Changing opinions

Lots of people have many different ideas as to why we otherkin are as we are. Often it comes down to it being a psychological thing or a spiritual thing, or both. I've realised that my opinion has changed ~ I'm now convinced that my therianthropy is a psychological thing, whereas if you had asked me a year or two ago I'd have said I believed it was spiritual.

I'm still quite a spiritual person but I don't think it fits as an explanation anymore now that I've been through forms of counselling, and now that I generally have a better understanding of how my mind works and where my psychological problems come from.

So my question is, has your opinion of where your otherness comes from changed as time has gone by or as you've changed as a person? <3

A bit, but not much. I used to think it was purely spiritual, since I believe in the wrong-soul/wrong-body theory. But a few years ago, after I was more comfortable with myself both in general and as a therian, I started noticing that certain things in my behavior were definitely not human and that I had been doing said things my entire life. And thus I now believe, for me at least, it's a combination of spiritual and psychological.

In a way. Originally I tried discerning whether it was spiritual or psychological. Now I have simply settled on psychological. The reason for that is that I've realized I don't actually understand what a spirit even is, what does the word imply, and what does it take for something to be spiritual. Perhaps it's not so much that I've changed me mind, I've just decided to focus on a more elementary question. I am yet to find an answer or someone I think might have a clue, by the way.

I don't think I've ever become set in "It is X!" opinion.
I choose to believe that the spiritual thing is the reason cause... it seems right, to me... I guess.
I've had experiences to support that.

BUT, I never rule out the psychological cause.
In fact, most of the time I consider it more likely than spiritual, it's just that... experiences and shit..

Meh, I don't know how to word anything today!

I like to think it's a spiritual thing. Although, at first, I swore I was insane... I cried every night for fear of being crazy. At some point though, I took a deep breath and let myself just feel without thinking for a bit. (Because all I had done was think about it but had yet to let myself feel one way or another.)

I came to the realization that... if it were PURELY psychological, then how come there are so many people that came to the otherkin conclusion? My point there is that it could very well be both and that otherkin are just as "normal" as people who seem to have said "normal" beliefs. Same as with multiples, there is an unbelievably vast number of people who believe they are not purely human or that they hold more than one "spirit" or "ego" within them. With so many people believing something so similar and yet there isn't exactly very much information on this out there (or there didn't used to be) I wonder how such a large number of people came to the same conclusion.

I know that's a large stretch and I in no way think it's fact. But it's one of my own few theories.

I of course have not taken out the psychological aspect and do believe there are many people with whom this could be purely psychological. But for many others, I believe it's a mix of both...

I also hope to become a psychologist one day so I try to think about it at many angles. I have a million other theories but they all take too long.

if it's psychological, it's there for a reason, so... I'm running with it.

Hey LadyRayne, welcome to OKP. Please post an introduction in the appropriate section so we can learn a bit more about you, thanks!

I think it is more spirtitual thing.
If it would be a psychological thing I wonder how so many people get it, and the why people get it. Most otherkin have different backgrounds and are from all over the world. Parents/your own children (or someone else in your close family) should be one if it were genetic. Also if it is a psychological thing I wonder why people will try to hide it and succeed, because psychological issues will always have a couple of signs for that issue even if you try to hide it. So that is why I think it is more a spiritual thing, and it also feels more right.
But I will also accept that it is a psychological issue if someone can explain it scientifically why we get it, and others dont.

Stormy Wrote:Parents/your own children (or someone else in your close family) should be one if it were genetic.

The thing with psychological is that it isn't always genetic. Autism, for example, which has been compared to certain therian traits, has no known cause and while it has a genetic base, that is not the only factor. So just because being Otherkin doesn't appear to be hereditary doesn't mean it couldn't still be psychological in nature.

Stormy Wrote:Also if it is a psychological thing I wonder why people will try to hide it and succeed, because psychological issues will always have a couple of signs for that issue even if you try to hide it.

Again, "symptoms" of therianthropy are often very obvious if you know what you're looking at. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->

Stormy Wrote:But I will also accept that it is a psychological issue if someone can explain it scientifically why we get it, and others dont.

Why do some people have asthma and others do not? Some people are either more prone to a specific disease or just unlucky in being born with it. If we're looking at Otherkin as a physiological or psychological thing, perhaps some people are just more prone/"unlucky" than others?

Elinox Wrote:The thing with psychological is that it isn't always genetic. Autism, for example, which has been compared to certain therian traits, has no known cause and while it has a genetic base, that is not the only factor. So just because being Otherkin doesn't appear to be hereditary doesn't mean it couldn't still be psychological in nature.

I know that it's not always genetic, I was just saying some of the causes of a psychological issue, one of them being genetic <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->

Elinox Wrote:Again, "symptoms" of therianthropy are often very obvious if you know what you're looking at. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s --> .

But by that theory every otherkin should have mainly the same "symptoms" and be for everyone the same, or sort of the same.

Elinow Wrote:Why do some people have asthma and others do not? Some people are either more prone to a specific disease or just unlucky in being born with it. If we're looking at Otherkin as a physiological or psychological thing, perhaps some people are just more prone/"unlucky" than others?

Asthma is a fysical illness, so it is not really the same. Since you can trace asthma with a few simple test it is already proven that it exist.
The causes may not have been proven, but they do know what the consequences are. But I can agree with you on that point on this one.
But luck - or not having luck- alone isn't a good enough explanation for me personally.

And I think an illness will make your life allot harder than it normally is. Lets take Borderline for example:
I have a couple of friends that have Borderline, and I find that does effect their lifes so much that it is really hard to function in this society, they even lose allot of their friends and find it harder to make new good friends because off their psychological issue. Their relationships are always failling because of it (they do have a pretty severe form, they are part-time in a institution), they can't keep a job, and even harm themself so much that they sometimes end in the hospital or worse.
So I think that it is not a psychological issue because if I look at my life, I don't have that much trouble because of it.