I'm trying to remind myself that I'm OK. I'm not really thinking about it, my body is staging a full-blown revolt all by itself without much input from me. I'm less anxious and more angry/depressed/terrified. The terrified part mostly comes into play when I'm trying to sleep. Even while taking something to force myself to relax, I'm waking up over and over again in the middle of the night, shaking and moaning with terror. I tell the cat: "Oh my god! It's horrifying! It's horrible!" and then I fall asleep... and then snap awake again, moaning and thrashing.
What bothers me in this case is less the fear of imminent life-threatening danger and more a member of my queer community throwing me into it (Z is queer, but importantly, she isn't trans). That's the part that's really doing the damage. This event is coming on the heels of many, many instances, extremely common since I came out, of people treating me like ... like I'm already dead and my resources can be seen as their rainy-day/emergency fund. And this is just one more piece of that unbelievable disregard of the fact that I am a living being whose existence has value.
There are going to be events like this, in my life, plenty of them. I've had plenty of these experiences, I'll have more ... and now I need to learn how to keep myself safe. Despite everything. Despite knowing that some people, when they find out that I am trans, will gladly take everything I have: and they won't feel bad about it for an instant.
I'm talking to my therapist and a friend who experienced a similar event and both of them have been like: "this is going to seriously suck for a while, this is the best that you can expect to do right now, you're doing an amazing job of keeping your head above water." My friend rush-mailed me his spare weighted blanket.
I'm very very grateful that summer is here because my workload is going to drop precipitously and I can reallocate time and resources to get other help, like getting a swimming pass at a local park.
Regarding the final exams, I was actually taking three courses this quarter and auditing two which were leftovers from Spring 2021. I'm getting help to retroactively withdraw from last year's quarter which would mean I don't have to take any exams whatsoever and I'm effectively done with school as of yesterday. So it should be a moot point