CDing etc as Addiction

[Latanya]

I know ur a girl now and happy for u
but for many the road is not so easy no matter where u are in the tg spectrum.
thats all
now about the addiction
i have a friend in real life that is an alcoholic. for him its a combination of his personality(compulsive) and difficult issues in lfe. if it wasnt drinking he would abuse something else. when he was put on meds to stop drinking(make him sick if he touches a drop) he start chain smoking. now he chain chews nicorette. his issues and his pesonality have not changed. the drinking, the smoking are symptoms of his personality and his issues. and that is how he reacts to them.
for me and i cant talk for others dressing, and being tg is internal. its is not a symptom of some other problem(but it might surface more when i have issues cause its a comfort zone) but an innate quality.this internal feeling drive my need to be fem. it is part of me part of my essence not a reaction to some other issue.
again every one is different and i am sure for some its totally external a learned trait. for me its me!!! part male part female and nothing i do can change that. i can disguise it, i can try to ignore it, and try to overcompensate for it . but it is always there and i have learned that doing those things(ignore etc) has done damage to me.

[Vanesa M]

Disorder ? Addiction ?? Compulsion ??? Possession ????,,,, Call it what you will,, but there is something there,, for me it seems an evergrowing force, the more i dress,, the more i want to.
And all the while if I could,, I'd make it disapear,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Latanya]

i totally agree vanessa
call it what u want but there definitely a internal mechanism that drives this desire to be fem
and yes if i could get rid of it i would

[Gillian]

I believe there is a connection to CD'ing being addictive. For many of us our first times of masturbation involved dressing in some form of womens clothing. The act of masturbation releases endorphins into the body, it has its effect, in that we desire to have the same feelings of well being again. Over the years of repeating this "well being exercise" it gets ingrained into us, the want, or need, for this sense of well being, which comes through sex, masturabating, and/or the dressing in the clothes. As the desire in one area decreases through age, the another increases to offset the changes, and help maintain the feelings of well being. My experience leads me to believe this to be true, as well as the talk from others on how dressing is a great stress relief in their lives. If I get a boost of endorphins into my body while I wear my frillies and skirt, it is a cheap "high". I am not supporting some crime lord through drugs, I am not drunk driving, so what is the problem? I keep my hobby within my home, and within my marriage. In my case, if this is an addiction, then it is victimless, I say that based in the fact that I have a supportive, involved wife, who encourages me to be just myself.

[Latanya]

as u gillian the thrill has gone in to directions
it no longer sexually stimulating so that aspect has gone completely
i dress every day underdressed and that is my comfort setting doesnt feel right otherwise. for me now its an acknowledgement of who i am male and female, gender fluid.

[Wendae]

I see CDing as a need not an addiction. <>If the need isn't satisfied and for some reason we are unable to fulfill that need then we would like to jump off a cliff or run screaming out the door. I guess there is a similarity.

[Ralitsa]

I don't know if it's better labelled as a need or as an addiction, and actually I'm not qualified to comment on what is an addiction or what it all means.

I do know that CDing is an integral part of my life, and very important to me. Actually I would not get rid of it if I could. I very much enjoy it, it brings me comfort and happiness, and I don't know of any reason why I would want to stop. There are some people around me that do not like it, but in most cases that is of no concern to me.
In the same way, I very much enjoy bacon cheeseburgers. I would not willingly stop eating them, and I don't think it would be possible for me to become a vegetarian. So am I addicted to them? I don't believe that I am. In both cases these are not behaviors that I have no control over and couldn't stop if I wanted to, they are things that I like and have no interest in stopping.
Maybe there are degrees of it which can be classed as an addiction. I guess there are people who will drink occasionally, but are not alcoholics; and then there are people who are alcoholics. For me, I would say that CDing is not an addiction, but maybe for some people it can be.

[Gillian]

In checking the dictionary, I found that the word habit, refers to something that is;

settled or regular tendency or practise, practise that is hard to give up;

Habit forming causing addiction

Possibly this is where the orginal question comes from, as in something that is habitual is something that leads to an addiction. CDing definately seems to be something that is hard to give up, which is based on the number of comments that get posted, as well as my own experience. We see addiction as being something negative, yet we all have good habits that we could get compulsive about. So, if I for example get a compulsion, as in irresistible urge, to buy some chocolate ice cream, am I addicted to it? Or, as what literally happened to me this morning, I had this urge to wear pantyhose, and was not settled until I dressed in a skirt and hose. So, what is the difference, other than a society that has set some standard that we don't seem to fit within.

The only down side I see to this "habit" of mine is that I have to keep it from anyone who doesn't understand, or who is prejudice, through ignorance of why I do what I am doing. Unfortunately I, as well as many of us are doing little or nothing to change the ignorant. Mea Culpa