Guideline Case Study Rapid Onset Gender dysphoria (RODG) – Author Lara Forsberg M.Ed., WDI Education Chair, and Children with Disabilities Worker 

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It is difficult to get a general picture from all the different case studies, but trauma of some kind is often the commonality in trans identification. For example, an 8-year-old boy who suffered the death of his father as well as an absent working mom found that cross-dressing soothed him. The boy improved when his mom took care to spend more time with him. Children are often enmeshed with their mothers and experience separation anxiety.

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Co-author Michelle Cretella says parents are usually well-meaning and willing to do their best. Michelle had a case involving a little boy about age 4 who became insecure when his baby sister with special needs was born. Normal family dynamics can be interpreted differently by a 3-year-old who has been the apple of his mother’s eye since birth, then losing that attention to a new member. The boy misinterpreted the attention his special needs sister was receiving as being because she is a girl rather than a new baby with special needs. He thought he would receive love being a girl, and when mom and dad took care of his infant needs, he returned to his former happy boy self.

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Zucker describes case studies that were resolved through family therapy. In one case, a boy was being bullied at school, and he thought he could escape the torment by identifying as a girl; in another case, a girl whose mother was murdered chose to identify as a boy to empower herself. The false belief that men are too strong to be murdered instigated her identity crisis.[142]  

 

This story is from a friend I met in a Facebook group. A mother named Anna has a daughter who lost her father through divorce, her brother to the army, and both her grandmother and horse in the same time period. Erin began her gender identity crisis in 2015, at the age of sixteen. Anna, Erin’s mother, recounts that many girl groups excluded Erin and were largely cliquish. Anna describes Erin as “highly gifted,” “socially challenged”, and “intellectually precocious.” Throughout Erin’s childhood, Erin preferred feminine clothing and hairstyles, took the mommy role when playing with dolls, and voiced no objection to being a girl. Erin’s mother, Anna, reports that Erin talked to peers as if they were adults and didn’t understand when they were bored by Erin’s monologues. Around fifth grade, Erin started associating more with boys than girls, “not because she shared their interests or participated in their rough-and-tumble play, but for their lack of drama.” Hanging out with them was much easier and preferable to being alone. And though the boys accepted her, she still felt disconnected from her peers. Erin made the statements, “Why doesn’t anyone like me?” and “When will I be OK?” Anna recounts: “My intellectual girl had a hard time navigating their complex social cues. She was not aggressively bullied, but she was left out.”

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Erin began to struggle in school in Grade five. Psychiatrist Dr. Christopher prescribed Focolin & Vyvanse to help Erin focus. Erin met Dr. Christopher three to four times a year for medication prescription assessment. By grade eight, Erin was taken off this ADHD medication due to weight loss and dieting. Anna says that Erin was teased about her thin frame and small breasts, and Erin was still dieting in grade nine. Anna adds that junior high was a highly sexualized environment. Anna saw that Erin needed better peer relationships and enrolled her in the 4-H club. Erin made some friends and began spending time daily with Molly, a horse they boarded on a farm; then, Erin began to maintain top grades during grades six, seven, and eight.

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At age thirteen, Erin began to take a romantic interest in boys; Erin embraced the changes brought about by puberty and expressed excitement when her period started. She enjoyed shopping for bras and body-hugging clothes but continued to voice dissatisfaction about her body. Most eating disorders are the result of navigating the developmental demands of adolescents.[143]

 

In the middle of grade ten, Erin told Anna that she was bisexual. Anna embraced Erin’s decision and validated her bisexuality but noted that Erin was only dating boys at that time. A preliminary adolescent relationship consisted of a boy who was pressuring Erin to have sex based on examples on pornography sites. When Erin ended the relationship, the boy bullied Erin on Instagram and Tumblr.

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At the time that Erin came out as transgender, many girls in the high school were also identifying as transgender, approximately six of Erin’s friends were on puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, and three of these girls had undergone ‘top surgery’. Erin displayed a lack of motivation, spending long hours on Tumblr. Peer relationships were confined to online chat groups and a trans identified female named Holden.

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Holden pressured Erin online to transition medically and followed her around at school. Holden was four years older than Erin, and the school supported this relationship. Holden made sure Erin stayed on the path to transition. Erin was made an LGBTQ leader and invited to give her testimony at school, locking her into a promise she would have to keep to the school. She explained her plan to disassociate from her own body for a crowd of teachers and peers in a full school gymnasium, which was also filmed.  

Further to the school locking her in her identity, the series of tragic incidents that challenged Erin emotionally in high school had begun—first, the death of Erin’s grandmother. Erin locked herself in the bathroom at the funeral home and refused to come out. Then, when Erin’s horse died, Erin cut her long hair short and stopped showering. She spent most of this time online, watching YouTube videos.  

When Anna tried to separate Holden, the trans-identified female friend, from her daughter, Erin had unusual outbursts of anger and pity toward her mother and herself. She showed anxiety and fear toward her father and had difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. Erin stated that most people were “foolish, petty, and duped by religion.” Erin’s father (divorced from Anna) did not support her trans identity, but her older brother, whom she looked up to, did.

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Family, teachers, and peers who supported the trans drama have entered a very deadly Game. Many serious transgressions have happened to uphold this lie. Schools often change records (names) without parent knowledge - months later, when parents find out, the parents are told not to deadname their child. Parents and children are told that the child will commit suicide if the parent doesn’t go along with the affirmation model. That’s scary stuff. As previously stated, this is not true. Unethical suicide stats are used to discount parent concerns.

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Caution is replaced with a parade of celebration by relatives, teachers, and peers. Peers, like Holden, are assigned to the child to keep them on track in their new identity. Moms are reclassified as bad moms, hateful, and transphobic. The mother, Anna, in the case study was facing the emotional trauma of losing her mother while going through divorce She needed help - and the teachers and ‘mentors’ pushing for Erin’s identity betrayed their roles. A very loving mother, overwhelmed, was sidelined and abused by teachers and students.

 

In grade 12, the mother was told that her daughter was chosen to be a boy or girl. This was progress, and she was happy, for the time being, not feeling dysphoric, and simply identifying as a gay boy. “What was the harm?” They said.

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But much harm was done, and Erin was in trouble and on a path to medical transition. When Erin turned 18, things went very badly. Erin, this lovely girl, got hormones and surgery (2023), to her mother’s great sadness. It is important to note that much of life’s happiness is attained through relationships, including romantic relationships. Erin’s attractiveness to boys, the sex she was attracted to, will no longer have any attraction to her. The chances of her being intimate and sexual or becoming a mom are unlikely. Many women who feel overwhelmed by a highly sexed world, where pornography involves hurting and degrading women, conclude that it isn’t safe to be a girl. It happened this way with Erin. My heartfelt gratitude goes to the mother who shared her story with me. Names have been changed in this story to protect the individuals in the story.