LGBTQIA+ Mental Health

Written By Moriah Conant M.A.

If you scroll through social media, you may see people talking about the importance of good mental health. We are no stranger here to why that is important, but have you ever thought about what factors make up good or bad mental health? I will start off here by saying that the factors are many, and are often complex.

Because there are so many components to your mental health, it can feel a little overwhelming to know where to begin to make a change.

Let’s start with the basics: You need to sleep around 7-9 hours every night, eat nourishing meals, and drink water. If you are tired or hungry, you’ll probably notice that you’re feeling cranky, hangry, anxious, or depressed. Caring for your body is one important way to take care of your mental health.

Research has shown us that LGBTQIA+ individuals have experienced worse negative mental health outcomes than cisgender and heterosexual individuals.

It is crucial to recognize that this is not because of their identities, but rather the negative mental health outcomes are because of the stigma, discrimination, and prejudice that LGBTQIA+ individuals face.

When your mental health is low, it might be difficult to know where to start in order to make positive change. Here we will identify some of the negative and positive factors that might be impacting your mental health so you can think through helpful actions for you to take.

Negative Factors:

  • Internalized Homophobia and Internalized Transphobia: The society and communities that you grow up in impact the messages you tell yourself about your identities. If you grew up hearing that God sends gay people to hell, you may have internalized negative feelings about your gay identity even if you don’t cognitively believe that you’re going to hell. Does this feel like something you’ve experienced? We dive deeper into internalized homophobia and internalized transphobia here.

  • Religious Trauma: like the example above, you may have grown up hearing negative messages about your identities. Maybe what you experienced was “big T” Trauma, like being forced to attend conversion therapy or being outed to a religious leader. Read more about queer religious trauma here.

  • Systemic Oppression: There are many oppressive systems that impact LGBTQIA+ mental health and safety. Maybe you worry that if you’re out at work, you’ll face discrimination. Or maybe you’re worried about large systems, like the recent anti-trans legislation and how this impacts access to gender-affirming healthcare, sports, gendered spaces like bathrooms, and more.

Positive Factors:

  • Community & Social Support: You can find community in a lot of places. Some examples might be a religious group, coworkers, family, chosen family, and mental health professionals. You get to choose the people who are important to you and who support you.

  • LGBTQIA+ Visibility: seeing yourself and your identities represented can be incredibly powerful. You might start to feel hopeful about your future because you see someone who is trans living authentically in a safe community. Or maybe you feel less alone because you see people who share more than one of your identities (sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity, etc.) represented in media in a way that you don’t see yourself reflected in your local community. Read more about LGBTQIA+ visibility here.

  • Accepting your identities (citation https://www.mhanational.org/issues/lgbtq-communities-and-mental-health )

This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but I hope it helps you identify a starting place for your mental health journey.

If you feel that you are experiencing religious trauma, internalized homophobia, or transphobia, there are many steps you can take to start your healing journey. Our monthly religious trauma membership offers countless resources for survivors. If you are interested in getting professional support from a therapist specializing in LGBTQIA+ trauma, you can book a free 30-minute consultation with our therapist matchmaker to help find the therapist who’s the best fit for you.

Learn More About Our Approach to Therapy

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