ʚ♡ɞ

So this is slightly different from other interests, but since it's something I think about somewhat often, I think it fits here anyway!!

I identify as alterhuman, which is roughly defined as someone who identifies as something other than 100% human to any degree. For some people it means not identifying as human AT ALL, but for me it means I identify as human AND other things on top of that. I briefly went over that in my "about", but I'd like to go more in depth with my experiences with alterhumanity here!!

Ranked from most to least, these are my main three!

Kemonomimi
AKA having the ears (and usually tail) of any animal, but otherwise being human. For me it's mainly folded dog ears + a medium-length fluffy tail that match my hair color, white floppy bunny ears + a tail, and cream point ragdoll cat ears + tail!
You can call me a doggirl or a catgirl for simplicity's sake!

Non-religious angel
Which means I'm not tied to any specific religious beliefs! I have the typical stereotypical Christian angel look though, with wings that are mainly cream colored with the tips of the lowest feathers having a brown edge... I'll attach an example at some point!
I also have a pretty typical yellow ring halo, but it spins with my emotions! It's sometimes just a flat chakram-like shape, and other times it's more 3D.

Persocom
These are from the manga/anime Chobits! Persocom are basically a kind of humanoid robots that function as a personal computer... get it? get it??? teehee!!
I guess technically I'd be one of the mythological chobits (the only kind of persocom known to be actually intelligent and capable of feeling emotions), but I feel kinda weird claiming to be something so special... I have the same kind of ears as Chii and Freya, though, so I guess originality isn't really important after all...

I mostly identify as a mix of all three, usually portraying myself as a girl with animal ears, wings, and some sort of robotic touch (usually with a little cord as a tail)!

There are some more that only come up sometimes, which includes a ball jointed doll, malicious software (with the appearence of a cute little anime girl), a kinda creepy forest or pond nymph, and a vampire.

I absolutely think me identifying as alterhuman comes from growing up with autism, and being a victim of social neglect growing up. I've always come off as a little uncanny to other people (thanks to my autism), and I kinda internalized the fact that I don't fit in through identifying as something not quite human!
I started out identifying as cat-adjacent as a child, since I was always surrounded by cats more than humans. I've always felt like I should have a tail and animal ears, for pretty much as long as I can remember, and these are my main phantom limbs I experience!
When I was around 12, I got really into witchcraft and those bogus "so mote it be" spells you could find all over the internet back in 2013, and I fully convinced myself that a wing spell I "cast" would work. I'm aware now that this was a delusion, but ever since, I've felt phantom wings on my back.

For me, identifying as alterhuman is absolutely not a spiritual thing. I also distance myself from people using it as an excuse to avoid pursuing therapy and healthy ways to deal with whatever caused it to begin with. I don't think people need to be "cured" of being alterhuman, but I think it's irresponsible to discourage people from going to therapy to get help with everything surrounding it (since usually it's a symptom of trauma). I think being aware of the cause/origin of stuff like this leads to a healthy way to approach it, and it makes you less vulnerable to all the negatives!!!

I've always had a pretty big interest in alterhumanity as a concept, and though I don't really know too much about the specifics of it, I still enjoy thinking about it! When therian or otherkin content pops up on my feeds, I mostly just feel happy that these people have found a way to express their feelings about their non-human identities, and I feel happy that they've finally found community.

I have a tendency to isolate myself a lot from other people with similar experiences, because when we're not going through the exact same thing, I tend to feel animosity. My brain is pretty hardwired to hate anything that's too different from myself, and even though I work hard on not letting that show (it only causes pain if I do, obviously), I tend to just preemptively avoid any situations that might cause these feelings to rise up, usually just meaning I keep everything vague and I prefer when others do the same.
You can talk to me about alterhumanity, but if it gets too specific it might trigger my flight response and I'll become more distant... it kinda sucks!

This feeling is what's made me distance myself from properly labelling my alterhuman experience as anything more specific. I know where I belong, but when you put a specific name on something, you suddenly have expectations to live up to, and people don't tend to take kindly to those who are still learning, or choose not to do certain things in online spaces.