My husband came out to me last October and I am still trying to understand it all. . The best way to support her is to research everything you can and talk to her about it. She will be impressed that you took initiative to learn and love you more for it.. she knows it will be hard for you and should be willing to talk to you heart to heart. Be honest about your feelings but also understand that feelings can change easily. In all things remember to do it with love and respect. Your emotions will be like on a roller coaster allow yourself to embrace each emotion. That's how you will learn and accept the reality of it all. Thank you for loving your child enough to want to help and support her.. your an amazing mom... your local planned parenthood should have a great list of resources for help and definitely get her in to talk to a psychologist. It's of the utmost importance for her mental wellbeing. ...

The first step is therapy, he will have to go to a therapist who deals with gender matters. Without that he wont be starting anything. There are doctors who will do hormones with just informed consent but they are going against a lot of recommendations by doing so. So therapist is going to be step 1. What you have to understand is that those of us who are trans know from a VERY young age that we are not like others. We may not have a word for it until way later in life but we know we are supposed to develop a certain way and we don't. So when he says he has known for 2 years, it may mean he has finally had a word for how he has felt his whole life. It is not uncommon for many to also not show any "signs" of being trans or wanting to be a girl. My mother said the same about me, she just said I was always a bit out of step with everyone else but she never would have considered this as a reason. We hide it because society shuns us, religion hates us, and almost no one understands us. All of which are just fine, but as a result many of us feel the need to conform for survival. So we watch and mimic to blend in. The issue with this is we live a false life and never live our own real life. Eventually this causes depression, anger and so on. We will often lock ourselves away and not ever develop close ties due to the risk of someone finding out our secret. All of these things are not uncommon things to see. So the behavior you are describing is not one that surprises me, I have heard from many they do the exact same thing. Online is a place where he can be himself. Its anonymous and therefore no one has to know anything other than him living the life he wants to have in the world. For him Therapy is where the start is. You can google "gender therapists Psychology today" and then add a state you live in and it will pull up a list of licensed Therapists, Psychologists, and Psychiatrists that may take it on or may know a colleague who may. Each one is different, and I personally prefer Therapists, though a Psychologist is fine too. Neither of them can prescribe medication generally, they can recommend it via a letter you take to a medical doctor. This is why I prefer them, our society is entirely to over medicated as is. A psychiatrist is an MD who specializes in mental health and as such can provide prescription. Which ever is chosen the biggest thing that is going to matter is that he is comfortable with whomever he sees. You wont talk to them if you aren't.

For you. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of things I can do for you to help you with it. Educating yourself is the biggest thing and you have already started, I mean you are here. Some other sources you might want to read are the WPATH Standards of Care, which are the recommended guidelines for treating someone who is trans. You can also look up the DSM-V diagnostics for gender dysphoria if you choose, which is the criteria on which a mental health professional uses to determine the diagnosis. Lastly a book called "True Selves" by Mildred Brown (link below on amazon). I gave a copy of this to my mom to read to help her understand it a bit better. It did help her some. Hopefully this info helps you and maybe even Tinkerbella who responded before. Take care and I wish you both the best.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787967025/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1