Gay Men's Mory Strs and How You Can Help

Contents:

• PRSURE TO KEEP UP: STAT IMBALANCE A MAJOR FACTOR STRS GAY MEN
• UNRSTANDG THE OF STRS ON HEALTH OF GAY OR LBIAN ADOLCENTS
• GAY-SPECIFIC AND GENERAL STRSORS PREDICT GAY MEN'S PSYCHOLOGIL FUNCTNG OVER TIME
• GAY MEN’S STRS RPONSE TO A GENERAL AND A SPECIFIC SOCIAL STRSOR
• GAY MEN’S STRS RPONSE TO A GENERAL AND A SPECIFIC SOCIAL STRSOR
• STRESSORS FOR GAY MEN AND LESBIANS: LIFE STRESS, GAY-RELATED STRESS, STIGMA CONSCIOUSNESS, AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS
• GAY MEN’S MORY STRS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP
• MENTAL HEALTH, POTENTIAL MORY STRSORS AND RILIENCE: EVINCE OM A CROSS-SECTNAL SURVEY OF GAY, BISEXUAL AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN WH THE CELTIC NATNS

PRSURE TO KEEP UP: STAT IMBALANCE A MAJOR FACTOR STRS GAY MEN

If you’re lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer(LGBTQ) or are explorg your sexual orientatn or genr inty, and you stggle wh anxiety or prsn, let’s start by puttg thgs to ntext. However, ongog homophobia, stigma (negative and ually unfair beliefs), and discrimatn (unfairly treatg a person or group of people) n have negative effects on your health.

However, beg “out” some settgs and to people who react negatively n add to the strs experienced by gay and bisexual men, and n lead to poorer mental health and discrimatn. Mental health unselg and support groups that are sensive to the needs of gay and bisexual men n be pecially eful if you are g to terms wh your sexual orientatn or are experiencg prsn, anxiety, or other mental health problems.

While many gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex wh men may not seek re om a mental health provir bee of a fear of discrimatn or homophobia, is important to keep this as an optn and to fd a provir that is tstworthy and patible.

UNRSTANDG THE OF STRS ON HEALTH OF GAY OR LBIAN ADOLCENTS

The persistence of mental health hardships among gay and bisexual men, which endure even as LGBTQ people ga greater acceptance and civil rights, n be explaed at least part by the rrosive effects of stat nscns, petivens and racism wh the gay muny are the strikg and potentially ntroversial fdgs of a study published January the Journal of Personaly and Social Psychology that may broan appreciatn of the unique strsors faced by gay and bisexual and lbian people have a more than fourfold higher rate of suici than the general populatn. Pachankis and his lleagu found that the strs gay and bisexual men reported experiencg related to their muny’s preoccupatn wh sex, stat and petn, as well as racism wh their ranks, was associated wh promised mental health, pecially for those lower on the gay-stat totem nnectns held even when the vtigators ntrolled for tradnal factors tied to the strs of beg a stigmatized sexual mory as well as general life study culmated wh a seri of experiments which gay and bisexual men participated a chat room wh other men. When the participants experienced rejectn om gay or bisexual men they perceived to be of superr stat, bee of a higher level of masculy, attractivens and e, this proved particularly a stat imbalance did not tensify feelgs of rejectn if the higher-stat man was straight.

Rejectn om gay and bisexual peers, Pachankis found a follow-up study soon to be published the Annals of Behavral Medice, was also associated wh an creased likelihood that men would engage sex that put them at risk for fdg reveals an apparent bld spot HIV preventn. Th, any subculture posed entirely of the male sex – thk the NFL or a at hoe – is likely to be trsilly stat gay male culture, such petn is pound by the fact that members pete for social and sexual ga and for sex wh each other. Body-nsc gay men often go to extensive lengths to outmatch petors and attract higher-stat efforts n give rise to body dysmorphia, eatg disorrs and harmful e of anabolic steroids, says Aaron Blashill of San Diego State Universy, who rearch body image among men who have sex wh men his studi rarely report, he says, “‘I had a really difficult week bee someone lled me a fag.

GAY-SPECIFIC AND GENERAL STRSORS PREDICT GAY MEN'S PSYCHOLOGIL FUNCTNG OVER TIME

”‘No silver bullet’Historilly, most psychologil rearch to health and mental health dispari among sexual mori has foced on the trma of growg up and livg a homophobic 1957, psychologist Evelyn Hooker published a groundbreakg study that found homosexuals were psychologilly healthy, parable to heterosexuals that regard.

