LGBT Risk to Suicide

Sadly, most of my LGBT friends did think of or attempt suicide when they were facing stress with disclosure or during the coming out process.  It might be rather easy for  heterosexual people to share their love relationship conflict with their significant others and seek advice from them. However,  for LGBT people, due to the sexual stigmatization, majority of them keep their relationship conflict or problem within themselves and hardly express their emotional pain. The hopelessness and helplessness might be the key elucidation of suicidal thoughts and attempt. Here are some research about the LGBT risk to suicidal ideation:

1) A large-scale UK study which compared the mental health of 1,093 heterosexual with 1,284 LGBT people, almost a third of the LGBT people had attempted suicide (King et al., 2003).

2) Research suggest that lesbian are at greater risk for attempting and completing suicide than heterosexual woman. One study of adults found that lesbians were significantly more likely to have considered suicide in the past than heterosexual women, with over half of the lesbians having contemplated suicide (51%), compared to 38% of heterosexual women (Hughes et al., 2000).

3) National lesbian health Care survey (NLHCS) found that over half their lesbian sample had thought about suicide, with 18 % having attempted suicide (Bradford et al., 1997).

4) The  Boston Lesbian health Project II showed that 20% of their sample had made a suicide attempt (Roberts et al., 2004).

5) Between 48% and 76% of homosexual and bisexual youth have thoughts of committing suicide, and 29% to 42% have attempted it, compared with estimated rates of 7% to 13% among high school students in general (Armesto, 2001; Cochran & Mays, 2000; Russell & Joner, 2001).

 

There is always hope, please do not keep this suicidal feelings to yourself, share with someone you trust (at least make a call), it could your friends, parents, family members or counsellor, and let them know how bad things are. Don’t let fear, shame, or embarrassment prevent you from seeking help. Just talking about how you got to this point in your life can release a lot of the pressure that’s building up and help you find a way to cope.

There a few hotlines or organization you could seek help or make call for: Let someone know your pain.

1) Samaritans organization worldwide:

Hong Kong : http://www.samaritans.org.hk - 24/7 hotline: 2896 0000

United States : http://www.samaritansusa.org

Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) : 24/7 hotline: 1800-221 4444

United Kingdom : http://www.samaritansusa.org : 24/7 hotline: 08457 90 90 90

2) USA national suicide hotline http://www.suicidehotlines.com/ 1800-SUICIDE :1-800-784-2433

References

Armesto, J.C. (2001). Attributions and emotional reactions to the identity disclosure of a homosexual child. Family Process, 40(2), 145-162.

Bradford, J., Ryan, C., & Rothblum, E. (1997). National lesbian health care surveys. Implications for mental health care. Journal of Lesbian Studies, I(2), 217-249.

Bradley, S. J. (1995).Psychosexual disorders in adolescence. In J. M. Oldham & M. B. Riba (Eds.), American Psychiatric Press review of psychiatry, (Vol. 14). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.

Cochran, S.D, & Mays, V. M. (2000). Lifetime prevalence of suicide symptom and affective disorder among men reporting samesex sexual partners: Results from NHANES III. American Journal of Public Health, (90)4, 573-578.

Hoare, J. and Moon, D. (Ed.) (2010) Drug Misuse Declared: Findings from the 2009/10 British Crime Survey. Home Office Statistical Bulletin 13/10. Retrieved October 17, from  http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb1310.pdf

 

Hughes, T.L., Haas, A., Razzano, L., Matthews, A.K., & Cassidy, R.(2000). Comparing lesbians' and heterosexual women's mental health: Findings from a multi-site study. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 11, 57-76.

King, M., McKeown, E., Warner, J., Ramsay, A., Johson, K. & Cort, C. (2003). Mental health and quality of life of gay men and lesbian in England and Wales: controlled, cross sectional study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 183, 552-8.

Roberts, S., Grindel, C., Patsdaughter, C. Reardon K., & Tarmina, M. (2004). Mental health problems and use of services of lesbian: Results of the Boston Lesbian Health Project II. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 17(4), 1-16.

Russell, S. T., & Jorner, K (2001). Adolescent sexual orientation and suicide risk: Evidence from a natural study. American Journal of Public Health, 91(8), 1276-1282.