PubMed · 880158
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P Sarma. 1977. Reactive depression.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/880158/
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Gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth are at risk for a variety of clinical problems amenable to psychotherapeutic intervention. However, many psychotherapists may be unaware of the difficulties faced by this population. The purpose of this article is to familiarize therapists with presenting complaints common to psychotherapy-seeking gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Some of these problems include homophobia among family, peers, and authority figures (often expressed at school or at work), depression, suicidality, social anxiety, and body image disturbance. We illustrate these important issues via four case examples.
Lesbian women frequently experience "invisibility," the failure of others to recognize the significance of their sexuality and partnership relations. Such invisibility can have deleterious effects, such as a reduced ability to relate life stories to others and thereby to extend and integrate aspects of identity and its healthy complexity. Although this invisibility often is intertwined with coming-out phenomena, it continues to exist in many social contexts throughout life. Therefore, it is important for psychotherapists to recognize and understand the concept of invisibility so that they do not perpetuate it within the therapy. Several case vignettes are used as examples of how invisibility can affect a woman's life and functioning and can be counteracted in therapy.
OBJECTIVE: To test the 'absolute misery hypothesis' that suicide rates are a proxy measure of psychological maladjustment within the general population of young people. METHOD: Study I regressed World Health Organization statistics on youth suicide rates on measures of adolescent adjustment across seven countries. Study II analysed the results of a Canadian survey involving 2,111 children from 31 schools in grades seven to 12 (ages 11-20 years, mean = 15.5, SD = 1.7). The survey contained measures of suicidality, depressed affect and social comparison. RESULTS: Study I found that male suicide was much more likely in psychologically well-adjusted countries than in less well-adjusted countries. Although not statistically significant in a sample of this size (n = 7), correlation analysis suggested that the relationship between suicide and adjustment was in the opposite direction for females. Study II found that suicidality in boys was not associated with depressed affect on its own, or with social comparison on its own, but was associated with the combination of depressed affect and negative social comparison. By contrast, suicidality in girls was significantly associated both with absolute and comparative levels of unhappiness. CONCLUSIONS: A new, 'relative misery hypothesis' is proposed to account for these results. Under this hypothesis, the disposition of vulnerable young men towards suicide is influenced by their affective state relative to others. When those around them are perceived to be better off than they are, the predisposition of young men to suicide is increased. By contrast, female suicide is predicted to be less influenced by young women's relative state, and more by their absolute level of unhappiness. The primary implication of the relative misery hypothesis is that the prevention of young male suicide in particular is likely to require methods that discourage vulnerable individuals from making negative social comparisons.