Study: Homosexual lifestyle strongly linked to depression, suicide


LONDON - A new study in the United Kingdom has revealed that homosexuals are about 50% more likely to suffer from depression and engage in substance abuse than the rest of the population, reports Health24.com.

After analyzing 25 earlier studies on sexual orientation and mental health, researchers, in a study published in the medical journal BMC Psychiatry, also found that the risk of suicide jumped over 200% if an individual had engaged in a homosexual lifestyle.

These findings strongly support the results of similar studies conducted in the United States, which have unveiled the severe physical and psychological health risks associated with homosexual behavior. Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron of the Family Research Institute revealed in 2007 that research shows that the lifespan of a homosexual is on average 24 years shorter than that of a heterosexual. As a health threat, even smoking pales in comparison, as studies show smoking can shorten one's life by only 1 to 7 years on average.

While the Health 24 article suggested that homosexuals may be pushed to substance abuse and suicide because of anti-homosexual cultural and family pressures, empirical tests have shown that there is no difference in homosexual health risk depending on the level of tolerance in a particular environment. Homosexuals in the United States and Denmark - the latter of which is acknowledged to be highly tolerant of homosexuality - both die on average in their early 50's, or in their 40's if AIDS is the cause of death. The average age for all residents in either country ranges from the mid-to-upper-70s.

Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist and member of the Catholic Medical Association, says there is evidence that homosexuality is itself a manifestation of a psychological disorder accompanied by a host of mental health problems, including "major depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, conduct disorder, low self-esteem in males and sexual promiscuity with an inability to maintain committed relationships."

Fitzgibbons said the American Psychological Association, which is known for its support of homosexual "marriage," ignored the evidence he presented that homosexuality presents significant danger to psychological health.


What's Your Opinion?

Do you think that men and women who engage in homosexuality are more likely to be depressed, engage in substance abuse, and attempt suicide because of their actual involvement in homosexuality or because of society's attitudes towards homosexuality and those who engage in the homosexuality?

We will publish your opinions in an upcoming story.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I am a gay male that knew Jesus years before I knew that God created me as a gay person. The thought of suicide has never entered my mind. I love the gay lifestyle and praise God that I can life my life openly and freely. I am also not involved in substance abuse; I can get high on the Holy Spirit.

I am fully aware that some people feel that God does not approve of the gay lifestyle because THEIR “bible” says that God does not like the gay lifestyle. My God is bigger than a book written by men and called a “Bible”. My God is within and guides me every day. I walk with Jesus everyday and he approves of my behavior. The “Bible” is NOT my God. My God speaks directly to me.

You asked, “Do you think that men and women who engage in homosexuality are more likely to be depressed, engage in substance abuse, and attempt suicide because of their actual involvement in homosexuality or because of society's attitudes towards homosexuality and those who engage in the homosexuality?” No, I do not think the average person cares what a small segment of society thinks about homosexuality. Today’s teenagers are coming out at an earlier age because society is becoming more accepting of different lifestyles.

Dr Paul and Kirk Cameron have been completely discredited by the mainstream medical community. Their research studies will never appear in a recognized medical journal because their research is bogus.

I am an active member of our local gay community and I can say that most gay people are very happy with their life. I personally know many gay guys in their eighties that are still active in the gay lifestyle and are enjoying every minute of it. Life is what you want to make of it. In this country we have freedom to live life as we desire, not as some religious people want us to live.
Again, the Bible is NOT God. The Bible was about God as men many years ago perceived him but God has always lived in the hearts of men, not in the pages of a book written by a religious organization. The God of the Bible is impotent and has no power but the God that lives within is the most powerful force on earth.
Anonymous said…
Jesus of Nazareth (all four Gospels) chose to aggravate the authorities into crucifying him. Jesus was explicit in stating that his life was not being taken but that he was voluntarily choosing death: "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." (John 10:18) While many Christians would vehemently deny that this amounts to suicide, Jesus behaved
in a way that he knew would cause the authorities to condemn and execute him. Hence, Jesus committed suicide.

It does not require a research study to point out the obvious; religion is a deathstyle; not a lifestyle. From Jim Jones and his kool aid drinkers( 900 suicides), Heaven’s Gate (39 suicides), and thousands of suicide bombers, religion is a principal cause of suicide.

