Methadone & LGBTQIA+ Folks
“Keuroghlian said the health inequities experienced by LGBTQIA+ people must be understood in the context of a minority stress framework. From early childhood through adolescence and adulthood, LGBTQIA+ individuals experience a high level of external stigma-related stress in the form of everyday discrimination, victimization, microaggressions, and outright violence, said Keuroghlian. He noted that there is also an intersectional component to this stigma-related stress. For example, he said the Federal Bureau of Investigation has reported that African American transgender women have among the highest incidence of hate crimes in the United States.
For many people, this external stigma-related stress may lead to disruptions in psychological processes, coping skills, emotional regulation, interpersonal functioning, and protective cognitive structures and beliefs. These disruptions, combined with medical mistrust due to the historical mistreatment of LGBTQIA+ individuals in health care systems, may result in distressing beliefs, such as that their lives will never improve, or that no one can be trusted. External stigma-related stress combined with similar internal stress, such as internalized homophobia or transphobia, may also lead to an increased prevalence of behavioral health problems and depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance use disorders, said Keuroghlian. These stressors, in turn, can lead to decreased engagement in health care, resulting in physical health problems.”
