Almost 70% of LGBTQ youth polled in the annual mental health survey from the Trevor Project said they found more validation and community online than at home or school.Why it matters: The survey, a snapshot taken during the dark pandemic winter, shows how LGBTQ adolescents relied on online spaces for support. That need can also be a double-edged sword, as an overwhelming majority said social media had both positive and negative impacts on their mental health.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.The Trevor Project is an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth under 25. What they're saying: LGBTQ youth finding community online "underscores the importance of social media companies, and other companies, taking the steps to make sure that those spaces are safe, because LGBTQ young people are relying and depending on them," Amit Paley, CEO of The Trevor Project, told Axios.What they fou
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WASHINGTON, May 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/
The Trevor Project, the world s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people, today released the findings of its
2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, representing the experiences of nearly 35,000 LGBTQ youth (ages 13-24) across the United States. The third annual survey finds that 42% of respondents seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth. An overwhelming majority of LGBTQ youth also reported recent symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder, yet nearly half of respondents reported wanting mental health care in the past year but were not able to get it.
For as long as Juan can remember, he felt that he didn’t fit the concept of the ideal kid. He has had several serious episodes with depression and three suicide attempts. By age 12, his parents placed him in a psychiatric clinic.
Today, he is 26 and recognizes that his depression had a very specific cause: He couldn’t accept that he is attracted to men. Juan, who agreed to tell his story without publishing his surname, now considers himself emotionally stable and has expressed his sexuality openly since he was 18. But depression is like an “old friend” that occasionally visits.