, both socially, medically, I wasn't really directly interacting with anybody in the transgender community at the time. And I was very determined to do this. And it was mostly something that I had led on my own, but it was under the pretense that this was the only option that I had or that I thought I had.
Jul 27, 2023; Washington, DC, USA; Chloe Cole testifies during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution and Limited Government holds a hearing on gender affirming care for children.. They did a psychiatric evaluation before I was diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria. And they knew at the time that I had a previous diagnosis of ADHD, that I likely had autism and that I was struggling with social anxiety. But also that I was going through things that were perfectly normal for a kid my age. They told my mom and dad that it was either transition or suicide for me, but I wasn't suicidal until after I was put on these treatments.
That's [societal pressures] a huge part of it. I mean. A lot of these people getting caught up on this are kids who have a previous history of mental illnesses. Many of them don't really have very many friends at school or have much of a sense of community in their own neighborhoods, within their family even. And they seek that somewhere else. They seek that through these communities online or with their peers. And it gives them that sense of longing that they didn't have before.