#affirm or suicide

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Mary Harrington

Published: Feb 19, 2024

A new study challenges the common assertion that gender-dysphoric youth are at elevated risk of suicide if not treated with “gender affirming” medical interventions. If it’s true, it ought to have a seismic impact on the accepted medical approach to gender-confused youth.

Reported in the BMJ, the study examines data on a Finnish cohort of gender-referred adolescents between 1996 and 2019, and compares their rates of all-cause and suicide mortality against a control group. While suicide rates in the gender-referred group studied were higher than in the control group, the difference was not large: 0.3% versus 0.1%. And — importantly — this difference disappeared when the two groups were controlled for mental health issues severe enough to require specialist psychiatric help.

In other words: while transgender identity does seem to be associated with elevated suicide risk, the link is not very strong. What’s more, the causality may not work the way activists claim.

The association between gender dysphoria and mental illness is well-documented by both providers of “gender-affirming care” and trans advocacy groups and clinical psychology research. But one less well-evidenced claim, based on this association, is that these difficulties are caused not by being transgender, but by the political and social stigma associated with it. Gender dysphoria, we are to understand, is not in itself a mental health issue. What causes mental health issues in transgender youth — up to and including suicide — is the wider world’s rejection of their identity, and of the metaphysical frame of “gender identity” as such.

This is the root of the oft-repeated social media assertion that anyone who demurs about trans identity, however mildly, is complicit in “trans genocide”. The same assertion that invalidating trans youth makes them kill themselves is also behind the rhetorical question routinely used to browbeat parents into consenting to social and medical transition for their gender-confused offspring: “Would you rather have a live daughter or a dead son?”

It’s behind the prohibition on “trans conversion therapy” already in force in several countries, and promised by the Labour Party in England too. Such measures forbid therapists from exploring with their clients whether there is any link between their gender dysphoria and — for example — life trauma or other mental health issues. For logically, if the cause of distress and suicidality in trans people is not being accepted for who they are, any therapist who seeks to explore links between gender dysphoria and other biographic or psychiatric issues is complicit in just this kind of non-acceptance, and is thus not helping but harming their client.

But as the study puts it: “Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for.” Rather, what predicts risk in this population is “psychiatric morbidity”. And contra the activists, transitioning does nothing to reduce it: “medical gender reassignment does not have an impact on suicide risk.”

Every suicide is a tragedy, and leaves grieving loved ones behind. No one wants to be complicit in pushing a young person down that path. So the suggestion that questioning someone’s gender beliefs may have this effect serves as a powerful emotional cudgel. But if the Finnish study is correct, this whole rhetorical, legislative, and medical edifice may be built on sand. If the elevated risk of suicidality in trans youth disappears when you control for other psychiatric difficulties, this suggests strongly that trans youth are not more at risk due to transphobia or invalidation, but due to the well-documented fact that gender dysphoria tends to occur in people who are disturbed and unhappy more generally.

It ought to follow from this that the way to manage suicide risk in trans-identified young people is not to affirm their gender identity and whisk them off for medical interventions, but to watch for and treat psychiatric comorbidities. Ultimately, though, the claims of gender ideology are less scientific than metaphysical. So don’t expect scientific evidence that contradicts its prescriptions to have much impact on trans advocates. Even if “following the science” would make a real difference to suicide risk in gender-dysphoric youth.

==

History will view "gender affirming care" advocates the same way we view lobotomy advocates.

[coldasyou]

[sepiamestus]

Noooo dont kill yourself youre sosexy haha (standing in front of a mirror)

[sydicidal]

New month, new beginnings, new blessings | love letter to September

[iron-sparrow]

You've had a week, haven't you? Sometimes, those weeks can even feel like months going into forever.

It does get easier, though. Every day you keep going, it gets a little easier. Just don't forget to ask for help when you need to. All of us need help at some point or another, and asking for help is a sign of strength. It means you've refused to give up.

Hey, also? You are loved, and you deserve all of that love. ‧₊˚❀

[lepraddd]

888 i attract love 888

[xiaq]

It is absolutely wild to me how Republican news outlets and politicians try to sensationalize things that don't even exist. Yet these fabricated issues are having serious disastrous effects on real-life people's health and safety. B was just talking to one of his old "friends" and he was trying to convince us to donate to the campaign of a governor whose platform rests primarily on anti-trans legislation. And B was like...no?? Are you aware of his platform? And this guy says, with absolute confidence, that this governor's platform is about protecting kids. Because it's ok if an adult wants to mutilate their body, but we shouldn't be allowing doctors to surgically change children's bodies. Which is why gender-affirming care should be illegal.

