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Post by pdc1987 on Mar 26, 2009 9:35:58 GMT -5
Gays 'offered help to be straight'A significant number of psychiatrists and therapists are trying to help lesbian or gay patients become heterosexual, according to research. Some psychiatrists are trying to help lesbian or gay patients become heterosexual, … This is despite a lack of evidence that such treatments can be beneficial or even safe, the study in the journal BMC Psychiatry said. The research found that one in six of the 1,400 mental health professionals surveyed reported having helped at least one patient curtail their gay, lesbian or bisexual feelings. One in 25 psychiatrists or therapists said they would try to treat someone who was having such emotions if asked today. Professor Michael King, from University College London, who worked on the study, said: "There is very little evidence to show that attempting to treat a person's homosexual feelings is effective and, in fact, it can actually be harmful. So it is surprising that a significant minority of practitioners still offer this help to their clients." One anonymous professional who took part in the study said they would help a patient if they held a religious belief that forbade homosexuality. Another said: "The individuals I have worked with have all been very unhappy about their sexuality and wish they were heterosexual." Professor King now wants to raise awareness amongst those trying to treat homosexuality. He added: "The best approach is to help people adjust to their situation, to value them as people and show them that there is nothing whatever pathological about their sexual orientation. Both mental health practitioners and society at large must help them to confront prejudice in themselves and in others." Academics at St George's, University of London, helped compile the research, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust. A new website - www.treatmentshomosexuality.org.uk - is also being set up where those who have received such treatment, as well as those who have administered it, can provide their own views. Derek Munn, director of public affairs at Stonewall, the gay and lesbian equality organisation, said: "So-called gay cure therapies are wholly discredited. The conclusions of this research are a welcome reminder that what lesbian and gay people need is equal treatment by society, not misguided treatment by a minority of health professionals." uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090326/tuk-g...ht-6323e80.html[/quote]
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Post by pdc1987 on Mar 26, 2009 9:37:57 GMT -5
One anonymous professional who took part in the study said they would help a patient if they held a religious belief that forbade homosexuality. Another said: "The individuals I have worked with have all been very unhappy about their sexuality and wish they were heterosexual." And you try to "help" them by buying in to it instead of teaching them the biology of sexual orientation and to accept themselves? What an ass.
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Post by erictheblue on Mar 26, 2009 10:09:50 GMT -5
I successfully cured my homosexuality. For about 10 years, I was a lesbian. Now I am a straight man.
;D
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Post by Caitshidhe on Mar 26, 2009 10:21:42 GMT -5
Wow, what the hell? What year is this, 1850? Homosexual and bisexual and transexual aren't illnesses and it frustrates me to no end that people are still treating them as such--ESPECIALLY people who should know better!! The only reason those people are so unhappy and sad is because the rest of the world makes them feel guilty and dirty and SICK over something they have no control over. The solution isn't to try to 'cure' them--because you can't 'cure' your sexuality any more than you can 'cure' your hair and eye colours. You can cover them up and lie and tell people it's your natural state, but at the end of the day you're still brunette, and have brown eyes, and you're still homosexual.
If people stopped trying to demonize those with other sexualities than 'vanilla hetero', then maybe you wouldn't get so many people coming to shrinks and psychiatrists, hoping to CURE their sexual preferences. But no, see, that would require education and acceptance and a lack of bigotry from religious morons. What gets me is that these people are professionals and THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER!! And one in six is a startlingly high number. And I'm gonna bet that it's higher than that in the United States.
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Post by Green-Eyed Lilo on Mar 26, 2009 10:24:36 GMT -5
My first therapist--who I went to because I knew something was wrong and I scored off the charts on a self-test for depression--offered to help me with "that problem" when I told her I was bi and with another woman. I yelled at her and never went back. I would have expected something like this if I'd used, say, a Christian business guide or a phone book ad with a fish, but that's why I avoided those. It's upsetting that this is apparently a far more common experience than I'd thought--and in England as well as the USA!
I'm glad this was done, anyway, and hope it helps. Of course, it also helps if you only go to therapists who advertise in LGBT newspapers and such and tell them up front, but obviously someone who's conflicted about their sexuality (or, worse, parents who don't really accept it and are taking their kid to therapy) probably wouldn't take that route.
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Post by Caitshidhe on Mar 26, 2009 10:33:01 GMT -5
I would've reported anybody offering to help 'treat' you for your sexuality! Also, I'd've filled her car with catfood and shaving cream, but that's just my childishly vindictive side talking. Geezis. It's not like you were even having some internal conflict about your sexuality, were you? And anyway, that was absolutely NOT the right thing to say because if you DIDN'T have a problem with it, she was MAKING one by implying that your sexuality and relationship status were a 'problem'! The mind, she boggles.
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Post by schizophonic on Mar 26, 2009 10:49:18 GMT -5
I only recently outed myself as a transsexual to my therapist. We're talking about only a few months. He's bent over backwards to actually help me deal with it, rather than trying to convince me I should try and "cure" myself.
