Trauma is best described as “the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event.” A traumatic event can include everything from the death of a loved one, a major injury, and a natural disaster to bullying, sexual abuse, and much more.
Experiencing a traumatic event often impacts the sense of safety, sense of self, and a person’s ability to navigate relationships and regulate emotions. The impacts of traumatic events can be felt for many years, manifesting in mental and physical wellness issues.
Most people will experience trauma to some degree in their lives, but historically marginalized communities tend to be exposed to a more continuous stream of trauma based on their differences.
This is certainly the case when it comes to trauma within the LGBTQ+ community. We’re going to take a closer look at some of the most common traumas experienced by people within the community and how this can impact their everyday lives.
Bullying
Bullying in young children and teenagers is rife, with one report from Education Corner stating that around 90% of American youth have experienced bullying in one form or another.
This unsolicited action is a form of power play and humiliation, and it harms the social, physical, and emotional fabric of the person on the receiving end. LGBTQ+ kids and teens are particularly at risk of prolonged bullying throughout their schooling years. Even children that haven’t ‘come out’ yet are often seen as different, and this can lead to years of indiscriminate bullying, which can go left unchecked if it takes place in a hyper-religious or largely old-school traditional society.
Bullying doesn’t stop at school for many LGBTQ+ community members, who will normally face bullying and harassment within the workplace and in general society throughout their adult years.
Community Violence and Hate Crimes
Community violence is when a violent act takes place that is completely unrelated to the victim but that is based entirely on hatred or other motives against the specific community. An example in the USA would be the 2016 Orlando shooting in Pulse, a gay nightclub, that killed 49 people and wounded 53 more.
Hate crimes are more individualistic in nature but are still based on the characteristic of the specific community. The FBI has tracked and reported hate crimes against marginalized communities since 2013, and the rise in attacks on the LGBTQ+ community is astonishing. There was an 86% rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes between 2016 and 2017, while at least 11 transgender people were killed in 2019.
While these figures are alarming, experts believe that they have been seriously underestimated too.
In places such as townships in South Africa, many lesbians experience “corrective rape”, which is largely accepted by communities as a way to stop these women from being homosexual.
Medical Trauma
Unfortunately, forced conversions are still very much alive and well in the world today. Conversion therapy “professes to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to change or overcome their sexual orientation or gender identity,” and there are no laws prohibiting it in 21 of the USA’s states.
Rather than have any benefit to those undergoing these ‘therapies’, it often results in extreme medical trauma and can manifest as significant mental health issues.
Transgender people that opt for a sex change can also experience medical trauma. The pain and mental load of having the surgery, although done for the right reasons, can still be recognized as trauma by the body.
Trauma at the Hands of Authorities
The LGBTQ+ community has long been mistreated by those in authority all over the world. Whether that’s at the hands of violent police officers, the refusal of governments to allow same-sex marriage, the lack of professional medical professionals particularly trained to assist with LGBTQ+ traumas, healthcare policies, and more.
It is still completely illegal to be homosexual in over 70 countries, while Uganda’s recent abhorrent law on imprisonment for homosexuality or even being accused of being homosexual has just been passed.
Impact of Trauma
The LGBTQ+ experiences many more traumas than those mentioned above, but they generally affect people’s lives in similar ways. Here are some of the most common facets of life that are affected by trauma within the community:
Social and Economical Impact
Trauma can also have an impact on a person’s finances. Many LGBTQ+ youths struggle to adequately socialize at school, especially if they are on the receiving end of intense bullying. The impact of this rolls on into their adult years, where their confidence is low and they may not fight for the work placements that they deserve, rather settling for a lower-paying job in a company where they feel comfortable in the community.
Thankfully, this is something that is starting to change, and many workplaces have created welcoming cultures for all members of this community. It is an important step to breaking the cycles of generational inequality and financial imbalance.
Behavioral Impact
Any kind of trauma can have a behavioral impact. However, mental and physical abuse manifests in this area particularly.
Children that are going through trauma at home or school often have behavioral issues such as violent lashing out and social discomfort, which can follow them into their teenage years and adulthood.
In adults, trauma can present itself in unhealthy behaviors such as substance addiction, eating disorders, and self-harm.
Many of these behavioral impacts can make it difficult to build a community and support system, which in turn increases feelings of loneliness and alienation, which then triggers anxiety and stress responses.
Mental Impact
The body and the mind are connected, and the body will keep score of traumas experienced in the past. When the body feels threatened, it will trigger a flight-or-flight response as immediate protection against a current trauma. However, long-term sustained trauma will have a different impact.
Consistent trauma over a sustained period will exhaust the mind, leading to high levels of stress, panic, anxiety, and depression. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), LGBTQ adults are twice as likely to experience mental health issues.
There are heightened PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorders) within the LGBTQ+ community as a direct result of their continued exposure to traumas from childhood through to adulthood. LGBTQ+ youth are also five times more likely to make suicide attempts than their heterosexual counterparts.
Trauma Recovery
Trauma is incredibly complex, and it is a difficult issue to face. Often, it’s not just one experience that triggers a trauma response but a range of traumatic events experienced throughout life. Many LGBTQ+ individuals get retraumatized by recurring complex events that may be directly or indirectly connected to their past traumas.
Providing a safe space, support, and care for trauma-affected individuals within the LGBTQ+ community is essential, and that’s where the Trauma Recovery Programs at Naked Recovery come in.
Whether you’re struggling with general PTSD, sexual abuse trauma, health trauma, body trauma, anxiety, or self-image traumas, we have a specialized program created to help you deal with it in a safe, effective, and welcoming environment.
Contact us if you’d like to know more about our Trauma Recovery Programs.