The mental gymnastics. Except he genuinely thought that "gender-affirming care" was synonymous with "surgical intervention." Gender-affirming care for a 10-year-old is therapy and support and letting them wear the clothes and use the pronouns/name they want. Gender-affirming care for a teenager might also include blockers and/or hormone therapy (or not! I've only known one person who started hormones before they turned 18, and I specifically worked with queer kids when I was a professor/teacher). For some people, gender-affirming care is solely external and doesn't involve physical intervention at all. And it is so, extremely, rare for someone to receive surgery as part of gender-affirming care when they are a minor. Yet this is what so many people seem to think gender-affirming care means. Surgery.

This is not an accident. This is targeted and malicious. This is misdirection by people who know better trying to sway the opinions of people who don't. Listen. I don't know what my point is, here. I just needed to vent. I guess it just goes to show that, now more than ever, if you're going to get into a debate with someone, make sure you understand what they mean when they use certain terminology or you're certain to get nowhere. Because this man was so confident he knew what he was talking about until we did a quick vocabulary backtrack. And when confronted with the fact that maybe he hadn't, actually, been fed the truth, he suddenly had a lot less to say. Ugh.

[myflowerdeer666]

[suckit47]

might be a little bit late but my soul was waning and yearning and i had to lock it back up like the rest of you.

made by me🪽

[plural-affirmations]

Here's to those who have had self-inflicted trauma.

Many, many traumatized individuals end up feeling like they are partly or completely to blame for their trauma. Regardless of reason, you are not responsible. Even if it was something you did to yourself or others, I firmly believe you were a victim of circumstance; genetic factors, predisposition, lack of knowing it was dangerous, adult influence, etc... there were things out of your control. So, today? We're here to appreciate you.

Shoutout to those who:

Went through SA, CSA, COCSA, and/or NCCSA

Were forced to do traumatizing acts to another child/person

Had/have an eating disorder

Had/have an addiction, even the "mild" or "uncommon" ones

Experienced self-harm or suicide attempts

Otherwise had a near-death experience

Were hospitalized for their mental health

And anyone else who just feels like it's their fault. Because I promise, it isn't.

It's going to be ok. I know how hard things can get. I've had my own run-ins with crises before, but... the important thing is that you're here. You have so, so much value and brightness inside you. I don't want you to think you have to take drastic measures to feel better. Because, you didn't get to write the beginning of your story... but you can definitely write the rest. And I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Please stick around, ok?

🖤💜💙💚💛

[stephobrien]

For a long time now, transgender people, allies, and medical and psychiatric professionals have been warning that attacks on gender-affirming care, privacy, and bodily autonomy harm kids.

Now, those warnings have been horrifyingly validated.

Researchers have found that states that passed anti-trans laws saw suicide attempt rates rise by up to 72% among transgender and nonbinary youth aged 13 to 17, and by 44% among those aged 13 to 24.

This study surveyed over 61,000 transgender and nonbinary people, and controlled for factors such as state by state differences, race, age, and the impact of COVID-19.

You can read the full article here:

It's been said many times, and now there's yet another piece of proof:

Transphobia is not about protecting kids.

Transphobes like terfs pretend they're trying to save children from some sort of evil "gender ideology," but - as usual - science proves that their bigotry only hurts the people they're pretending to protect.

And yet, right-wing politicians keep doubling down on their anti-trans attacks.

They've been warned again and again that their hate-based legislation hurts kids. They don't get to claim ignorance as an excuse.

They're knowingly choosing to endanger children's lives for the sake of their own bigotry and careers.

Remember this when casting your votes.

[thecultoflove]

Can you draw something symbolic for Lucid..

you didn't really ask for anything particular here but happy birthday lucid (it's october 11th not june 19th)

[prairiedeath]

take that for some reason is controversial even in trans spaces

a trans child receiving gender affirming surgery is always better than a trans child committing suicide

[disabledstraydogs]

More bungo stray 'affirmations'

[strxnged]

i've gone for so long without properly communicating to my boyfriend that i don't like being feminized that it's 100% my fault and i shouldn't bother telling him at this point

[69constellationsinatrenchcoat]

my HRT (testosterone) screening appointment has been delayed by a month after being on a wait list for a year and a half

but prior to that, i was told by doctors over and over for around four years that i wasn't not allowed to apply for gender-affirming care because of my age. my doctor at the time was incredibly transphobic (she refused to use correct pronouns and name even after I legally changed it)… they refused everything, including puberty blockers, which would have significantly decreased the possibility of my disability developing.

safe to say i'm angry

all up, it's been about six years of begging.

tw suicide

.. i don't want to know what will happen if they push it back again. considering holding onto getting HRT is one of two threads stopping another suicide attempt.

HRT is SO IMPORTANT.