LGBTQIA+ Mental Health
LGBTQIA+ Mental Health
In 1922, the World Federation for Mental Health was established the World Mental Health Day, which is celebrated on October 10th. The World Health Organization considers the issue a priority due to the inability of mental disorder can cause. For the WHO, mental health goes beyond the absence of psychosomatic diseases, because it is characterized by a well-being in which the individual recognizes his abilities and limitation, has a sense of belonging to the community and knows its social role.
Since 2014, the Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria (Brazilian Psychiatric Association) in partnership with Federal Council of Medicine conducts nationally the Yellow September. Sepember 10th is officially World Suicide Prevention Day. Today, Brazil records about 12,000 suicides every year, more than 1 million worldwide, mainly among young people. 96.8% of suicide cases are related to mental disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder and then substance abuse.
The LGBTQIA+ population has a very high rate of suicide because they are also more likely to develop mood-based mental problems — such as depression, panic syndrome, anxiety, among others — due to prejudice, lgbtphobia, segregation, marginalization and their constantly denied existence, both in the aspects of affection and in desire. All this occurs within a binary culture, that is, that only sees two possibilities of gender — male and female — and that accepts by default the heterosexual relationships of cis people (who identify with their designated sex at birth) and ignore the existence of trans, intersex, non-binary and homoaffective relationships.
DFTalks — We work together for the common well-being
To draw attention to this topic here at Dafiti, DFT Pride, our LGBTQIA+ affinity group, invited two psychology professionals, Renan Santos and Jeniffer Lopes, to talk on suicide preventionand LGBTQIA+ mental health.
Renan is a psychologist, writer, cultural producer and columnist and Jeniffer acts as a clinical psychologist and collaborator of the transdisciplinary outpatient clinic of gender identity and sexual orientation of the Hospital das Clínicas de São Paulo. The two, formed by the FMU (University Center of United Metropolitan Colleges), formed a university group for debate and discussions on sexuality issues and dedicated their CBT to the case study of a sixteen-year-old trans woman, bringing psychoanalysis and transsexuality as abackdrop, comparing what exists in the psychiatric literature about trans people with the reality lived by them.
A little history
One of the biggest milestones of the LGBTQIA+ community was the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. The event was a series of demonstrations in protest to the police’s persecution and repression of transvestites, homosexuals and drag queens at the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwith Village, New York. Until mid-1962 any homosexual practice was considered a crime in all American states, which included men who dressed as women.
To learn more: Como a revolta de Stonewall, em 1969, empoderou o ativismo LGBT para sempre (how the Stonewall revolution, in 1969, empowered the LGBT actvism forever)
Before there was a sense of community, there was no term homosexuality. The term began to be used when medicine began to give name to people who related to people of the same sex, classifying the practice as homosexuality. The suffix “ity” is used as a connotation of disease, homosexuality was treated clinically as a mental disorder between the 19th and early 20th century.
In view of this, a persecution begins on homosexual people, where the policeexercised coercive force on these people, taking them to psychiatric clinics so that medicine and psychology could treat this disorder. The treatments were often torturous, with drugs, hot baths, shock treatment and even lobotomy, leading some “patients” to death.
While persecution occurred and these practices were named, these people began to perceive themselves as a community and equal. At the time there was no notion of an LGBTQIA+ acronym, although these people always existed, there were no clear definitions and that would unite them under the same flag.
Psychology, in this period, ends up reinforcing prejudice, homophobia and transphobia. Medical literature only begins to better understand these people in the 1980s with community pressure. It is during this period that they begin the first LGBTQIA+ Parade around the world and groups such as the Grupo Gay da Bahia which organize themselves in defense of the rights of the LGBTQIA+ population and contribute to the survey of statistical data on lgbtphobia.