People in that situation are very vulnerable. It makes me sick that people would try and help to "cure them." These are supposed to be professionals FFS.
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Post by Caitshidhe on Mar 26, 2009 10:59:22 GMT -5
I feel REALLY lucky now for having never had to mention my sexuality to a therapist, because I never felt I had to--for a while I tried to pretend that it was 'just a phase', because that's what I'd heard. Then one day I pretty much said, "What is the fucking point? I fancy girls, too," and went back to my sketchbook. Yeah, totally un-momentous realization moment there.
But yeah, most people aren't that lucky and DO struggle with it. I can't imagine what it would've been like for someone who really, really struggled coming to terms with their sexuality and spent ages girding their loins and getting up the courage to finally tell a therapist about it....... only to have the THERAPIST, the person who you're supposed to trust and is supposed to HELP YOU, tell them that this was something that could be 'cured'. I would suggest outing these therapists so people would know who to avoid, but you KNOW that the religious crazies out there will be sending their homosexual children to one of these people in an effort to 'cure' them.
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Post by ozznova on Mar 26, 2009 11:05:21 GMT -5
I'm sure many gay men need help being straight.
Perhaps they could get some "bi-curious" guys to give them a hand... or some head...
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Post by Sandafluffoid on Mar 26, 2009 11:14:34 GMT -5
I can understand wanting to help patients who are insecure about their sexuality, but that is just not the sensible way of going about it. You're meant to help them accept themselves, not tell them there's something wrong with them. I'm ashamed and embarrased that such a huge number of phsycologists are so ignorant.
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Post by headache on Mar 26, 2009 12:08:42 GMT -5
How can you change a genetically based orientation using psychiatry? I think it is time soon for me to publish my "General Theory of Life" and set this straight, once and for all
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Post by Sigmaleph on Mar 26, 2009 12:10:14 GMT -5
First of all, fuck them. It is not exactly a secret that all programmes that claim to cure homosexuality have failed. It is also not a secret that accepting your own sexuality does wonders for your mental health, and repressing it has the opposite effect. Someone that doesn't know either of these, refuses to accept them, or ignores them and attempts to "cure" a sexual orientation does not deserve to be called a mental health professional.
On a lighter note, I wonder if curing my half gayness* would finally make me bisexual.
*I'm an androgynous gynephile, so my male side is straight and my female side is gay.
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Post by schizophonic on Mar 26, 2009 12:15:07 GMT -5
I feel REALLY lucky now for having never had to mention my sexuality to a therapist, because I never felt I had to--for a while I tried to pretend that it was 'just a phase', because that's what I'd heard. Then one day I pretty much said, "What is the fucking point? I fancy girls, too," and went back to my sketchbook. Yeah, totally un-momentous realization moment there. But yeah, most people aren't that lucky and DO struggle with it. I can't imagine what it would've been like for someone who really, really struggled coming to terms with their sexuality and spent ages girding their loins and getting up the courage to finally tell a therapist about it....... only to have the THERAPIST, the person who you're supposed to trust and is supposed to HELP YOU, tell them that this was something that could be 'cured'. I would suggest outing these therapists so people would know who to avoid, but you KNOW that the religious crazies out there will be sending their homosexual children to one of these people in an effort to 'cure' them. My friend works at a psych/rehab hospital. Several parents have tried to admit their kids based on being gay or lesbian. They want it treated like any other mental disorder. Thank Fully, they don't admit because it's not a disorder. I don't know if this is particularly unusual, but I never struggled with my sexuality. I knew I was bisexual (Not by those words) since the moment I had any level of sexuality to begin with. On the other hand, I got the crap kicked out of me for my gender identity and the fact that I didn't behave like "the other boys." Being effeminate on the playground will get you some serious asskickings. So I did try and go through the denial process on that. I tried to fit in. I tried to be "one of the guys." And by the time anyone used the word "faggot" on me, my sexuality was so much a normal part of me that they couldn't shame it out. And pardon a minor bit of whining, that I fought so hard to fit in I'm dealing now with the fact that I'm not sure where the persona I adopted ends and I begin. All because of them "harmless" gender roles and the folks who tried to beat the chick outta me. My Ex's big coming out moment, by the way, was to her Mom, where they're sitting around the living room, and she was like, "So I'm gay," And her Mom said, "Yeah, I figured." Sorry, your un-momentous revelation made me think of that. That always makes me smile, because her Mom loved her no matter what. They fight all the time, but that's pretty normal. And still, for anyone who's gone through hardship because of things they cannot control, to be told by a professional that "you're wrong and I want to fix you" just makes me....Well, instantly sympathetic to the patient, for one. But also infuriated at the doctor/therapist. These people should not be able to keep their licenses for practicing crap like this.,
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Post by gotpwnt on Mar 26, 2009 13:53:30 GMT -5
I smell a scam.
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Post by devilschaplain2 on Mar 26, 2009 13:55:20 GMT -5
Did said psychiatrists happen to look like this?:
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