Rape is the unconsensual and unlawful act of sexual intercourse forced by one person onto another. This can include penetration, but does not have to. Victims of rape can be female or male. “Rape is the most extreme possible invasion of a person’s physical and emotional privacy.” It is considered to be such a heinous crime because victims are attacked in a very personal manner and because physical force or deception can be utilized. Rape can be physically painful, but it can be more emotionally unbearable. Rape is often described as less of an invasion of the body and more of an invasion of “self.” Victims often have intense emotional reactions, usually in a predictable order. This is known as rape trauma syndrome.

Rape victims can experience added stress after the assault because of the way hospital staff, police personnel, friends, family, and significant others react to the situation. They can often feel lowered self-esteem and even a sense of helplessness. They long for a sense of safety and control over their lives. Rape victims can develop a fear of sex for physical and psychological reasons. During sexual assault, victims experience physical trauma such as soreness, bruising, pain, genital irritation, genital infection, severe tearing of vaginal walls, and rectal bleeding. They may also grapple with fear of the potential reoccurrence of assault. This possibility for rape can put stress on relationships as well. Some women and men can become distrusting and suspicious of others. Rape victims can become fearful of sexual intercourse because of physical pain and mental anguish.

There can be many different reasons for why people develop genophobia. Some of the main causes are former incidents of sexual assaults or abuse. These incidents violate the victim’s trust and take away their sense of right to self-determination. Another possible cause of genophobia is the feeling of intense shame or medical reasons. Others may have the fear without any diagnosable reason.

GID exists when a person suffers discontent due to gender identity, causing them emotional distress. Researchers disagree about the nature of distress and impairment in people with GID. Some authors have suggested that people with GID suffer because they are stigmatized and victimized; and that, if society had less strict gender divisions, transsexual people would suffer less.

A twin study (based on seven people in a 314 sample) suggested that GID may be 62% heritable, indicating the possibility of a genetic influence or prenatal development as its origin, in these cases.

Species dysphoria is the experience of dysphoria, sometimes including clinical lycanthropy (delusion or hallucination of one's self as an animal) and dysmorphia (excessive concern over one's body image), associated with the feeling that one's body is of the wrong species. Earls and Lalumière (2009) describe it as "the sense of being in the wrong (species) body... a desire to be an animal". Outside of psychological literature, the term is common within the otherkin and therian communities. The phenomenon is sometimes experienced in the context of sexual arousal to the image of one's self as an animal.

Symptoms of GD in children may include any of the following: disgust at their own genitalia, social isolation from their peers, anxiety, loneliness and depression. According to the American Psychological Association, transgender children are more likely to experience harassment and violence in school, foster care, residential treatment centers, homeless centers and juvenile justice programs than other children.

Adults with GD are at increased risk for stress, isolation, anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem and suicide. Studies indicate that transgender people have an extremely high rate of suicide attempts; one study of 6,450 transgender people in the United States found 41% had attempted suicide, compared to a national average of 1.6%. It was also found that suicide attempts were less common among transgender people who said their family ties had remained strong after they came out, but even transgender people at comparatively low risk were still much more likely to have attempted suicide than the general population. Transgender people are also at heightened risk for certain mental disorders such as eating disorders.

Gender dysphoria in children or gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) is a formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe children who experience significant discontent (gender dysphoria) with their biological sex, assigned gender, or both.

GIDC was formalized in the third revision of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-III) in 1980 and primarily referenced gender non-conforming behaviors. GIDC remained in the DSM from 1980 to 2013, when it was replaced with the diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" in the fifth revision (DSM-5), in an effort to diminish the stigma attached to gender variance while maintaining a diagnostic route to gender affirming medical interventions such as hormone therapy and surgery.

Controversy surrounding the pathologization and treatment of cross-gender identity and behaviors, particularly in children, has been evident in the literature since the 1980s. Proponents of more widespread GIDC diagnoses argue that therapeutic intervention helps children be more comfortable in their bodies and can prevent adult gender identity disorder. Opponents say that the equivalent therapeutic interventions with gays and lesbians (titled conversion or reparative therapy) have been strongly questioned or declared unethical by the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Association of Social Workers and American Academy of Pediatrics. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) states that treatment aimed at trying to change a person's gender identity and expression to become more congruent with sex assigned at birth "is no longer considered ethical." Critics also argue that the GIDC diagnosis and associated therapeutic interventions rely on the assumption that an adult transsexual identity is undesirable, challenging this assumption along with the lack of clinical data to support outcomes and efficacy.

Gender identity disorder in children is more heavily linked with adult homosexuality than adult transsexualism. According to limited studies, the majority of children diagnosed with GID cease to desire to be the other sex by puberty, with most growing up to identify as gay or lesbian with or without therapeutic intervention.