“This paper and this work on tra-gay muny strs, ” Meyer says, “is fely potg to a problem that LGBTQ advot and muny centers and people who al wh therapy or rcg distrs the muni need to pay attentn to. ”Pachankis, Meyer and others have neverthels exprsed ncern that the new fdgs may be misnsted or even liberately misread and manipulated to serve an age-old narrative characterizg homosexualy as herently damagg. ”Skyler Jackson, a postdoctoral fellow unr Pachankis who studi tersectnaly, says he hop that “ addn to makg a splash the general arena of LGBTQ health – and gay and bisexual men’s health specifilly – gay muny strs theory may generate new rearch directns among many other populatns that are at risk for tramory strs.

GAY MEN’S STRS RPONSE TO A GENERAL AND A SPECIFIC SOCIAL STRSOR

”To unter the imprsn that membership the gay world is overwhelmgly leter, Pachankis emphasiz gay men’s nsirable rilience and creativy the face of great hardship and the myriad means by which gay men provi mutual rg and support agast life strsors. While a robt lerature has examed how gay-specific strsors are associated wh negative mental health out among gay men, ls attentn has been paid to the associatn between general strs and gay men's psychologil functng or to how different typ of strsors may teract to affect functng.

GAY MEN’S STRS RPONSE TO A GENERAL AND A SPECIFIC SOCIAL STRSOR

The current study sought to addrs this gap by examg the unique and bed associatns between gay-specific external strs (discrimatn), gay-specific ternal strs (rejectn sensivy, ternalized homonegativy, sexual inty ncealment), and general strsors (e. Univariate and multivariate rults revealed that gay-specific external strs, gay-specific ternal strs, and general strs were each posively and uniquely associated wh higher mean levels of and greater fluctuatns negative affect over time, and general strs was posively associated wh greater fluctuatns alhol e over time. Sce has not yet been termed whether gay-specific strs is more nox than general strs, we tted whether gay men react more strongly to gay-specific socially strsful stimuli than to general socially strsful stimuli.

STRESSORS FOR GAY MEN AND LESBIANS: LIFE STRESS, GAY-RELATED STRESS, STIGMA CONSCIOUSNESS, AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS

6% of whom were a relatnship wh a man, participated an experimental wh-group study, which they were exposed to the Trier Social Strs Tt (TSST) as well as a gay-specific TSST a randomized orr. Given that the rponse to a gay-specific social strsor was equally pronounced as the one to a general social strsor, programs aimg to crease mory strs but overlookg general strs are likely to yield only partial improvements gay men’s mental health.

Keywords: Gay men, Salivary rtisol, Salivary ttosterone, Perceived strs, Gay-specific strs tt, Experimental studyIntroductnGay men nstute a risk group for physil (Branström et al.

GAY MEN’S MORY STRS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP

In the current study, we be the psychoblogil and psychosocial perspectiv on strs, takg to acunt both physlogil as well as perceived strs an experimental study, lbians, gay men, and bisexual (LGB) dividuals were exposed to an LGB-related versn of the Trier Social Strs Tt (TSST) (Kirschbm et al. Another laboratory study g the origal versn of the TSST found that gay and bisexual men showed a lower overall salivary rtisol ncentratn om basele to post-TSST than did heterosexual men (Jter et al. The overall fdgs th dite that gay men have normal diurnal rtisol patterns, but when exposed to an acute strsor, they exhib hyportisolism, a factor associated wh allostatic load (Fri et al.

A study targetg HIV-seroposive gay and bisexual men, who due to HIV tend to have dimished levels of ttosterone, found that a gnive-behavral strs management terventn led not only to rced distrs but also to an crease ee ttosterone the blood, which was turn related to a crease anxiety and prsive symptoms (Cs et al. However, we are unaware of any studi that have tted for ttosterone chang rponse to an acute strsor gay objective of our study was to pare how gay men rpond to general and gay-specific strsors and whether the strs rpons differ. We expect that:(1) Compared to their rponse to an (acute) general strsor, gay men will show a blunted direct rponse to an (acute) gay-related strsor wh rpect to salivary rtisol, salivary ttosterone, and perceived strs; (2) gay men will show lower overall levels of salivary rtisol, salivary ttosterone, and perceived strs throughout the whole ssn when exposed to an (acute) gay-related strsor as pared to an (acute) general strsor.

MENTAL HEALTH, POTENTIAL MORY STRSORS AND RILIENCE: EVINCE OM A CROSS-SECTNAL SURVEY OF GAY, BISEXUAL AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN WH THE CELTIC NATNS

MethodsParticipantsThe data for the prent study were llected as part of the project “Psychoblogil Consequenc of Discrimatn for Gay Men” at the Universy of Marburg, Germany. The subjects received 32 Euros for participatg the full study or— the se of droppg out—8 Euros for every hour study’s cln creria were: (1) intifyg as a gay man, (2) age 18 years or olr, and (3) havg at least one experience of gay-related discrimatn.