When Camlyn Giddins was a senior in college, she was struggling with severe situational anxiety. She almost dropped out and wasn’t sure if she would make it to graduation, which made her panic. She was able to graduate and now works at Encircle, a nonprofit dedicated to building safe spaces for LGBTQ youth, young adults and families, while making sure LGBTQ youth don’t lose their “beautiful minds,” she said.
Giddins, a community engagement coordinator for Encircle, spoke at Intermountain Healthcare’s annual Mental Health Services Awareness Night, “Back to School-Back to Work,” at Utah Valley University on Thursday, during a session on the role of diversity and inclusion in mental health.
Suicide is a leading cause of death in Utah, and the state is consistently in the top 10 states in suicide deaths. A large portion of these deaths are youth, and LGTBQ youth are particularly at risk.
The presentation included research that shows that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are three times more likely to report a lifetime suicide attempt than heterosexual youth, more than 40% have seriously considered suicide and 29% reported having attempted suicide in the past year. Giddins also shared that 40% of transgender adults reported having made a suicide attempt, almost all of them before age 25.
“Research is hard, because how many people are out? How many people are going to admit these things?” she said. “The sad thing is (these numbers) might be too low. I’m a teacher, so I’m thinking of my classroom, and I’m thinking of what is lost when 40% of them are gone? That affects the entire culture of our home, our school, our community.”
“There is nothing inherent to the sexual or gender minority brain or body that is predisposed to mental health issues,” she said. Rather, it’s the reactions people have to their identity and unwelcoming, hostile environments that increase their chance of mental illness, as well as their chance of engaging in risky behaviors like using illegal drugs.
Read more at KSL.com.
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