Bisexual people have a higher rate of this serious health issue
Bisexual people are 21 percent more likely that gay or lesbian
people to struggle with depression and 42 percent more likely than
heterosexual people.
Depression and anxiety are the leading causes of mental illness in the U.S., with millions of people suffering from them each year.
Research
has found that bisexual people have a higher risk of each condition than
people of other sexual orientations, but it hasn’t pinpointed why
that’s the case. Now, a new study has some answers.
The meta-analysis, which was published in The Journal of Sex Research,
reviewed 1,074 scientific articles and confirmed that bisexual people
are the most likely to struggle with anxiety and depression.
Heterosexual people are the least likely, followed by people who
identify as gay or lesbian.
According to the
findings, bisexual people are 21 percent more likely that gay or lesbian
people to struggle with depression and 42 percent more likely than
heterosexual people. The numbers were a little less shocking for
anxiety: About 52 percent of bisexual people suffered from anxiety,
compared to 46 percent of gay and lesbian people, and 33 percent of
heterosexuals.
The researchers found that there
were a few reasons for this: Bisexual people are more likely to face
discrimination based on their sexual orientation, bisexuality is often
ignored or minimized in history and pop culture, and there is a lack of
support for people who are bisexual.
The
researchers point out that, despite the findings and others like it,
there is a distinct lack of scientific literature about bisexual mental
health. “We were particularly disappointed to see that this is still a common practice even among recently published papers,”
they wrote. It’s crucial that academic research start focusing on this
topic in order to help lower the rates of anxiety and depression, they
added.
They ended on this note: “While there
is certainly a need for interventions to address the mental health of
individual bisexuals, we argue that the priority need is for social and
structural interventions that acknowledge and celebrate bisexual
identity.”
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