Gays and their mental health (older gays)

[HollandofFrance]

every gay man should have a woman to have at least one kid so the kid can visit when hes old

[Bowyn Aerrow]

[SIZE="2"]A new study being published in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that sexual minority stress—carrying the stigma attached to homosexuality—negatively impacts the mental health of gay men aged 44-75.

Part of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, a massive study of the epidemic in the United States, the survey was based on questionnaires answered by 200 gay men, both HIV+ and HIV-, in 2009 and 2010.

It also reported that losing loved ones to AIDS was another factor against general well-being. As Pink News reports:

Having a same-sex domestic partner or same-sex spouse boosted the emotional health of the studied men, but having a same-sex legal spouse appeared to be the most beneficial relationship arrangement.

Lead author Richard G. Wight of the Williams Institute at UCLA: “This study shines a light on the mental health of a generation of gay men who survived the early years of the AIDS crisis and came of age on the heels of the gay rights movement.

We’re not social scientists, but 200 seems like an awfully small sample group, especially for a self-administered survey. But it’s hard to deny that the closet and the specter of AIDS have played havoc with the emotional health of so many of us.

What think you, readers—does this jibe with your personal experience?[/SIZE]

I'm 45 and I think that any age gay suffers negatively emotionally speaking from carrying the gay stigma.

And every male, gay, straight, bi does better when they have a partner.

And every male, gay, bi, straight is negatively impacted when their partner dies. Doesn't matter if that death was AIDS, Cancer or being hit by a car crossing the street.

I mean like 'Duh' tell me something that is not an obviousity.

I watched many fine young men shrivel up and die from AIDS in the 80's - it was my job to hold their hand and try to tell them that God actually did love them, even though they had been told 'God hates you because your gay'. Its stressful - very stressful.

Is it more stressful than those who two decades before me watched their buddies being blown up by the Vietcong? Am I more affected by surviving the AIDS generation than those who Survived Vietnam or Korea or World War II?

Are gays more stressed out watching their brothers die from AIDS than the Straights who watched their blood sibling die from AIDS?

Seems to me that this 'study' is just looking to grind an axe without really clearly defining how gay stress is more stress than straight stress.

Grief and Stress and the emotional aspects of many things have the same final outcome.

For the record, I am 45 and I have seen a lot more than most men my age have seen - a lot. I do not see myself as being in 'that bad' a shape considering how much living I have done.

[Inchante]

I just found this article on NPR . . . apparently depressed people should have forgone the barrage of Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft and other antidepressants and gone straight for the shrooms.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/01/...c=fb&cc=fp

I am a older gay ? cool ... now I can be grumpy :biggrin:

I need to be old to be grumpy? There is something wrong with this idea--I've been grumpy since I was 13 . . . or perhaps I am confusing misanthropy with grumpiness.