Is There More Drug Abuse and Mental Health Problems in the Transgender/transsexual Community?
Question by someone: Is there more drug abuse and mental health problems in the transgender/transsexual community?
statistics would be nice?
Best answer:
Answer by Renny
Yes, drug abuse and mental health issues are more prevalent among transgenders/transsexuals.
Gender really has a profound impact on the individual, and when there is incongruities the manifestation while subtle or repressed, in most cases is actually quite severe. Some people even resort to self-deception as a an escapist technique to hide this. Think of it like actors in Hollywood. Why don’t actors and actresses play out there roles regularly after they are finished with the movie? The difficulty with gender dysphoria is it’s rarely accredited validity in most homes, churches, and is generally sociologically misunderstood, and most are ignorant to it. Similarly with some actor/actress roles, they have place in the movie, but can put intense strain on a person’s real life. Anytime you actively participate in self-denial you create mental disorder, and mental disorder and drug use can tend to go hand in hand.
Image you spend your entire life denying who you feel you are inside, and you are made to feel pain and shame for wishing your gender was different. You go in for a minor surgery… they give you narcotics for the pain after the surgery. While on the medication you realize that you don’t hate yourself as much, or that the self-loathing subsides for long enough to let you feel “normal”. You seek to reclaim your normalcy feeling by seeking other recreational drugs, or similar identical drugs, and within months your addicted to drugs as a cure to the underlying psychological state which is compounded by the gender issues.
Gender Identity Disorder puts an incredible amount of stress on the mind and the body. End result is always some form of additions and/or neuroses. Even the most well adjusted transgender person has suffered some level of psychosocial damage as a result of being transgendered, especially in 75% Christian America. A lot of us come out into transition with a lot of issues that take counseling to resolve. The drug use comes with these disturbances as well as with the decreased quality of life transsexuals experience. Many lose employment, family, and friends, sometimes more, and desperation can drive people into some dark places. Prostitution is a problem, and generally always leads to drug use, and the amplification of any other psychosocial disorders in a co-morbid manner. Gender dysphoria can cripple a persons life, and make them incapable of making rational decisions normal people make. Example, a normal person with no history of depression or suicide can be driven to attempt suicide if the stress in life overwhelms their mental coping mechanisms.
The unfortunate side effect of the issues with care and equal treatment of transsexuals is partly to blame for the increase in co-morbid disorders in said community. This contributes to the image that then in-turn acts to justify the opponents of equal treatment of transgendered people, and discourage proponents from taking action to aide in their plight. Why give money/goods to the druggie hooker, who is likely to use the sustenance you give them for drugs? Problem is, it’s that exact mindset that is creating the greatest cause of that very issue.
Transgender/transsexual people will not, nor can they stop being transgendered, and the continued discordance of their treatment, acceptance, drives them to extreme measures which are all self-deprecating. This in a nutshell is why drugs, and mental health issues are high among transgender/transsexual people. In summary, poor medical care, societal blackballing, prejudice, insufficient amount of change in the system, lack of advocacy as a minority of the populace, and popularized media demonizing transsexuals or confusing the general public about us is to blame for the higher rates of mental illness, and drug use. The APA (American Psychology Association) notes higher statistics of co-morbid mental disorders in Gender Identity Disorder patients, somewhere in the 50 – 75% range in some areas. Some mild, some severe. I myself went through a phase of substance abuse, as well as the fact that I know I suffer other disorders (mental) as a result of societal disapproval of my behaviors as they didn’t conform to gender norms, and abuse. You can go to the APA and look up their statistics, and check out other various sites, but the numbers vary wildly. I’d be inclined to believe it’s higher than average people, but not as much as you would think.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!