Mental Health Problems -Free-Samples for Students-Myassignmenthelp

Question: Prepare a literature review, regarding the mental health problems of any gender other than heterosexual. Answer: While homosexual people like gay are as versatile as rest of the population, their shared experience of discrimination generates common mental health issues. Australian society generally highlights heterosexuality as the most common and acceptable sexual orientation and this make the homosexual community like gay or lesbian marginalised and discriminated against (Grulich et al., 2014). The following essay aims to highlight the mental health issues associated with the gay or homosexual group of population residing in Australian, their stigmatization and possible treatment issue that must be undertaken in order to help them recover from the mental health complications. Meyer (2013), is of the opinion that the mental health issues of gay men at times go beyond the discrimination and stigma. In order to fully understand their sexual orientation and the subsequent impact on the mental health, one needs to thoroughly examine the existential crises, associated family problems, society stereotypes and the effects on the LGBT community and much more issues. All of these issues make the homosexual men or gay men more likely to develop mental illness and at times the depression becomes so severe that they are forced to commit suicide. According to Feinstein, Goldfried and Davila (2012), when gay men spend years expose d to homophobic stereotypes and myths, a sudden group of homosexual population internalize this negativity wither consciously and subconsciously and believe this stereotypes to be true and this leads to the generation of internalised homophobia. Internalised homophobia exacerbates general stress and they fail to interact freely with family mem bers and friends leading to isolation. Strother et al (2012) highlighted, apart from looking down upon the homosexual community or gay population, there are other issues as well. Among the gay male community there are unreasonable body image expectation and other overvaluing stereotypically heterosexual qualities like a constant effort of being masculine. Because of this body image issues, homosexual group of population suffers from an increase risk of developing eating disorders. According to Meyer (2013), for gay men, peer pressure along with body dissatisfaction are among few of the principal factors that increases the risk of developing mental health complication. Lanzieri and Cook (2013) highlight other opinion like masculine ideals and rejection of femininity exacerbate the body image issues and leading to the generation of frustration and subsequently development of severe depression. According to Lanzieri and Cook (2013), society has a stereotypic structure for both male and female body type. The so called healthy group of population, the heterosexual male community suffers from a peer pressure to expressing masculine body features and mannerism. Now this pressure exceeds 10 folds when it comes to the homosexual group of male population of gay community. These pressure, comes from family members, media who perpetuates effeminate gay stereotypes and other gay men to display stereotypic masculine qualities all these pressure cumulates into massive expectation and failing to live up to this expectation leads force the homosexual gay community to pass into severe depression (Brennan et al., 2013). According to Meyer (2013), the response that the gay men receive while introducing them to the society as gay for the first time is the major predictor of mental health issues while they need to deal with for the rest of their life. Rejection of their sexuality generally increases the risk of anxiety and depression. Meyer (2013), believed that while passing throu gh the depression limits interaction with people, further increasing depression. The mental health complication among the homosexual gay community also has political perspectives. When the politicians or other religious figures in the society defend legislation or rights of gay people, it reinforces a belief among the gay men that they are not in parity with the heterosexual group of population and this discrimination exacerbates the mental health issues among them (Bosia, 2014). In order to provide the homosexual population in the society equal rights, Australian Parliament voted overwhelmingly to legalize the concept of same-sex marriage (The New York Times, 2017). Though a handful of lawmakers tried to add new amendments that they highlighted were meant in order to protect religious freedoms for the opponents of same-sex marriage, but their unfair efforts failed to gain significance (The New York Times, 2017). According to The New York Times (2017) passing of legal rights of same sex marriage is huge affirmation of dignity of gay people and this will help o reverberate the lives of people across Australia. Centre of Disease Control, [CDC] (2017) is of the opinion that passing the legal rights will not suffice to protect the gay community from passing into depression. Keeping the sexual orientation hidden from others or the sudden fear of having disclosing the sexual orientation can increase the stress of the gay community. Research carried by the CDC (2017 ) showed that the gay or bisexual men who are free or open about their sexual orientation with other members of the community have better health outcomes in comparison to other gay or bisexual men who have sudden inhibition in disclosing their sexual orientation. According to Rutherford et al. (2012), it is the duty of the mental health concealing nurse to help the gay or bisexual men to be open about that sexual orientation and will in turn help to cut short the stigma of feeling isolated or cursed. Having supportive group of family members and friends is often a key success in order to reduce the stress and maintain good mental health (Rutherford et al., 2012). Rutherford et al. (2012) further opined that. mental health counselling along with other support groups or social are personnel who are sensitive to mental and physical needs of the gay or bisexual men can be especially useful for the gay or bisexual individual in coming in terms with their sexual orientation and this act o f self realization or the ability accept the sexual change will help them to recover from the mental health problems, anxiety and depression. Thus from the above discussion it can be stated that though the Australian government has legalised same sex marriage, the gay or the bisexual men residing in Australia still suffers from social exclusion, discrimination and stigmatization. This social isolation leads to the generation of mental health complications like depression and severe anxiety. From help and support from close friends and family members along with counselling will help this group of population to accept their changed sexual orientation in a spontaneous manner and thereby providing them courage to fight against the social tabos. References Bosia, M. J. (2014). Strange fruit: Homophobia, the state, and the politics of LGBT rights and capabilities.Journal of Human Rights,13(3), 256-273. Brennan, D. J., Asakura, K., George, C., Newman, P. A., Giwa, S., Hart, T. A., ... Betancourt, G. (2013). Never reflected anywhere: Body image among ethnoracialized gay and bisexual men.Body image,10(3), 389-398. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (2017). Gay and Bisexual Mens Health. Accessed on: 28th March. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/mental-health.htm Feinstein, B. A., Goldfried, M. R., Davila, J. (2012). The relationship between experiences of discrimination and mental health among lesbians and gay men: An examination of internalized homonegativity and rejection sensitivity as potential mechanisms.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology,80(5), 917. Grulich, A. E., de Visser, R. O., Badcock, P. B., Smith, A. M., Heywood, W., Richters, J., ... Simpson, J. M. (2014). Homosexual experience and recent homosexual encounters: the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships.Sexual health,11(5), 439-450. Lanzieri, N., Cook, B. J. (2013). Examination of muscularity and body fat depictions in magazines that target heterosexual and gay men.Body Image,10(2), 251-254. Meyer, I. H. (2013). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: conceptual issues and research evidence. Rutherford, K., McIntyre, J., Daley, A., Ross, L. E. (2012). Development of expertise in mental health service provision for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.Medical Education,46(9), 903-913. Strother, E., Lemberg, R., Stanford, S. C., Turberville, D. (2012). Eating disorders in men: underdiagnosed, undertreated, and misunderstood.Eating disorders,20(5), 346-355. The New York times (2017). Australia Makes Same-Sex Marriage Legal. Accessed on: 28th March. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/world/australia/gay-marriage-same-sex.html