone. By taking estrogen, I have taken a step too far. I had thought that if it didn't work out, that I could always go back to normal. But now I know that I can't. Nothing will ever be able to return me to the way that I was before this trial. And no, I really do not want to return to the way that things were, but it still feels like a very deep loss... a self that I really wasn't prepared to give up so soon.
There's no turning back now. I'll never be able to return to the way that my life was pre-hormones. The only thing that is left for me is to keep pressing on, into the feminine unknown, if I ever want to be truly happy again.
So, let this be a dire warning to anyone else who thinks that they might be transsexual, and is considering doing a hormone trial like me. This is NOT to be taken lightly. It is a life-changing thing. You will experience things that you've never experienced before, and your life WILL change as a result. If you're expecting to just be able to quit and go right back to the way things were, I'm telling you, that may not be true. So if you're really not sure about this, not sure that you're ready to completely leave your old self behind in order to gain a new feminine self, please think twice. Because even though I'm totally okay with continuing the HRT and going on until I'm completely female, I really was not ready for such a drastic change so quickly. And I REALLY was not ready for how absolutely depressed I'd feel once I ran out of estrogen and thus had to go back to normal male hormones. And now I know, once this next shipment does arrive, now that I know how absolutely terrible I feel when I'm off of the hormones, I will never be able to go back off of them. I've basically committed myself to a lifetime of hormone treatments now, and there's really nothing that I can do about that.
Anyway, that was today. It completely freaking sucked. I feel like all of the femininity, all of the sense of self, all of the life and vitality, has just been sucked completely out of me. I HATE feeling angry at things again, and I HATE feeling so depressed. These things just aren't me. Feeling these kinds of thoughts in my head is like I'm being attacked by a virus that infects my true mind with emotions that aren't mine. But now I'm stuck with this mind that is no longer mine, until the next shipment of E arrives to finally make it right again.
You've been warned. This is serious business.
-Carrie.
(And no, I do not feel like "Carrie" whatsoever in my mind right now, but at the same time I now know that I'm never going to be able to go back to being a guy again, so I'm using it anyway. I might as well.)
Songs for the day, that unfortunately fit my mood today almost perfectly: (hint: If I were singing these, I wouldn't actually be singing about literal love...)
-"Unfinished Life" (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_ocQonZoMI) by Kate Wolf
-"Here in California" (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR9R6PEIow4) by Kate Wolf
-"SOS" (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvChjHcABPA) by ABBA
-"Goodbye to Love" (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jixeE8gkT-s) by The Carpenters