Why Are Lesbians More Prone to Self-harm? And How Can We Change That?
From stigma to healthcare, we can improve the experience of being LGBTQ+
It’s Lesbian Visibility Week 2023! So naturally, let’s talk about lesbians being at a higher risk of deliberately hurting themselves than their heterosexual and male peers.
A lack of understanding
We’ve written previously about the fact that there are higher rates of mental health difficulties and self-harm across all areas of the LGBTQ+ community. This is generally put down to feelings of marginalization, experiences of bullying, or lack of social support, whether through being alienated from family and friends or feeling unable to come out at work. Unfortunately, there isn’t a wealth of studies and research focusing on the community's individual parts. This is likely due to the fact that researchers largely ignored the LGBTQ+ community for decades, whether for fear of stigma or with the mistaken belief that there were very few people who could relate to the information they would find. This also means there is something of a gap nowadays, as current research cannot be compared to a lot of past data.
Thankfully, while studies on the whole varied experience of being LGBTQ+ are still not wide-ranging, there is much more interest now…