Mental health
The disease is not in LGBTQIA+ people, but in society. It’s not a disease of behavior, sexuality or gender, but rather diseases derived from prejudice, depression, dysphoria, suicide. It’s important to talk about this contextualization because we usually guilt the people who have mental disorder, we say that he needs to seek psychologist, psychiatrist, try to stay well, do reiki, yoga, meditation. Yes, the individual should seek his mental health, but society has a lot of impact on it.
“The disease is not in LGBTQIA+ people, but in society.” — Renan Santos
Some data indicate that simple attitudes of pure respect can help improve the mental health of these people. Treating a trans person by the pronoun they recognize themselves and by their social name decreases the suicide rate by up to 40%. The same goes for homosexuals, lesbians and bisexual young people and adolescents who have a supportive family, they are up to 60% less likely to develop a mental illness, be it suicidal idealization or mood disorder and this is just a small cut out of how society is a direct agent of these disorders.
LGBTQIA+ are susceptible to creating a very fragile internal world, because the experiences they live in outside world are constantly added up and are marked somewhere within each one. The sigth of the other about this existences, revulsion and all anguish manifests itself in various moments and in various forms: anxiety, sadness, excess or lack of food and etc.
Creating places
Homosexuality is no longer a disease since 1990, but transsexuality was only despatologized in 2019, however, transsexuals are still oblided to under go two years of therapy and rely on psychiatric reports to be validated.
I must point out that transsexuals are extremely marginalized even today and therefore often find themselves psychologically exhausted, with deep wounds. The life expectancy of this population is only 35 years and we need to constantly question ourselves about the role we as a society play for this data.
“We can no longer accept that the life expectancy of a group in our society is 35 years!” Jeniffer Lopes
When thinking about mental health within a social context, itis understood that mental health is also welcoming, creating opportunities, creating places and providedignity. It’s talking about basic things like the right to use a bathroom, to have access to documents consistent with your gender identity. We need to develop empathy and understand that the difficulties of LGBTQIA+ peoplego throughrealities that may be very different from ours.
Looking at the job market, when a company develops a program that aims to attract LGBTQIA+ talent and especially to insert trans people into the formal labor market, it is necessary to be aware of the various particularities that permeate this group, ranging from socioeconomicissues, where we can cite the support for locomotion to the workplace, preparation of the environment to receive them — and here I speak not only of the people of the employer company, but of the condominium that will receive this person and ask for identification — to the support with basic issues of hygiene, clothing and health.
I emphasized transgender people, but often this is a reality that extends to other protagonists of the acronym, because it is a population that often did not have the same opportunities and were expelled early from home, rejected by family, friends and society. They are people who during school years were harassed for being too effeminate or too masculinized — according to the standard aesthetic imaginary of our culture — people who could not even gain access to the college because they were unable to finish the basic study in the face of the oppression of the school environment.
“As far away as we are socially, we are not so distant subjectively. We may not have been kicked out of the house, but we were afraid to be. We may not be depressed right now, but we have already felt the impact of rejection, the impact of fear, the paralysis that fear behind, panic and we have not forgotten… we can come home and have a panic crisis.” — Renan Santos
Impacts of the Pandemic
During the covid-19 pandemic, there were several impacts on the general population. A survey conducted by the collective #VoteLGBT+ in partnership with BOX1824,in June 2020, shows that more than 42.72% of the more than 10,000 LGBTQIA+ respondents highlight worsening mental health in the period of quarantine, social seclusion and establishment of new rules of conviviality.
While 5.8% of the Brazilian population suffers from depression and 9.3% suffer from anxiety, the research points out that +28% of LGBTQIA+ were diagnosed with depression before quarantine and among them, 47% were classified as having the risk of depression at the highest level (leading to serious suicide risks).