"Species dysphoria" is informally used mainly in psychological literature to compare the experiences of some individuals to those in the transgender community. Otherkin and therian communities have also used it to describe their experiences.

In a 2008 study by Gerbasi "et al.", 46% of people surveyed who identified as being in the furry fandom, (usually defined as a person who enjoys anthropomorphic animals, occasionally to an almost obsessive degree), answered "yes" to the question "Do you consider yourself to be less than 100% human?" and 41% answered "yes" to the question "If you could become 0% human, would you?" Questions that Gerbasi states as being deliberately designed to draw parallels with gender dysphoria, specifying "a persistent feeling of discomfort" about the human body and the feeling that the person was the "non-human species trapped in a human body", were answered "yes" by 24% and 29% of respondents, respectively. Likewise, these studies support the fact that the therianthropic, otherkin and furry communities are very similar in nature and are often interconnected.

As described by those who experience it, species dysphoria may include sensations of supernumerary phantom limbs associated with the species, such as phantom wings or claws. Species dysphoria involves feelings of being an animal or other creatures "trapped in" a human body and so, is considered different from the traditional definition of clinical lycanthropy, in which the patient believes they have actually been transformed into an animal or have the ability to physically shapeshift. However, some cases that have been labeled as "clinical lycanthropy" actually seem to be cases of species dysphoria, involving persons who have no delusion of transformation but instead have feelings of being in some way a non-human animal, while still acknowledging they possess a human form. Keck "et al." propose a redefinition for clinical lycanthropy that covers species dysphoric behaviours observed in several patients, including verbal reports, "during intervals of lucidity or retrospectively, that he or she was a particular animal" and behaving "in the manner of a particular animal, i.e. howling, growling, crawling on all fours". Keck "et al." describe one patient as a depressed individual who "had always suspected he was a cat" and "laments his lack of fur, stripes and a tail". Except for the persistent feeling of being feline, the patient's "thought processes and perception" were "usually logical".

Transmisogyny (sometimes trans-misogyny) is the intersection of transphobia and misogyny. Transphobia is defined as "the irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender or transsexual people". Misogyny is defined as "a hatred of women". Therefore, transmisogyny includes negative attitudes, hate, and discrimination of transgender or transsexual individuals who fall on the feminine side of the gender spectrum, particularly transgender women. The term was coined by Julia Serano in her 2007 book "Whipping Girl" and used to describe the unique discrimination faced by trans women because of "the assumption that femaleness and femininity are inferior to, and exist primarily for the benefit of, maleness and masculinity", and the way that transphobia intensifies the misogyny faced by trans women (and vice versa). It is said many trans women experience an additional layer of misogyny in the form of fetishization; Serano talks about how society views trans women in certain ways that sexualize them, such as them transitioning for sexual reasons, or ways where they’re seen as sexually promiscuous.Transmisogyny is a central concept in transfeminism and is commonly referenced in intersectional feminist theory. That trans women's femaleness (rather than only their femininity) is a source of transmisogyny is denied by certain radical feminists, who claim that trans women are not female.

Children with persistent GID are characterized by more extreme gender dysphoria in childhood than children with desisting gender dysphoria. Some (but not all) gender diverse / gender independent / gender fluid youth will want or need to transition, which may involve social transition (changing dress, name, pronoun), and, for older youth and adolescents, medical transition (hormonal and surgical intervention). Treatment may take the form of puberty blockers such as Lupron Depot or Leuprolide Acetate, or cross-sex hormones (i.e., administering estrogen to an assigned male at birth or testosterone to an assigned female at birth), or surgery (i.e., mastectomies, salphingo-oophorectomies/hysterectomy, the creation of a neophallus in female-to-male transsexuals, orchiectomies, breast augmentation, facial feminization surgery, the creation of a neovagina in male-to-female transsexuals), with the aim of bringing one’s physical body in line with their felt gender. The ability to transition (socially and medically) are sometimes needed in the treatment of gender dysphoria.

The Endocrine Society does not recommend endocrine treatment of prepubertal children because clinical experience suggests that GID can be reliably assessed only after the first signs of puberty. It recommends treating transsexual adolescents by suppressing puberty with puberty blockers until age 16 years old, after which cross-sex hormones may be given.

The University of Washington is leading the largest study of transgender youth ever conducted. The study, known as the Transgender Youth Project, looks at 300 transgender kids between the ages of 3 and 12. Researchers hope to follow the children for 20 years.

Transvestic fetishism is a psychiatric diagnosis applied to those who are thought to have an excessive sexual or erotic interest in cross-dressing; this interest is often expressed in autoerotic behavior. It differs from cross-dressing for entertainment or other purposes that do not involve sexual arousal, and is categorized as a paraphilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. (Sexual arousal in response to donning sex-typical clothing is homeovestism.)