America is beginning to realize the vicious truth about the Bible. For far too long priests and preachers have completely ignored the vicious criminal acts that the Bible promotes. The so called “God” of the Bible makes Osama Bin Laden look like a Boy Scout. This God, according to the Bible, is directly responsible for many mass-murders, rapes, pillage, plunder, slavery, child abuse and killing.

It always amazes me how many times this God orders the killing of innocent people even after the Ten Commandments said “Thou shall not kill”. For example, God kills 70,000 innocent people because David ordered a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21). God also orders the destruction of 60 cities so that the Israelites can live there. He orders the killing of all the men, women, and children of each city, and the looting of all of value (Deuteronomy 3). He orders another attack and the killing of “all the living creatures of the city: men and women, young, and old, as well as oxen sheep, and asses” (Joshua 6). In Judges 21, He orders the murder of all the people of Jabesh-gilead, except for the virgin girls who were taken to be forcibly raped and married. When they wanted more virgins, God told them to hide alongside the road and when they saw a girl they liked, kidnap her and forcibly rape her and make her your wife! Just about every other page in the Old Testament has God killing somebody! In 2 Kings 10:18-27, God orders the murder of all the worshipers of a different god in their very own church! In total God kills 371,186 people directly and orders another 1,862,265 people murdered.
Anonymous said…
The vast majority of gay men and women have never engaged in substance abuse nor attempted suicide.

Citing Cameron's ravings serves no purpose. He lacks credibility. He's been tossed out of the American Psychological Association and his work has been criticised for alleged misrepresentation of data by the American Sociological Association and Canadian Psychological Association.

His study of gay deaths, for instance, was conducted entirely by reading obituaries in gay news papers during the peak of the AIDS crisis. Talk about skewed data!

The remarks of Fitzgibbons, director of the Institute for Marital Healing, fly in the face of the American Psychiatric Association's deletion of homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders and it's strong statement of support for gay rights.

Dr Michael King, professor of primary care psychiatry at University College London and author of the study, stressed that homosexuality itself is not a disorder leading to poor mental health, but that the high rate of mental ill health is probably due to lifelong stress.

Attempting to correlate AIDS deaths among gay men with the British study is pointless. AIDS is nowhere mentioned in the study.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/8/70

I'm all for some scientific studies of mental illness, depression, anti-social and suicidal behaviors among the so-called ex-gays.

Now that would be interesting.
Anonymous said…
Evangelist compound raided in child pornography investigation
From the Associated Press
5:40 PM PDT, September 20, 2008
FOUKE, Ark. --

FBI agents and state police raided an evangelists' headquarters today as part of a child pornography investigation. State social workers were interviewing children who live at the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries just south of Texarkana.

"Children living at the facility may have been sexually and physically abused," said Tom Browne, who runs the FBI office at Little Rock. He said the investigation involved the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of children across state lines for criminal activity."

The Christian lifestyle is dangerous to Children. The Catholic church was rocked by a scandal involving priests abusing young boys, now the evangelical community must face up to the fact that some of their ministers are child predators. God help us all.
Anonymous said…
James;
I believe that the incidence of substance abuse and depression amongst LGBT individuals is directly related to the social marginalisation of and discrimination carried out against the LGBT community.

Further, any study that even cites the Cameron group is suspect at best and invalid on its face at worst. Cameron has been defrocked as a psychologist.
Anonymous said…
These studies that say that suicide and drug abuse are problems in the homosexual community are not entirely correct, especially here in Southern California. Young gay people today have support systems in place that did not exist in earlier years. Organizations like GLESEN, PFLAG, gay community centers, and even a few churches provide support and education to gay youth. There are also literally hundreds of small groups that are reaching out to younger gays to help them build self esteem. Many older gays are adopting younger gays as mentors. In the gay parade this year I noticed many more young teens proudly marching with various organizations.
Gays also have more role models today because so many of the older gays are open about their sexuality and are reaching out to help the younger gays.

Gay people, especially the younger ones, are fighting back against those organizations and people that try to interfere with their lifestyle. The current issue of the Gay and Lesbian Times has a good article on this subject.

