Therianthropy refers to "real werewolves" (well, lycanthropy is wolf-specific, therianthropy is a broader term covering all animals, and they don't often call themselves weres), who go through "shifts". Not physically turning into animals, but mentally. Some act like their theriotype, others only feel the shift internally, others (contherians I think they're called) don't shift at all and are constantly their theriotype in a human body, comparable to transgenders. There are all sorts of shifts, including phantom shifts (like phantom limbs, feeling a tail growing during a shift for example) and dream shifts (shifting during sleep). Then there's the completely separate "clinical lycanthropy", which is a mental illness in which the sufferer claims physical shapeshifting, or to a lesser extent, unconscious shapeshifting .... there's a lot to it.

I'm trying and failing to make sense of it. My debate is, basically, what is it?
Is it real, or just attention-seeking? (There are attention-seekers in everything, faux-therians no exception. But are ALL therians attention-seeking?) Is it a mental illness full stop, even in those who haven't claimed a physical shift (you CAN'T physically shift, that's madness, end of) and seem perfectly sane? Does everyone have an animal side, but therians are more aware of it? Or - is it just part of some people, and that's all that non-therian humans need to know?

Your thoughts please?

I think it's all in the head.
If the person actually feel like shifting (having a tail and all, like you said), he/she has a mental problem to me :)

From what I understood it could be some weird kind of schizophrenia

Maybe it's because that deep down in the depths of our DNA we have a 'wild side', and certain people are more in-tune with that part of their brain. After all, we only use like a quarter of our brain or something. Perhaps the rest is in fact a kind of memory bank of our evolution, which keeps us ticking and developing more and more.

I think that myth has long since been proved bunk. It's a bit like the old "science doesn't know everything" line people trot out. It's not like hidden in our brains is the secret to telepathy, telekinesis or levitation - because if it were, the fact it was going unused would mean those parts of the brain would atrophy over time.

That being said, there's certainly something to be said for the evolution of the brain. There is a well established portion of the brain we share with our reptilian ancestors, which governs fight-or-flight instincts and emotions like greed and jealousy. As the brain evolved, new parts have developed, and yet many of the things seen as being quintessentially human, are things we share with, say, chameleons and geckos. It's perfectly logical that a breakdown in supposedly civilised behaviour would revert us to "baser" instincts.

I'm not talking about musically, I'm talking about in real life. When I'm in a room, I feel like an animal, and I use to feel that way wayyyy before She wolf came out.
When I say animal, I always do this thing where I growl out of nowhere [I'm not joking] and I'm always moving my belly in my seat like if I were belly dancing or "Shifting"(maybe that's why I'm so good at it). And when She wolf came out its like the song lives in me now. I can't keep it out of my head.

Bikz just wants it to be true so she can pretend she has the cat version of it.