I want to start cutting myself again. I feel so jealous of cis-lesbians, it hurts knowing I'll never be a real woman.

While I didn't really internalize it as jealousy, myself, (at least not more than I could shift into recognizing as insecurity and try to work on) your feelings are quite understandable for the situation you're in... but these feelings are also toxic and likely to eat you from the inside (and cause you to destroy positive relationships without realizing it) if you don't start working towards living as yourself and changing your perspective (which are, quite literally, the only things in this life we truly have control over, though many people never exercise it.)

Do you live somewhere that would prevent you from transitioning or not have anyone at all who would accept you?

If not, then I can't stress enough the importance of giving hormones a try for awhile. I'm 3 months into hormones now and my outlook on life improves almost daily. The internal changes over the first 6-8 months on hormones can make a huge difference if you really are a transgender woman, and looking a little more like your real self every day (even if it's never quite perfect) helps a ton as well.

You absolutely can be accepted as a woman by most of the people who matter, but it's impossible to get there if you never leave the closet. If you never open that door, you never move forward without hurting yourself running into self-inflicted obstacles.

Be jealous of me. Not them. I'm mostly accepted. I'm living as a woman now. If you turn that handle, open the door, and brace yourself for one of the world's bumpiest rides, you can live a better life. It'll never match what we imagine it to be. It will be both harder and easier than you'd believe, but it's so very worth it. ...and I'm on a path that's actually available to you, if you choose it.

...and if you can't get acceptance where you are, MOVE somewhere you know you can. Or work towards it...anything that can be a form of progress.

But above all if you've got to be jealous, be jealous of me...then realize you're choosing jealousy instead of joining me, and that jealousy is unhealthy bullshit none of us needs, but all of us struggles with in some way or another.

/r/actuallesbians Thread Parent