Study: Homosexuals Twice as Likely to Seek Mental Health, Substance Abuse Treatment

LifeSiteNews ^ | August 18, 2009 | Thaddeus M. Baklinski

[cmj328]

August 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study led by Susan Cochran and her team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, published in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry, reports that homosexuals seek treatment for mental health issues or substance abuse at a rate over two times higher than heterosexuals.

The study of 2074 people interviewed in the California Health Interview Survey found that 48.5% of homosexual and bisexual individuals reported receiving psychiatric or drug abuse treatment in the past year as compared to 22.5% of heterosexuals.

When the research results were broken down by gender, the report states that lesbians and bisexual women received the most medical treatment and heterosexual men received the least.

"It is well known that health services utilization is greater among women generally," Cochran commented. "Here we have shown that minority sexual orientation is also an important consideration. Lesbians and bisexual women appear to be approximately twice as likely as heterosexual women to report having received recent treatment for mental health or substance use disorders."

Cochran concludes that, "The pervasive and historically rooted societal pathologizing of homosexuality may contribute to this propensity for treatment by construing homosexuality and issues associated with it as mental health problems."

However, critics of the accepted secular interpretation that mental illness in homosexuals is due to discrimination have pointed out that in countries where homosexuality has been "normalized", the numbers of homosexuals seeking medical intervention for a wide range of mental and medical conditions including major depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse, are virtually the same as reported in the California study.

Homosexuals in the United States and Denmark - the latter country is acknowledged to be highly tolerant of homosexuality - both die on average in their early 50's, or in their 40's if AIDS is the cause of death, according to a study by Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron of the Family Research Institute.

An analysis last year of 25 earlier studies on sexual orientation and mental health in the UK revealed that homosexuals are about 50% more likely to suffer from depression and engage in substance abuse than the rest of the population and also found that the risk of suicide jumped over 200% if an individual had engaged in a homosexual lifestyle.

A documentary film produced by British homosexual journalist Simon Fanshawe late last year stated that the "gay" lifestyle is a "sewer" of casual degrading sex, drug abuse and misery. In the film Fanshawe castigated what he views as a prevalent gay subculture that is focused on vanity, puerile superficiality, and transient pleasure, at the expense of lasting values and meaningful relationships.

The film includes statistics that show the deadly consequences of the homosexual lifestyle. For instance, one in nine gay men in London is HIV infected and new cases of HIV have doubled in the city in five years. Incidences of syphilis have increased in the same time period 616 per cent. "Unsafe" sex, Fanshawe said, is not the only way in which gay men are self destructive. "If there's a new drug, gay men will find it and take it," he stated.

See related LSN articles:

Study: Homosexual Lifestyle Strongly Linked to Depression, Suicide http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091704.html

Study Finds Homosexual Men Much More Likely to Consult Mental-Health Service Providers http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08032008.html

Homosexual U.K. Documentarian Says Gay Lifestyle a "Sewer" of Casual Degrading Sex, Drug Abuse and Misery http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091011.html

[cmj328]

Will the gay lifestyle be taxed?

[Right Wing Assault]

Somehow their problems will have to be our fault.

[exit82]

We have known how to stop AIDs since 1983.

We still have AIDS.

Why? /s

We could have cured cancer with a fraction of the money thrown at the “AIDS epidemic in the last 25 years.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Gee...whodda thot?

[DariusBane]

Yeah, many gays can find themselves in very very dark places. Temperament? Lifestyle? Combination? I don’t know, but you wouldn’t want to wish that on anybody.

[3niner]

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something’s not working right upstairs, when people have an urge to procreate where it was never even conceivably possible.

[Trityn]

Here's an old article on Canadian Health care for those with aids. Looks like some of the alternative lifestyle advocates are about to slowly off themselves with Obamacare.

Canadian Health Care article from 2006.

[hinckley buzzard]

Homosexuality is a variety of personality disorder characterized by histrionic and narcissistic traits. As with some other Axis II disorders, the underlying dynamic is aggression, in this case a highly sexualized form. Sexualized aggression is a widely known psychoanalytic concept which explains, among other things, certain features of post-traumatic states.

The foundation of aggression is important to understand because it is the source of the intrinsic self-destructiveness of homosexuals revealed by this study, among many others.

[cricket]

Our Gay population had better be careful for what they 'wish'. They may come in next; after the 'aged'; the infirm; and those unwanted newborns. Seems like they, too, could be a 'health care' burden.

(And if they doubt Obama's inclinations; they should remember the words of Obama's 'best friend' and spiritual mentor. Ahmadinejad told us; they don't have any 'Gays' in Iran'. . .and probably did not after last round up. Hear they are back again, however; and the Government, back again; 'at them'. )

[GOPJ]

Somehow their problems will have to be our fault.

And if - after Obama-care gets passed - a 50 year old straight man needs a knee replacement - and a gay man needs more counseling - the 50 year old will live out his in pain...

Right now, AIDS patients get the most research money (per patient ) of any disease.

[Kimmers]

I happen to be friends with a number of gays,so many had really messed up childhoods........

[beethovenfan]

Hear that, Bawney Fwank?

[TexasFreeper2009]

Well since homosexuality is a mental disorder, this would be expected.

[bgill]

Lesbians and bisexual women appear to be approximately twice as likely as heterosexual women to report having received recent treatment for mental health or substance use disorders."

Likely to report? How about they have more disorders so acutally NEED the mental help.

[billorites]

"As with some other Axis II disorders, the underlying dynamic is aggression, in this case a highly sexualized form. Sexualized aggression is a widely known psychoanalytic concept...

You may be simplifying what is a pretty complex business as regards what causes/contributes to homosexuality.

Sexual behavior is a very over-determined thing with many variables entering into it. You don't identify as homosexual just because you kissed the wrong frog a time or two. A constellation of choices/decisions/opportunities (plus other?) factors enter into it. It is notoriously difficult to predict who'll be gay because so many factors enter into the equation, and by themselves, contribute relatively little to the variance.

Sexualized aggression or any other psychoanalytic formulation of homosexuality might be attractive from a literary point of view, but unless you can consider these variables and predict with some degree of accepted accuracy, "he's gonna be gay, he's gonna be straight...", then you don't have a very useful scientific tool.