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Study: Homosexuals Twice as Likely to Seek Mental Health, Substance Abuse Treatment

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

August 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study led by Susan Cochran and her team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, published in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry, reports that homosexuals seek treatment for mental health issues or substance abuse at a rate over two times higher than heterosexuals.

The study of 2074 people interviewed in the California Health Interview Survey found that 48.5% of homosexual and bisexual individuals reported receiving psychiatric or drug abuse treatment in the past year as compared to 22.5% of heterosexuals.

When the research results were broken down by gender, the report states that lesbians and bisexual women received the most medical treatment and heterosexual men received the least.

"It is well known that health services utilization is greater among women generally," Cochran commented. "Here we have shown that minority sexual orientation is also an important consideration. Lesbians and bisexual women appear to be approximately twice as likely as heterosexual women to report having received recent treatment for mental health or substance use disorders."

Cochran concludes that, "The pervasive and historically rooted societal pathologizing of homosexuality may contribute to this propensity for treatment by construing homosexuality and issues associated with it as mental health problems."

However, critics of the accepted secular interpretation that mental illness in homosexuals is due to discrimination have pointed out that in countries where homosexuality has been "normalized", the numbers of homosexuals seeking medical intervention for a wide range of mental and medical conditions including major depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse, are virtually the same as reported in the California study.

Homosexuals in the United States and Denmark - the latter country 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, according to a study by Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron of the Family Research Institute.

An analysis last year of 25 earlier studies on sexual orientation and mental health in the UK revealed that homosexuals are about 50% more likely to suffer from depression and engage in substance abuse than the rest of the population and also found that the risk of suicide jumped over 200% if an individual had engaged in a homosexual lifestyle.

A documentary film produced by British homosexual journalist Simon Fanshawe late last year stated that the "gay" lifestyle is a "sewer" of casual degrading sex, drug abuse and misery. In the film Fanshawe castigated what he views as a prevalent gay subculture that is focused on vanity, puerile superficiality, and transient pleasure, at the expense of lasting values and meaningful relationships.

The film includes statistics that show the deadly consequences of the homosexual lifestyle. For instance, one in nine gay men in London is HIV infected and new cases of HIV have doubled in the city in five years. Incidences of syphilis have increased in the same time period 616 per cent. "Unsafe" sex, Fanshawe said, is not the only way in which gay men are self destructive. "If there's a new drug, gay men will find it and take it," he stated.

See related LSN articles:

Study: Homosexual Lifestyle Strongly Linked to Depression, Suicide
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091704.html

Study Finds Homosexual Men Much More Likely to Consult Mental-Health Service Providers
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08032008.html

Homosexual U.K. Documentarian Says Gay Lifestyle a "Sewer" of Casual Degrading Sex, Drug Abuse and Misery
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091011.html

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