I’m happy this resonated with you, even just a little! I’m in my forties and I’ve been gradually coming out this year. It’s all true. I’m still deconstructing the unbearable shame. Bottling this up indefinitely is actual self destruction. I second your advice: don’t keep it to yourselves, don’t bottle it up, anyone reading this. At one point I managed to ignore what existed behind the mask. This has tremendous cost. It accumulates like lead in an organism. My daughter’s growing dysphoria is what made me realize this wasn’t a life. If I hadn’t been coaxed by her predicament to finally make this journey together with her I don’t know how I would have ended up. Last year was dark.