Have you also started maintaining distance or stopped talking to someone when you came to know that they are lesbian or gay or bisexual?
In this blog I will talk to you about a topic that everyone
is hush…hush about and has a stigma attached to it. Everybody likes to avoid it if at all it arises.
I will talk about the LGBTQ identities and their
mental health.
It is not an ‘illness’ or something that can be
‘cured’ or ‘fixed.’ Nobody decides to be gay or lesbian, it is how they are
born. They are also a part of the community.
A 25-year-old once told his parents that he is gay.
His parent's first reaction was no that is not possible, you can’t be that. You
are a boy. But when he tried to explain that he doesn’t get attracted to girls
and has feelings for boys, his parents said that there is some bad omen on him
and they immediately need to take him to a saint and ask for some solutions.
We need to talk about this and stop assuming that
only two genders exist: Male and Female.
Now first let’s understand what gender identity and
sexual identity are. Both are different but form our entire identity.
Gender identity refers to the internal sense of
being male, female, both, or neither, which is separate from our biological sex.
In other words, it is your own internal sense of whom you identify yourself
as.
Sexual identity means a person’s enduring physical,
emotional, and romantic attraction to another individual. In other words, it is
who you are sexually or romantically attracted to.
Now let’s decode what LGBTQ is- It
stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer or questioning. These terms are
used to represent a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.
Now let me explain to you how
LGBTQ and mental health are linked.
LGBTQ are more likely to face
mental health issues because first they fear opening up and coming out about
their sexuality. Later after gathering courage when they openly express this
part of themselves, they face the potential of rejection from peers,
colleagues, and friends.
They instead tell them that it can
be cured. It’s some kind of illness they are going through. They also face
discrimination, trauma, and abuse when they reveal their identities. All this
journey from realization to revealing to finally being not accepted is a hard
journey for them. During this time period, they generate mental health issues
and amplify feelings of loneliness.
Among all age groups, younger
members of the LGBTQ community struggle the most with mental health concerns.
One study even found that LGBTQ
people used mental health services at 2.5 times higher rates than their
“straight” counterparts.
Mental health issues can include
depression, mood disorders, low self-esteem, suicidal feelings, and post-traumatic stress.
These identities are more likely
to face mental health issues because they face homophobia, biphobia,
transphobia, discrimination and stigma, social exclusion, isolation, and
rejection.
But this shouldn’t mean that you
don’t reveal your identity and keep on harming your mental health. We have to
talk about it, then only will we be able to end the stigma around it.
I would like to conclude by saying
that LGBTQ identities should talk more about it, don’t shy away. For the rest
of the people, please make them feel inclusive. They are also human beings like
us. We become stronger when we are a more diverse community. They are our
strengths and not our weaknesses.
