## Actaeon Gets a Clean Bill of Mental Health :)

Posted October 21, 1996

Hi all,

Well, as my parents requested, I went to see a therapist about the fact that I am a zoophile. (For those who don't know, I came out to them on October 2.)

The bottom line: the counselor gave me a clean bill of mental health, as I expected. He's treated zoos before (all males -- I had to ask :), and he didn't have a problem with it. Basically, as long as no one is being endangered or exploited, and your lifestyle doesn't unduly inconvenience you or make you uncomfortable, it shouldn't be an issue. At his next visit, he would like to see my parents by themselves (I went alone the first time), and then perhaps the three of us together for a followup.

The down side is that while my mother isn't all that upset about it, my father is still quite repulsed by the idea of zoophilia, and still wishes me to disassociate myself from the zoo community. He is convinced you are "poison" (his word) and a bad influence on me. He also doesn't want me to attend the gatherings, and promises to raise my rent if I continue going to them, because he doesn't want to "subsidize the lifestyle" and would rather have me too broke to leave the house. A financial grounding, in other words.

I will never understand how people can blame themselves for another person's lifestyle, and seek to control them in this fashion. However, as long as I live with my parents, I am subject to their wishes, so I am, as I said before, hoping to move out soon.

But back to the counseling session:

The psychiatric community knows of no "cure" for zoophilia, any more than there is a "cure" for homosexuality or bisexuality, and would generally regard an attempt to change a person's lifestyle as being more harmful and disruptive than the lifestyle itself may be. It is possible to sway a person away from an undesired lifestyle by using drugs such as Depoprovera (sp?), but this acts by supressing _all_ sexual desire, and makes a person _asexual_. Take away the drug, and the person eventually reverts to his natural state. The same is true of aversion therapy, whether through shock therapy or some other negative association such as a noxious odor.

I am left with one question:

In the Zoophilia and Your Health FAQ there is an extensive on-line listing of diseases one may catch (or transmit) through intimate contact with animals. Is there also a resource somewhere dealing with the psychological aspects of being zoo, or of having any other alternate lifestyle? I'm not aware of any, which is a shame, because I think it would be a wonderful thing to have a document to point to when someone says we are sick and need medical treatment. We can simply say, "no we don't, and is proof." We could also create a listing of zoo-friendly counselors (which should be nearly all of them), so if your family _insists_ that you seek help, you can do so with the assurance that your counselor won't agree with them. The down side to that concept is that these counselors may be flamed or harrassed by the intolerant, so I'm open to comments on that.

Either way, if no such resource exists, I would be happy to create one, with input from any and all interested parties. If one _does_ exist already, by all means let me know, and I will include a link to it on my page.

visits since 8/9/97

Essays -- Updated Saturday, March 15, 1997 -- E-mail Actaeon