Thoughts Of Suicide, Other Mental Health Struggles Still High For LGBTQ Youth

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Forty percent of young LGBTQ people have considered suicide in the last year; that rises to more than half for trans and non-binary youth.

That's according to the second annual survey on LGBTQ youth mental health by The Trevor Project. The non-profit organization provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ people under the age of 25.

Two years of data isn't enough to show trends, says clinical psychologist Amy Green, who is also the director of research at The Trevor Project. But what they do show, she says, is that "the numbers are high and staying high, in terms of mental health."

"LGBTQ youth already deal with housing instability, food insecurity and trouble accessing health care," she says. "All of that is exacerbated by a pandemic."

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Amit Paley, CEO of The Trevor Project, says that one affirming adult can have a big impact on LGBTQ youth.

"We saw that LGBTQ young people who have an accepting adult in their lives were 40% less likely to attempt suicide, which is is a huge impact from a public health perspective," he said during an interview with NPR.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health...dium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr

Emphasis added.

 

[repoman]

Everyone is having a hard time because of the pandemic.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Everyone is having a hard time because of the pandemic.

True but not everyone needs to have an accepting adult in their lives to reduce suicide attempts by 40%.

 

[krypton iodine sulfur]

Everyone is having a hard time because of the pandemic.

True but not everyone needs to have an accepting adult in their lives to reduce suicide attempts by 40%.

And not everyone ends up trapped at home with family who resoundly rejects them based on a characteristic for which they likely already face some measure of discrimination and harassment.

Though certainly it is concerning for all people trapped in abusive scenarios which have been exacerbated by Covid-19.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Everyone is having a hard time because of the pandemic.

Is everyone having an equally hard time? Of course not. You're just spewing another version of "all lives matter".

 

[Keith&Co.]

Everyone is having a hard time because of the pandemic.

i did notice that at the Boston 'white pride' rally, there were no Dad Hugs. At the local Pride Parade, there's usually a few parents offering free hugs to anyone whose parents cut them off for being gay. Don't see too many people addressing the need at anti-vaxx, anti-mask, pro-Confederate, sort of gatherings.

Or at conventions. No trekkie cut off their kid for being a Jedi.

 

[Trausti]

The US suicide rate has gone up steadily since the low of 2000; but still not as high as 1986. Some of this must be due to soldier PTSD. But to say that there is some particular stress on lgbt to commit suicide would be odd as society is far more accepting than 35 years ago.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The US suicide rate has gone up steadily since the low of 2000; but still not as high as 1986. Some of this must be due to soldier PTSD. But to say that there is some particular stress on lgbt to commit suicide would be odd as society is far more accepting than 35 years ago.

Society today is far more divisive than it was in 1986. Large groups of people on the Internet and in social media wage social war against each other, ban communications, and target people for harassment and who knows what else. We are more connected today, even if sometimes more superficially connected. Social media is used as a political platform, non-stop by Twitler McCrazyPants with large bullhorn spouting all kinds of nonsense about LGBT persons. And he is not alone.

Presumably, if you were gay back when President Dear Leader Ronnie Raygun was stealing money from poor people to bribe Iran, you could predict reactions of the community and had less contact with the world at large. Now, such a person may feel free to be out and in an out relationship but face more conflict because there are more social relationships to navigate and be stressed about. There is more awareness of a constant stream of negativity about LGBT issues, even if there is also more acceptance. The constant tweets and friend lists of 1000, 200 of which hate you for existing is surely different than in 1986.

I am not saying that this is the primary factor in what creates stressors for LGBT persons, but only merely list other differences from 1986 to illustrate that life is more complex with more variables and interactions than "society is far more accepting" now. In humility, I do not claim to be aware of what are all the complexities of life for LGBT persons nor to be creative enough to come up with a litany of hypotheses around this issue, but surely again life and "the why" is multivariate with interaction variables and feedback etc.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Everyone is having a hard time because of the pandemic.

True but not everyone needs to have an accepting adult in their lives to reduce suicide attempts by 40%.

And not everyone ends up trapped at home with family who resoundly rejects them based on a characteristic for which they likely already face some measure of discrimination and harassment.

Though certainly it is concerning for all people trapped in abusive scenarios which have been exacerbated by Covid-19.

True.

 

[Trausti]

The US suicide rate has gone up steadily since the low of 2000; but still not as high as 1986. Some of this must be due to soldier PTSD. But to say that there is some particular stress on lgbt to commit suicide would be odd as society is far more accepting than 35 years ago.

Society today is far more divisive than it was in 1986. Large groups of people on the Internet and in social media wage social war against each other, ban communications, and target people for harassment and who knows what else. We are more connected today, even if sometimes more superficially connected. Social media is used as a political platform, non-stop by Twitler McCrazyPants with large bullhorn spouting all kinds of nonsense about LGBT persons. And he is not alone.

Presumably, if you were gay back when President Dear Leader Ronnie Raygun was stealing money from poor people to bribe Iran, you could predict reactions of the community and had less contact with the world at large. Now, such a person may feel free to be out and in an out relationship but face more conflict because there are more social relationships to navigate and be stressed about. There is more awareness of a constant stream of negativity about LGBT issues, even if there is also more acceptance. The constant tweets and friend lists of 1000, 200 of which hate you for existing is surely different than in 1986.

