Newsletter #7: Is Gender Dysphoria a Form of Mental Illness?
I’ve had experience with both, and my answer is, it’s complicated
When I was in my junior year of high school I spent Christmas in a mental hospital.
I’d been struggling with depression, thoughts of death, and alarming self-harm behaviors, but I wasn’t placed inpatient until I had an allergic reaction to a medication, and nearly stopped breathing. I was fine in 24 hrs, but my psychiatrist feared for m safety, being suddenly unmedicated over the holiday. I still remember, like it was yesterday, being offered the choice in her ugly brown office: “You’re leaving in this ambulance. Do you want to do this the hard way, or the easy way?”
I picked the hard way, and they dragged me out of there strapped to a stretcher, raging.
The hard way into a conversation of whether being transgender is a mental illness is to say “So what if it is?” and stare down people who feel uncomfortable hearing that. Transgender identity by itself is not a psychiatric diagnosis, and gender dysphoria (which is experienced by most, not all, transgender people) is in the DSM 5 because a formal diagnosis is needed for insurance to cover affirming treatments. But… what if it was? What’s so terrible about calling something a mental illness?
When Joe Rogan called trans people mentally ill this week, he meant it as an insult, and a threat. Mentally ill people, to Rogan, are abnormal people who need to be forced by psychiatry to just act normal. This view of mental illness is bigoted against people who suffer from mental illness. Rogan’s bigotry against trans people is a small part of that larger bigotry against any difference or deviance.
Let me tell you a secret: I had a pretty good time spending Christmas in a mental hospital as a 16-year-old. The other kids there were all great kids, nicer than the ones at school, and way more understanding of how weird I was. All the staff were very kind, because we were children stuck in a hospital on Christmas. I got a gameboy from my parents and played Mario and Space Invaders. They brought my big deck of MTG cards, and I had fun splitting it in half, playing games against the other patients.
I don’t currently consider myself a person with mental illness. I don’t have clinically significant depression or anxiety, much less anything more complicated, and I’m not on any medication, except testosterone. I do, however, still tend towards choosing to do things the hard way, not the easy way. That’s why, when people ask if being transgender is a mental illness, I don’t say that it isn’t, even though that’s technically true. Instead, I say, it’s complicated. Come, let’s unpack your stigma against people who do have mental illness.
ICYMI
This week was all about the midterm elections. Our analysis is that the news is good for trans people nationally, but the targeting of trans people and our health care will continue in red states, and the GOP may be slow to give up the anti-trans wedge messaging. Read more here.
Dave Chappelle is hosting SNL on Saturday. This does not bode well.
One of our lighter posts was about tabloids, and how old school tabloid journalism used to treat transgender stories with wonder and amazement.
Next Week
This is the section of the newsletter I call “Evan tells you sweet lies about his plans for upcoming coverage.”
I’ve slightly adjusted my number of daily posts, from 2-3 daily to 1-3 daily, aiming for 2 posts most days. This is so I can devote enough time to the newsletter…s. That’s right, I may add a second newsletter which is more aimed at journalists who want digest version of my site and less aimed at people who want to hear more of my personal stories. Might be as early as next week, and will likely have a second sign up on the members-only page.
As always, my last thought is to say thank you. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING!!!! It means the world to have people like you behind me.
Evan