The gay community here in San Diego does not just sit at home and whine about their problems on a blog, they roll up their sleeves and go to work to solve the problem. This is not to say that the gay community does not have problems, but to their credit the gay community is putting forth a tremendous amount of energy and financial resources to make tomorrow better for their members. Suicide and drug abuse are not likely options for gay people in San Diego.
Anonymous said…
The following quote came to mind while I was reading this: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

I'm curious as to what else is linked to depression and suicide - I imagine more than just the 'homosexuality'. I just did a google search for 'linked to depression' - here's what I found:

1) inflammatory bowel disease
2) insomnia
3) americanization
4) brain protein
5) homosexual lifestyle
6) Popular Acne Drug, Isotretinoin
7) compulsive shopping
8) religion (an interesting find considering the context of this blog, here's the link: http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/religion_linked_with_depression_in_some_teens/

So it may be in fact be true that homosexuality is strongly linked to depression, etc. But after seeing so many other factors that contribute as well - it's hard for me to point to homosexuality as being particularly wrong or harmful.
Anonymous said…
Christian "news site" distorts study about gays. Exactly no one surprised.
by
Michael Jensen
http://www.afterelton.com/blog/

Ah, those rightwing Christian wingnuts just can't resist telling lies even though I'm pretty sure there is a commandment against that sort of thing. But that hasn't stopped the "news" site OneNewsNow.com from taking an article posted on the website Health24.com headlined Gays more prone to depression and twisting it fit OneNewsNow.com distorted world view.

The Health24.com article details the results of an analysis of 25 previous studies concerning sexual orientation and mental health. The analysis concludes that gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults were 50% more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to have suffered from depression or an anxiety disorder. Gays were also more likely to have higher risk of alcohol abuse and suicide risk.

However, in the second sentence of the Health24.com article the author points out "The reason for this may lie in discrimination and rejection often associated with being homosexual or bisexual." The article then goes on to specifically say that homosexuality is not an order and quotes the study's lead researcher Michael King as saying the depression and alcohol abuse are likely the results of lifelong stress as even in societies tending to be liberal, discrimination against gay and lesbian folks isn't exactly uncommon.

But what happens when this news is run through OneNewsNow.com's hypocrisy blender? Why you get a headline trumpeting "Study: Homosexual lifestyle strongly linked to depression, suicide". Naturally, it only goes down hill from there with the article going on to cite bogus research from the discredited Dr. Paul Cameron of the American Family Institute who claims us 'mos die on average 24 years sooner than our heterosexual counterparts. In the same article, a Catholic psychiatrist claims being gay is is a mental disorder -- no matter that the American Psychological Association, the governing body for psychiatrists, says otherwise. After all, the APA is pro same-sex marriage, sniffs the article, so they can't possibly be believed.

The worst offense though is when the OneNewsNow.com article tries to dispatch the "intolerant society making 'mos sad and depressed" argument by citing "empircial tests"proving there is no difference in the health risks posed by the "gay lifestyle" based on the intolerance levels of society. Their proof? The fact that gay men (or "homosexuals" as they write repeatedly) in the United States as well as gays in the very tolerant Denmark "both die on average in their early 50's, or in their 40's if AIDS is the cause of death."

Talk about a shady switcheroo. These guys should sell used cars. I guess we're not supposed to notice they went from talking about gays being depressed due to intolerance to discussing the age at which some folks with AIDS die in two different countries. The connection being what exactly? But I suppose if you think dinosaurs co-existed with human beings, you might not care about such leaps of illogic. (And notice they don't actually cite their study or link to it probably because they don't want anyone thinking too hard about what they are trying to say.)

By the way, would anyone be surprised to find out Donald Wildmon's American Family Association is behind OneNewsNow.com? Yeah, I thought not.
Anonymous said…
I may be the minority here, but if you believe in Jesus then you believe the Bible is His word and the word of his Father. The men who wrote the Bible, wrote down God's word. Otherwise, the book would be fraught with inconsistencies.

All this said, God's word teaches to love one another and hate sin. Christians are not suppose to judge. Each person's sins are between them and God. Christians, who are not afraid of public opinion, love everyone and worry, deep in their hearts, about all who are away from God.

Bottom line, any sexual activity outside of marriage is a sin. That is what it says in God's word. There is absolutely no place in the Bible where homosexuality is accepted by God. It is listed under the sexual sins...considered an abomination by God.

No excuses by anyone will change this. Just because society accepts it, does not make it right.

God is our maker. Whether we like it or not, we are connected to Him. When we go against His plan (and are told that it's okay), it just stands to reason that that depression and suicide would follow.

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