Self-reported mental and physical health symptoms and potentially traumatic events among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals: The role of shame.

Abstract

Objective: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals disproportionately face exposure to potentially traumatic events—adverse experiences that may have a traumatizing effect—and experience shame as a common consequence. Previous research demonstrates associations between shame and psychological and physical health issues among those with exposure to potentially traumatic events in general, with limited attention among LGBTQ individuals specifically. This study determined whether shame partially mediated the relationship between potentially traumatic events exposure and self-reported mental and physical health symptoms among LGBTQ individuals. Method: Participants were 218 self-identified LGBTQ individuals who reported experiencing at least one potentially traumatic event (e.g., childhood sexual abuse). Online surveys assessed the type and frequency of potentially traumatic events exposure, shame, self-reported mental health (depression symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and substance use), and physical health symptoms (sexual risk behavior, somatic symptoms, and chronic health conditions). Results: Greater potentially traumatic events exposure was associated with greater shame, and greater shame was associated with worse self-reported mental and physical health. Potentially traumatic events exposure had a direct effect on self-reported mental and physical health, and shame partially mediated this relationship. Conclusion: Shame represents an important and modifiable factor that relates to poor health and may be amenable to change through psychosocial interventions. Given the prevalence of negative self-attribution stemming from potentially traumatic events exposure, in addition to the internalization of stigma among this population, practitioners need to uncover interventions specifically targeting shame when working with LGBTQ individuals.

Gay Behaviors and Persistent Problems: Looked Globally Through the Lens of an Overview and a Single Case Report

“…In other words, every behavior aimed at obtaining pleasure or escaping from psychological pain will turn into compulsive addictive behavior such as sexual romance or even real additional addiction to substance use disorders [48][49][50]. In this case, such gay behaviors were further consolidated by this patient's behavioral practices including entering pornographic sites and chatting online daily for several hours accompanied by sexual fantasies of the same sex, frequent masturbation, imaginative sexual enjoyment with similar sex, and such scenarios match the reports of other studies [45][46][47]51]. Currently, most of the factors that lead to sexual deviation including LGBTQ behaviors concerned satellite channels, porn sites on the Internet and bad companions or peers [52,53].…”

“…This man married outside the suitable age range of thirty years, marriage is preferred early in Saudi culture, and began to experience marital problems that led to marital separation several times, with the natural desire of the partner, persistent sexual orientation of the same sex like sexual addiction, physical problems and prostate problems, and a change in overall job performance. Such problems of gay persons are not unique to this case, and are reported by many researchers [43][44][45][46].…”

“…As the child develops, the memories of sexual trauma emerge that he was sexually abused with feelings contradictory between the sense of pleasure and happiness and the shame, guilt and dejection and other symptoms like physical symptoms, depression and PTSD including gay behaviors [43][44][45].…”

“…Other than aforesaid problems, the patient stated that he had suffered for several years from fear and lack of focus, depressive and anxiety symptoms, mood swings, a sense of personality weakness and poor manhood, reduced appetite and sleep problems, difficulty in personal social life, frequent passage of previous memories of sexual harassment, recurrent imageries and sexual desire of the same sex. Such problems are commonplace regarding LGBTQ [45,47]. In addition, this person became accustomed to these behaviors over long period, which were difficult to get rid of at the time.…”

Becoming an Intentional Church Community: Relationships, Security, and Discipleship in Sexual Identity and Faith Development

“…Bringing this searching into dialogue with a trusted other is important in order to process these concerns. Discipleship at this stage included providing a safe space for this questioning and exploration, fostering self-acceptance of these attractions to minimize shame (Dean et al, 2020;Scheer et al, 2020), and increasing positive religious coping (i.e., turning to faith for support and meaning) and decreasing negative religious coping (i.e., questioning faith and God; e.g. Bourn et al, 2018).…”