I am not saying that this is the primary factor in what creates stressors for LGBT persons, but only merely list other differences from 1986 to illustrate that life is more complex with more variables and interactions than "society is far more accepting" now. In humility, I do not claim to be aware of what are all the complexities of life for LGBT persons nor to be creative enough to come up with a litany of hypotheses around this issue, but surely again life and "the why" is multivariate with interaction variables and feedback etc.

You can say that life is more complex for everyone. No need for a false narrative that lgbt are signaled out.

 

[ruby sparks]

But to say that there is some particular stress on lgbt to commit suicide would be odd as society is far more accepting than 35 years ago.

You can say that life is more complex for everyone. No need for a false narrative that lgbt are signaled out.

I'm not following your line of reasoning, which to me seems extremely dismissive to the point of needing to be called out for that reason.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The US suicide rate has gone up steadily since the low of 2000; but still not as high as 1986. Some of this must be due to soldier PTSD. But to say that there is some particular stress on lgbt to commit suicide would be odd as society is far more accepting than 35 years ago.

Society today is far more divisive than it was in 1986. Large groups of people on the Internet and in social media wage social war against each other, ban communications, and target people for harassment and who knows what else. We are more connected today, even if sometimes more superficially connected. Social media is used as a political platform, non-stop by Twitler McCrazyPants with large bullhorn spouting all kinds of nonsense about LGBT persons. And he is not alone.

Presumably, if you were gay back when President Dear Leader Ronnie Raygun was stealing money from poor people to bribe Iran, you could predict reactions of the community and had less contact with the world at large. Now, such a person may feel free to be out and in an out relationship but face more conflict because there are more social relationships to navigate and be stressed about. There is more awareness of a constant stream of negativity about LGBT issues, even if there is also more acceptance. The constant tweets and friend lists of 1000, 200 of which hate you for existing is surely different than in 1986.

I am not saying that this is the primary factor in what creates stressors for LGBT persons, but only merely list other differences from 1986 to illustrate that life is more complex with more variables and interactions than "society is far more accepting" now. In humility, I do not claim to be aware of what are all the complexities of life for LGBT persons nor to be creative enough to come up with a litany of hypotheses around this issue, but surely again life and "the why" is multivariate with interaction variables and feedback etc.

You can say that life is more complex for everyone. No need for a false narrative that lgbt are signaled out.

Life is more complex than a single variable. That DOES apply to everyone! Also, some variables may apply more to LGBT persons or other groups and some not. In this particular case, Trump's bullhorn and constant tweeting is a variable that exists now, but did not exist before. Such variable may apply more to LGBT persons on average since they are often the target. Meanwhile, social media generally may or may not cause stress across the board. One ought to analyze all these variables and whatever other things I have not considered, rather than imagining acceptance is a monolithic thing only in 1986 terms.

 

[krypton iodine sulfur]

The US suicide rate has gone up steadily since the low of 2000; but still not as high as 1986. Some of this must be due to soldier PTSD. But to say that there is some particular stress on lgbt to commit suicide would be odd as society is far more accepting than 35 years ago.

Society today is far more divisive than it was in 1986. Large groups of people on the Internet and in social media wage social war against each other, ban communications, and target people for harassment and who knows what else. We are more connected today, even if sometimes more superficially connected. Social media is used as a political platform, non-stop by Twitler McCrazyPants with large bullhorn spouting all kinds of nonsense about LGBT persons. And he is not alone.

Presumably, if you were gay back when President Dear Leader Ronnie Raygun was stealing money from poor people to bribe Iran, you could predict reactions of the community and had less contact with the world at large. Now, such a person may feel free to be out and in an out relationship but face more conflict because there are more social relationships to navigate and be stressed about. There is more awareness of a constant stream of negativity about LGBT issues, even if there is also more acceptance. The constant tweets and friend lists of 1000, 200 of which hate you for existing is surely different than in 1986.

I am not saying that this is the primary factor in what creates stressors for LGBT persons, but only merely list other differences from 1986 to illustrate that life is more complex with more variables and interactions than "society is far more accepting" now. In humility, I do not claim to be aware of what are all the complexities of life for LGBT persons nor to be creative enough to come up with a litany of hypotheses around this issue, but surely again life and "the why" is multivariate with interaction variables and feedback etc.

You can say that life is more complex for everyone. No need for a false narrative that lgbt are signaled out.

There is a documented relationship between increased risk of suicidal ideation amongst other mental health conditions and being LGBT, with the T being at particularly high risk compared to the general population. It's one of the factors often cited in barring transgender people from things like military service or in some cases vocations like being a commercial pilot. There is also a documented relationship between family acceptance and support and reducing the risk of mental health issues. It's one of the more significant predictive factors in looking at positive mental health outcomes.

Whether suicide risk has risen over the years, remained the same or lowered overall, it still remains higher than the general population, at the very least for transgender people (afaik), but I wouldn't be surprised if for LGB people as well.

While there are other groups which may also have elevated rates of suicidal ideation, and there may be issues affecting the general population, there are reasons some attention is devoted specifically to the LGBT population and LGBT youth in particular. One variable which is more characteristic of LGBT people over other groups which may face marginalization, harassment and discrimination is that it may be likely that LGBT people are more likely to face it at home from their family than people would on the basis of race or religion.

But don't worry. I don't think you are any less special in case you are feeling left out, puddin'. (<-- smilie face just for you)