Apotemnophilia has been studied for a number of years to determine whether this disorder is actually neurological or psychological. However, in-depth research related to apotemnophilia and its correlation to the mind and body are still not clear. Recent research has shown small breakthroughs such that apotemnophiles are three times more likely to want removal of a left limb than right, in accordance with damage to the right parietal lobe, and also in concordance with sufferers of somatoparaphrenia; in addition, skin conductance response is significantly different above and below the line of desired amputation, and the line of desired amputation remains stable over time, with the desire often beginning in early childhood. Among a convenience sample of 52 apotemnophiles recruited from internet groups, the great majority wanted a single leg removed, cut above the knee. There are parallels between apotemnophilia as a motivation for body integrity identity disorder and autogynephilia as a motivation for some cases of male-to-female gender dysphoria.

A 2014 review concluded that

Transmisogyny is generally understood to be caused by the social belief that men are superior to women. In "Whipping Girl", Julia Serano writes that the existence of trans women is seen as a threat to a "male-centered gender hierarchy, where it is assumed that men are better than women and that masculinity is superior to femininity". Gender theorist Judith Butler echoes this assumption, stating that the murder of transgender women is "an act of power, a way of re-asserting domination... killing establishes the killer as sovereign in the moment that he kills".

Trans women are also viewed as threatening the heterosexuality of cisgender men. In media, "deceivers" such as Dil, a transgender woman from the 1992 film "The Crying Game", have been observed to invoke outrage and male homophobia in an audience when their "true" maleness is unveiled.

Males with late onset gender dysphoria "frequently" display transvestic fetishism.

Some male transvestic fetishists collect women's clothing, e.g. panties, nightgowns, babydolls, bridal gowns, slips, brassieres, and other types of nightwear, lingerie, stockings, pantyhose, shoes, and boots, items of a distinct feminine look and feel. They may dress in these feminine garments and take photographs of themselves while living out their fantasies.

According to DSM-IV, this fetishism was limited to heterosexual men; however, DSM-5 does not have this restriction, and opens it to women and men with this interest, regardless of their sexual orientation.

There are two key criteria before a psychiatric diagnosis of "transvestic fetishism" is made:

1. Individuals must be sexually aroused by the act of cross-dressing.

2. Individuals must experience significant distress or impairment – socially or occupationally – because of their behavior.

Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with, or not culturally associated with, their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including hormone replacement therapy and other sex reassignment therapies) to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.

"Transsexual" is generally considered a subset of "transgender", but some transsexual people reject the label of "transgender". A medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria can be made if a person expresses a desire to live and be accepted as a member of their identified sex, and if a person experiences impaired functioning or distress as a result of their gender identity.

Apotemnophia / Body Integrity Disorder (BIID) is a is a rare, infrequently studied and highly secretive condition in which there is a mismatch between the mental body image and the physical body. Apotemnomphilia is characterized by an intense desire for amputation of a limb. Currently BIID is not included in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases 11 or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV. It is often not known to surgeons, neurologists and psychiatrists. BIID individuals typically avoid healthcare and often act out their desires by pretending they are disabled or perform actual self-amputation.

A 2012 study concluded, based on interviews with 54 individuals, that the main rationale for their desire for body modification (amputation) was to feel complete or to feel satisfied inside. Based on the results of the survey, researchers concluded that psychotherapy was often supportive, but did not help diminishing BIID symptoms. Individuals reported that antidepressants were helpful in reducing depressive symptoms related to BIID, but that antipsychotics were not. Actual amputation of the limb was effective in all 7 cases who had surgical treatment.

A non-operative transsexual person, or non-op, is someone who has not had SRS, and does not intend to have it in the future. There can be various reasons for this, from the personal to the financial.

Anxiety/aggression-driven depression (also known as 5-HT related depression) is a proposed subtype of Major depressive disorder first proposed by the Dutch psychiatrist Herman M. van Praag in 1996. Van Praag has continued to write on this topic in subsequent academic articles.

It is proposed that ameliorating the stress response will allow neurotransmission to return to homeostasis. Anxiolytic medications that act as 5-HT receptor agonists (in particular, 5-HT1A) together with CRH and/or cortisol antagonists (which are implicated in the stress response) are hypothesized to be an appropriate method of achieving this therapeutic response. Psychological interventions can also help to raise the threshold for stress and thereby restore the stress response to normal.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the mainstay of treatment. At other times counseling, anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications have been shown to be of use.

Some doctors believe dhat syndrome to be either a culture-bound presentation of clinical depression, as a somatized set of symptoms, or a result of Western doctors' misinterpretation of patients' descriptions of their condition.

