Phenic Fox

Therianthropy is an identity; it's part of you. So, just like an identity, it’ll have an effect on your life. Being a therian can really affect fitting in because therians are commonly picked on. It's common for therians to feel like outcasts, even in environments where people accept you, because therianthropy does make you feel disconnected from humanity sometimes. Your behavior could possibly be seen as “odd” to others.

However, therianthropy shouldn’t negatively affect your life. Bullying is an outside factor, and that’s just a result of people being cruel and judgmental. But if your therianthropy is causing depression, stress, hallucinations, or anything negative, that’s not from your therianthropy. It’s likely you are struggling with something mentally, such as depression, anxiety, or other mental issues, and it is projecting onto your therian identity. It is not at all healthy, and it’s important to get professional help! However, it’s not the fault of therianthropy.

Therianthropy really differs from person to person. You can be a therian without going by the label, because whether or not you have the identity isn't a choice, but whether or not you use the label is a choice.

The definition of a therian is to involuntarily identify as a non-human animal. Outside of giving that definition, no one but you can tell you whether or not you’re a therian. There are commonly shared experiences among therians, but those things aren’t what make you a therian. Everyone is different, so it’s tough to figure out. You just need to ask yourself, how do you view your identity? For any reason, maybe a connection, personal animalistic experiences, or a disconnection from humanity, anything... do you, in some way, identify as a non-human animal? Do you feel inhuman in any way? Whether it be you feel part non-human, or fully non-human. Or maybe it fluctuates, and some days you feel more non-human than others.

It’s also important to note that there’s more than therianthropy. Therian falls under the label of alterhuman, and there are dozens of other alterhuman identities that differ from therians. If you find you’re not a therian, you might want to start looking at other identities! There’s probably something that will fit your experience.

A lot of people realize they are therians by coming across therians online and then researching the identity for themselves. Most therians are aware of their therianthropy before they have words to describe it. The most commonly spoken about experience is simply to not feel human. For example, I knew about my therian experiences when I was a kid, but didn't know what they were. I didn’t have the words to describe my experiences; all I knew was I didn’t fully feel human despite my body being a human's. I involuntarily experienced non-human instincts, urges, thoughts, characteristics, etc.

The advice I've always given is to, without telling them you are one, tell them what a therian is and ask them what they think about it in a very neutral way. That way, you can gauge their reaction and figure out whether or not it's a safe environment to tell them. Plus, if they know what it is, then in the future they'll be more accepting.

Therian quads refers to quadrobics, which is the sport of moving on all fours. Some therians enjoy doing quadrobics because they feel it helps them connect with their theriotype. Quadrobics are not at all required for a therian to do, though, and anyone can do them even if they are not a therian.

I think this is hard to answer because therians are a unique thing. Every single experience of theriantropy is unique and different for each person, so it's hard to make categories for every type of therian. However, there are already some existing labels for specific experiences shared within the community.

Paleotherians are therians who have an extinct theriotype. Polytherians are therians who have more than one theriotype. Omnitherians identify as all non-human animals at once, and cladeotherians identify as an entire family or genus of animals rather than a single species. Those ones mainly refer to a therian's unique experience with their theriotype, but there are other types that refer to how the identity works or just general personal experiences. To list a few, contherians are therians who don’t experience shifts, holotheres identify as entirely non-human rather than partially, a suntherian is a therian who is almost always “shifted,” they feel their human self and animal self are always blended together. There’s far more, these are just a few examples.