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The original was posted on /r/therian by /u/Candid-Guide4599 on 2025-06-06 07:19:07+00:00.

I’m not quite sure how to format this, so i guess i’ll just share my experience. About 2 years ago, my best friend of four years came out to me as a therian. If i’m being honest, it wasn’t a surprise to me considering that they had always had an intense interest in wildlife and always seemed extremely connected to nature. But at the time, i had an extreme distaste for therians because i didn’t understand the identity and saw it as illogical. My biases caused me to not support my friend whatsoever (which i am unbelievably ashamed of now). Eventually, i realized that my behavior was hurting them and i felt the need to rectify my behavior by doing as much research and learning about therianthropy as i could so that i could be a supportive friend. As i began researching the community i realized that i felt a certain draw to it, and seeing others explain their experiences with therianthropy massively struck a chord in me. After a couple months of journaling and self reflection, i came to the conclusion that i am also a therian. It’s been about a year now and i’ve realized that therianthropy makes me feel more well rounded not just in my animal identity, but also as a person. I feel more connected to nature, to myself, and i just feel so unbelievably free i guess? But every now and then i get hit with a ton of guilt surrounding it. Because even though i love being a therian, a small part of me still thinks i have no right to call myself one because of how unsupportive i was when my best friend first came out to me, and i feel as if i have simply co-opted a part of THIER identity and made it my own. I’m very private about my therianthropy, and i tend to avoid talking about it even with other therians. This is partially because of my impostor syndrome, but also because i just don’t feel the need to, because my therianthropy is for me and me only. But my friend is so much more of what you’d expect from a therian i guess? They live up in the mountains and have dens and trees that they spend time in (i live in a suburban neighborhood so i don’t have access to anything like that), and their personality and interests just scream therian as compared to me. I dunno, maybe this isn’t enough information to make a proper judgement from, but do i even deserve to call myself a therian? I also think i have somewhat against the grain beliefs as to who is “really a therian” or not and i see the identity fairly differently from most others in the community. Overall, i dont want to give up my therianthropy identity, but i feel like compared to others my expression just isn’t as valid.