So says a new UCLA study about “sexual minorities,” which finds 48.5 percent of queers sought mental health treatment, while just 22.5 percent of heteros did. (“Lesbians and bisexual women were the most likely to seek treatment; straight men were the least likely.”) It’s unclear how much “reparative therapy” factored in.
Why the disparity? Researchers try to explain:
Discrimination, violence and other stressful life events may be greater among sexual and gender minorities, they said, and homosexuality and issues associated with it may be construed as mental health problems — particularly among racial and ethnic minorities — which may encourage people to seek treatment. Further, in gay and lesbian communities, therapeutic services are considered appropriate places for coping with the stresses associated with being a sexual minority.
Heh: Therapy is less stigmatized among the homos. ‘Cause everybody’s doing it.
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Frank Amsterdam
Thank you for yet another very constructive posting.
Keep up the good work!
Malaz
Listen folks….here’s the issue.
Psychology is a construct…just like every other religion it has it’s saints and sinners, it has a bible, a church and priests.
The unfortunate truth is that many of us seek “professional help” for this reason; “of course you feel crazy in a culture that has taught you that you are crazy for being who you are” AND…the problem is that the religion of psychology is essentially the cultures response to the problem it has created itself.
I tell you you have a problem (when it is only me that thinks you have a problem) I then set up a system wherein you can “get help for your problem” by feeding back into system I created.
You’re not crazy…they just want to feel that way.
In a society that believes that having white teeth in your mouth is more important than what comes out of it….I say, we’re the sane ones.
Malaz
China
Kid A
@Malaz: It’d be a feedback loop if it were the psychologists themselves giving us the “you’re crazy” message. Instead its high-school bullies and politicians.
And I don’t think it’s a construct that there are people who understand a lot more about the mind and society than we do, and can share better tools than we already have.
emceebee
My mental illness is genetically predisposed.
Lloyd Baltazar
Yeah, this is true. But so what? Psychiatric help is always good. It means you are taking good care of yourself and addressing your problems. Lets see the positive side to this please.
alejandro
i seeked help from a psychologist, not because they told me i was crazy but because i desperatly needed it..
im glad i got help
rudy
All this means is there’s a huge number of untreated mentally ill heterosexuals out there.
That explains the birthers, Sarah Palin admirers, neo-nazi skinheads, people who send money to televangelists, and the handful of trolls who hang out on Queerty just to insult gay people.
chances
you can’t mentally cure people living in an illogical and angry world..fukkin idiots.
Aaron
@emceebee: Mine too, I’m bipolar.
James
Maybe I should get help with my latent heterosexual tendencies.
Qjersey
Most people seek therapy not because they are mentally ill, “crazy,” but because they are having trouble coping with the insanity around them!
fitz
No one has commented on the 2 most obvious issues:
1) we can AFFORD therapy more than the typical baby maker
2) we believe that we aren’t perfect as is.
This study would only be meaningful if they took people with similar income and needs. I can say “I think I will go to therapy for a few months”. I don’t think that my straight siblings can do that.
Ben Wilson
This figure doesn’t surprise me, for many of the reasons mentioned. What it indicates is a problem with society, not with LGBT people. Even though I come from a supportive family, the mixed messages I have recieved alongside the typical silence or gag-reflex reactions when it comes to an open discussion on LGBT with straight people, it’s no surprise many LGBT become distressed.
Society still doesn’t know how to handle homosexuality, people are either blunt in thier views or are unable to articulate them properly. None of which is helpful when your looking to find comfort or guidance from your peers.
Truth is homosexualities history as a taboo still keeps it something of a mystery to all of us, so if your lost and confused your bound to conclude going to a ‘professional’ is the right thing to do.
This problem will not go away untill society changes and were already seeig a big backlash from the improvement to gay rights, and this backlash by conservatives only adds to the problems which leads LGBT people to seek help.
As comfortable as I am with my sexuality, it still hurts hearing such hatred towards myself and other LGBT people. And when things couldn’t get anyworse the rise of fundemental Islam within my country and western society & having to listen to thier intolerance towards LGBT is just another load of hatred I really don’t want to hear.
EveryoneKnewHimAsNancy
I think the operative word here is “seeks”. It’s a Catch 22 situation: to seek therapy voluntarily is an act of sanity, while those who are the most in need of therapy believe they are perfectly normal. Hence the low percentage of straight males who seek therapy. Mental illness is much more common in this country than most believe, and the walking wounded, so to speak, are not only those least likely to believe or admit that there is anything wrong with them, but also the ones most frequently condemning or castigating others. Just looking at people I have worked with over the years has led me to the conclusion. I fact, the number of bosses I have had who were clearly head cases makes me wonder if it isn’t actually a requirement to get ahead in this culture. When the lunatics run the asylum, guess who gets branded nuts?
M Shane
Most certainly a large proportion of gay people can use at least counseling because they grow up believing that they are dysfunctional, whereas in fact they belong to a minority and grow up without adequate support and often with difficulty. The best support for gay people would be other gay people and supportive groups and relations. The attempts to assimilate gays into straight society just leave them feeling as isolated as ever. Gay communities are hence imperative. That is why gays in Urban settings do so much better. The belief that our ‘sexuality ‘is just what we do in bed is an appalling myth.
The current psychiatric disposition to slugging people full of pills-antidepressants esp. is primarily built on a myth that there is something physiologically wrong –something unestablished which is profitable for psychiatrists but unproven and contributory to problems more than solutions- which you could find talking to a friend,.
Personally , I had a roommate who pushed me into seeing a psychiatrist for presumed depression, which turned out to
be only a simple sleep disorder , but which cost me irreparable physical damage due to the drugs I was given.
Fortunately, I found out what was really wrong before the Dr. killed me, which he literally came close to.
Not that many people are experts at being gay since we have not had a public or professional concern for our well being. The best thing is to develope as many friendships as possible as wellas a healthy lifestyle and to avoid if possible the rash prescriptions of psychiatrists who believe that there is something physiologically wrong. That’s how they make the hundreds of thousands of dollars they make.
Thom Freeheart
Most of the other gays in my life are fucking nuts. How could they not be, having grown up in a world where most were raised to be ashamed of who and what they are?
M Shane
@No. 16 · Thom Freeheart :
You are most certainly right that we face a great del of opposition. To some degree though, I firmly believe that given an acceptance that we live in an absolutely insane and inhumane society for any regular person.(including us) mybe we should start giving ourselves credit for being abit on the outside of things, not buying into the madness. That could be the “cure”. The real craizoidals are the religious fanatics who think that they are A-ok : considering that, we are doing pretty well-it’s just a matter of accepting ourselves
that’s much of the task. I’m always bumping into the crazyness of jobs, companies, etc.
Sebs
fuck you queerty!
off to silver hill.