PTSD and Trauma in LGBTQIA+ Women
By Gia Han Nguyen
From all of us at &Rise, happy Pride month to everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community! Despite the targeted discrimination against transgender and queer people in the U.S. and worldwide in recent years, we ensure that our spaces, like our support groups are always inclusive for LGBTQIA+ women to recover from their trauma and abuse. No matter the identity, what matters most to us is the support that everyone deserves.
For this Pride month, we acknowledge how important it is for LGBTQIA+ women and girls to receive help and support. Because of targeted legislation, interpersonal cases of discrimination, and hatred, the LGBTQIA+ community experiences more barriers to healthcare and trauma. Half of the LGBTQIA+ population in the U.S. have higher rates of mental illnesses like anxiety (44%) and depression (51%) than the general U.S. population (19%).
How do LGBTQIA+ women experience trauma?
Trauma for LGBTQIA+ people looks very similar to the trauma from marginalized communities, and trauma can exponentially increase because of other identities like being a woman, person of color (POC), having a disability, and more. Trauma can come from:
Bullying and harassment: Bullying and harassment has a negative impact on a person’s life, and LGBTQIA+ women are prone to being victims because of their identities at a young age. With the rise of technology and a lack of regulation, LGBTQIA+ women are bullied and harassed both in-person and online, affecting their mental health and leading to trauma.
Discrimination: Discrimination against LGBTQIA+ women can look like marginalization, constant rejection, and identity erasure in many aspects of life, whether that is favoring people who don’t have LGBTQIA+ identities or passing laws that don’t let them have rights. For LGBTQIA+ women and girls, their identities of being a woman furthers the same marginalization, rejection, and identity erasure that they already face as LGBTQIA+ people.
Abuse: Many LGBTQIA+ adults experienced abuse, whether sexual, physical, or emotional abuse within their environments since childhood, with rates higher than heterosexual adults. The rate of abuse is higher if they also identify as a woman and/or POC, with bisexual (61%) and transgender (47%) women facing alarming rates. Their experience with abuse causes long-lasting effects of trauma, which include constant nightmares, relationship changes, and mental health disorders.
Impact of Trauma
Because of how damaging trauma can be to one’s mental, emotional, and physical health, trauma can last and develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). LGBTQIA+ people are at higher risk of having PTSD than the general population with a 4.7% increase; 48% of lesbian and bisexual women and 42% of transgender and gender non-conforming people meet the criteria for PTSD.
According to the DSM-5 Criteria, PTSD has symptoms like:
Direct (seeing) or indirect (heard from family/friends) exposure to trauma
The trauma is re-experienced (nightmares, flashbacks)
Avoiding trauma-related thoughts, reminders, or feelings
Negative thoughts or feelings that began or worsened after the trauma
Trauma-related reactivity that began or worsened after
Symptoms lasting more than 1 month
Despite this, PTSD research does not focus on how LGBTQIA+ people experience PTSD from trauma. Treatment research for PTSD does not cover all the trauma that LGBTQIA+ people will always face, like microaggressions, systemic oppression, and discrimination. Examples include remarks made by others in-person or online, professionals being discriminatory or viewing trauma as one large issue rather than multiple small issues that become traumatic, and current discriminatory laws. The trauma makes symptoms continue to exist or make them worse, which makes treatment harder for them. This increases more for LGBTQIA+ women who also have trauma related to sexism.
How can LGBTQIA+ women heal?
Evidence-based treatments for PTSD, like trauma-focused therapies and medicine, are known to work for LGBTQIA+ women, but this depends on a case-by-case basis. Healing should not just depend on an individual person with trauma wanting help, but clinicians and their practice settings should be safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ people to be able to heal. This includes:
Having clear and public non-discrimination policies
Having or hosting training on LGBTQIA+ health and inclusivity
Displaying LGBTQIA+ safety cues
Adjust to inclusive language when speaking to and about clients
For LGBTQIA+ women, healing can always look different for everyone because of the different traumas that one might experience, and with other identities like being a woman, POC, having a disability, and more. However, help and healing shouldn’t be more isolating for people with intersectional identities. Instead, healing can look like:
Finding people and groups with shared identities
Finding inclusive healthcare settings in-person or online
Holistic practices (i.e. yoga, meditation)
Implement self-care (Check out this article to learn more about self-care and what methods might suit you!)
Healing is never easy, especially in these current times where support and safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ people is decreasing. However, healing is always possible, and it can start from within.
Heal with &Rise
No matter your identity as a LGBTQIA+ person, our services and spaces here at &Rise are ensured to be safe for all women. Finding trauma-informed care and help for people with marginalized identities like being part of the LGBTQIA+ community can be difficult, so our services being free and accessible is meant to include everyone. All of us at &Rise hope you have a happy and safe Pride month because we will make sure to celebrate Pride every day in our in-person office and virtual spaces!
Join our support groups to heal with like-minded people, or heal with a counselor one-on-one. Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly empowerment, news about our different support groups, and our upcoming events. Want to support us to continue our work? Get involved by providing support with donations, buying merch, or volunteering!