“I think the whole situation that is happening, it shakes us in a certain way, each within its possibilities, needs and way of being. The emotional is no longer the same, because the climate of tension, mourning and uncertainty is present daily and even when they say that it did not hit us directly, because we have not tested positive, the pandemic has already hit us on several faces.” Lesbian white cis woman
Both social and family life were affected. The feeling of loneliness reaches more than 11% of the interviewees who found themselves away from their support network. Those who still live with their families who do not accept them find themselves confined 24 hours a day within an environment in which they suffer various forms of violence (verbal, moral, psychological and even physical)
The study shows that to understand why themes related to the social sphere are pointed out as the second greatest impact of the pandemic for this population, it is necessary to take into account how much exclusion and isolation are already present in the life trajectory of LGBTQIA+people.
See the full study by clicking here: https://www.votelgbt.org/pesquisas
There is no formula
When asked how we can help and support those facing depression or developing suicidal feelings, Renan and Jeniffer say that there is no magic formula, a technique, but that listening can be important, seeking their own references and welcoming, but also understanding what our limit, be it financial or emotional, to question yourself about being prepared to receive that kind of content that the person will bring. It is important to respect this limit and to be honest and honesty (with affection and affection) is something she is looking for.
In the impossibility of being able to help more actively, offering help to seek specialized medical help is always welcome. In the market there are professionals and psychological support centers aimed at serving the LGBTQIA+ population,and in addition to some professionals performing social care, there is also free care in psychology colleges.
“Listening is a shut up: an attitude where you silence your reality and listen to the reality of the other and try to hear the suffering behind it.” Renan Santos
Jeniffer still makes a warning: “It’s okay to take medicine.” The psychologist demystifies the belief that psychiatric remedies are for “crazy people”, the body and mind will often need chemical help to reestablish themselves.
This event was held on September 24, 2020, remotely via Zoom and broadcast live on Workplace to Dafiti Brasil employees, respecting the protocols of isolation and social distancing from the covid-19 pandemic.
Recommended links:
Mental Health Foundation: <https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications>
Campanha Setembro Amarelo: <https://www.setembroamarelo.com/>
Grupo Gay da Bahia — GGB: <https://grupogaydabahia.com.br/>
#VOTELGBT. Disgnóstico LGBT+ na pandemia. São Paulo, 2020. Disponível em: <https://www.votelgbt.org/pesquisas>.
CARDOSO, Michelle Rodrigues; FERRO, Luís Felipe. Saúde e população LGBT: demandas e especificidades em questão. Paraná, 2012. Disponível em: <https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1414-98932012000300003>
MELO, Dayana Souza de; SILVA, Bianca Luna da; MELLO, Rosâne. A sintomatologia depressiva entre lésbicas, gays e transexuais: um olhar para a saúde mental. Rio de Janeiro, 2019. Disponível em: <file:///C:/Users/henrique.barreto/Downloads/41942–155454–1-PB%20(1).pdf>
BRANQUINHO, Bruno. Opressão da sociedade potencializa impactos na saúde mental. In: Carta Capital. São Paulo, 2019. Disponível em: <https://www.cartacapital.com.br/blogs/saudelgbt/opressao-da-sociedade-potencializa-impactos-na-saude-mental-de-lgbts/>
GERMANO, Carlos. Estudo da UFPB avalia impactos do isolamento na saúde mental da comunidade LGBTTQI+. In: Universidade Federal da Paraíba — UFPB. João Pessoa, 2020. Disponível em: <https://www.ufpb.br/ufpb/contents/noticias/estudo-da-ufpb-avalia-impactos-do-isolamento-na-saude-mental-da-comunidade-lgbttqi>
PAIVA, Vitor. Como a revolta de Stonewall, em 1969, empoderou o ativismo LGBT para sempre. In: Hypennes. Rio de Janeiro, 2018. Disponível em: <https://www.hypeness.com.br/2018/06/como-as-revoltas-de-stonewall-na-ny-de-1969-empoderou-o-ativismo-lgbt-para-sempre/>
CALFAT, Elie Leal de Barros. Dia Mundial da Saúde Mental. In: Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo. Disponível em: <https://www.santacasasp.org.br/portal/site/pub/12928/dia-mundial-da-saude-mental>