It is very common in Nepali culture as well. Most of them come with the complaints of "drops" and become extremely anxious about it and see it as loss of "male power". It is often related with obsessive ruminations and somatoform symptoms. Others see it as a distinct clinical entity which is less culture-bound than these critics assert, and describe it as one form of a syndrome of "semen-loss anxiety" which also occurs in other Eastern cultures as jiryan and shen-k'uei, as well as in Western cultures.

Chlamydia infection might also be related to it because of similar symptoms in case of infection of the urethra (urethritis), which is usually symptomatic, causing a white discharge from the penis with or without pain on urinating (dysuria).

Ichthyoallyeinotoxism, or hallucinogenic fish inebriation, comes from eating certain species of fish found in several parts of the tropics, the effects of which are reputed to be similar in some aspects to LSD. Experiences may include vivid auditory and visual hallucinations. This has given rise to the collective common name "dream fish" for ichthyoallyeinotoxic fish.

The species most commonly claimed to be capable of producing this kind of toxicity include several species from the "Kyphosus" genus, including "Kyphosus fuscus", "K. cinerascens" and "K. vaigiensis". It is unclear whether the toxins are produced by the fish themselves or by marine algae in their diet, but a dietary origin may be more likely.

"Sarpa salpa", a species of bream, can induce LSD-like hallucinations if it is eaten. These widely distributed coastal fish are called "the fish that make dreams" in Arabic. In 2006, two men who ate fish, apparently the "Sarpa salpa" caught in the Mediterranean were affected by ichthyoallyeinotoxism and experienced hallucinations lasting for several days.

Other hallucinogenic fish are "Siganus spinus", called "the fish that inebriates" in Reunion Island, and "Mulloides flavolineatus" (formerly "Mulloidichthys samoensis"), called "the chief of ghosts" in Hawaii.

Comedown or crashing is the deterioration in mood that happens as a psychoactive drug, typically a stimulant, is either decreasing or is cleared from the blood and thus the cerebral circulation. The improvement and deterioration of mood (euphoria and dysphoria) are represented in the cognitive as high and low elevations; thus, after the drug has "elevated" the mood (a state known as a high), there follows a period of "coming back down," which often has a distinct character from withdrawal in stimulants. Generally, a comedown ("down", "low", sometimes "crash") can happen to anyone as a transient symptom, but in people who are dependent on the drug (especially those addicted to it), it is an early symptom of withdrawal and thus can be followed by others. Various drug classes, most especially stimulants and to a lesser degree opioids and sedatives, are subject to comedowns. A milder analogous mood cycle can happen even with blood sugar levels (thus sugar highs and sugar lows), which is especially relevant to people with diabetes mellitus and to parents and teachers managing children's behavior, as well as in adults with ADHD. Stimulant comedowns are unique in that they often appear very abruptly after a period of focus or high, and are typically the more intensely dysphoric phase of withdrawal than that following complete elimination from the bloodstream. Besides general dysphoria, this phase can be marked by frustration, anger, anhedonia, social withdrawal, and other symptoms characteristic to a milder mixed episode in bipolar disorder. Alertness and other general stimulant effects are still present.

Antidepressants, including SSRIs, can cross the placenta and have the potential to affect the fetus and newborns, presenting a dilemma whether pregnant women should take antidepressants at all, and if they do, whether tapering them near the end of pregnancy could have a protective effect for the newborn.

Postnatal adaptation syndrome (PNAS) (originally called “neonatal behavioral syndrome”, “poor neonatal adaptation syndrome”, or "neonatal withdrawal syndrome") was first noticed in 1973 in newborns of mothers taking antidepressants; symptoms in the infant include irritability, rapid breathing, hypothermia, and blood sugar problems. The symptoms usually develop from birth to days after delivery and usually resolve within days or weeks of delivery.

The mechanisms of antidepressant withdrawal syndrome have not yet been conclusively identified. The leading hypothesis is that after the antidepressant is discontinued, there is a temporary deficiency in the brain of one or more essential neurotransmitters that regulate mood, such as serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid, and since neurotransmitters are an interrelated system, dysregulation of one affects the others.

The syndrome may be in part due to persisting physiological adaptations in the central nervous system manifested in the form of continuing but slowly reversible tolerance, disturbances in neurotransmitters and resultant hyperexcitability of neuronal pathways in regards to alcohol. However, data supports neuronal and overwhelming cognitive normalization in regards to chronic amphetamine use and PAWS. Stressful situations arise in early recovery, and the symptoms of post acute withdrawal syndrome produce further distress. It is important to avoid or to deal with the triggers that make post acute withdrawal syndrome worse. The types of symptomatology and impairments in severity, frequency, and duration associated with the condition vary depending on the drug of use.