anxiety disorders •

Letting transgender kids live openly can be an incredibly affirming process, study shows.

New study shows that supporting young transgender children has a beneficial effect on their mental health. When young transgender children are allowed to live openly as the gender they identify with and they get heaps of parental support, they fare much better psychologically.

We know that some children have a gender identity that is different from their sex assigned at birth, and many have interests and hobbies that may align with the other gender. Some children, however, do not identify with either gender. They may feel like they are somewhere in between or have no gender.

For some young children, expressing a wish to be or identifying as another gender may be temporary; for others, it is not. Only time can tell. Some children who are gender non-conforming in early childhood grow up to become transgender adults (persistently identifying with a gender that is different from their birth sex), and others do not.

Researchers suggest that gender is something we are born with; it can’t be changed by any interventions. It is critically important that children feel loved and accepted for who they are. On that note, a small study published in the journal Pediatrics has shown that young transgender children allowed to live openly as the gender they identify with seem no more anxious or depressed than other children.

The secret seems to be support and acceptance, the researchers report. The findings are reassuring after a series of reports that indicated transgender individuals in the United States often had high rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide.

The thinking has always been that kids who are not acting gender-stereotypically are basically destined to have mental health problems.

stated Kristina Olson of the University of Washington, who led the study.

Olson’s team studied 73 kids aged 3 to 12. Their parents were asked whether their children had experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety during the past week. They found the transgender kids averaged an anxiety score of 50.1 on a National Institutes of Health scale – almost the same as the national norm of 50.

Also, research has shown that transgender children whose parents pressure them to conform, when compared with accepting, supportive parents, have a four times higher suicide and drug abuse rate, twice the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and a five times greater chance of suffering depression.

Rates of anxiety among trans kids were ‘a smidge higher’ than national averages for children of the same age, but otherwise they matched national norms, declared Kristina Olson. She added that it’s the largest study to examine the psychological health of transgender youth who have socially transitioned.

However, the study certainly suggests that family support is linked to better mental health, although that idea wasn’t tested directly and Olson affirmed that the results don’t prove that is the explanation for the children’s well-being.

The findings are ‘truly stunning’, given previous studies showing high rates of mental health problems including suicidal behaviour in transgender children, as Dr. Ilana Sherer, a Dublin, California, pediatrician, wrote in a Pediatrics editorial.

Micah Heumann, an academic adviser at the University of Illinois’s Champaign campus, was among study participants. His 10-year-old child, Daniel, was born a girl and named Naima, but has identified as a boy ever since he knew about gender, Heumann declared.

In second grade, the family agreed to let Daniel legally change his name and at the boy’s request, his school agreed to go along with the change, even letting Daniel use the boy’s bathroom. Daniel was very well-adjusted, but still felt stress because he knew that not everyone was so accepting, Heumann added.

Heumann also declared that the family reacted to Daniel’s choice with mixed feelings, mourning the loss of a daughter but never wavering in love and support for Daniel.

Olson, the study author, said the results don’t apply to all transgender kids, especially those whose parents oppose their change in identity. Opponents of allowing these youngsters to adopt names, hairstyles, clothes and pronouns opposite their birth gender have argued that kids so young cannot possibly know their gender at such an early age.

All in all, the findings of this study sustain that letting these kids live openly as the gender they identify with can be an incredibly affirming process, showing the child that their identity is truly supported.

Image Source: guim.co.uk.

Study shows marijuana is not a benign drug.

It turns out that cannabis use is not linked to anxiety disorders after all. New research found that using marijuana as an adult is not associated with a variety of mood and anxiety disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder.

Of course, this is quite a challenge to some previous research that has shown that marijuana use is associated with depression and anxiety.

In order to come to a conclusion, the researchers examined the records of nearly 35,000 U.S. adults who participated in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. They examined the prevalence of marijuana use among the study participants in 2001 and 2002. The experts checked on the participants’ rates of mental-health problems three years later.

Then, after controlling for a variety of confounding factors, such as socio-demographic characteristics, family history and environment, and past and present psychiatric disorders, they finally discovered their answer. Cannabis use was definitely not associated with increased risk for developing mood or anxiety disorders.

It may sound like good news, but don’t get enthusiastic just yet – there is a downside to this discovery. The same study did find, however, an association between marijuana use and later substance use disorders, such as abuse of and dependence on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and drugs.

Specifically, at the three-year follow-up, marijuana users were about six times more likely to have any substance use disorder; nearly three times as likely to have an alcohol disorder; and about 10 times as likely to report any marijuana use disorder. This isn’t necessarily surprising: it’s fairly obvious that if you use a substance, you’re putting yourself at risk of a substance-use disorder.

In short, people who use one drug often use others. This is as true of marijuana as it is of alcohol.

The findings concerning cannabis raise the question of whether alcohol use also contributes to the risk of subsequent substance use disorders.

lead author Mark Olfson of Columbia University said in an email. But that issue is beyond the scope of the current study, he added.

On the other hand, the findings on mental health are more interesting, given the conflicting picture portrayed by previous research. Olfson and his colleagues think some prior evidence of links between marijuana and psychiatric disorders could be due more to confounding factors than anything else.

The new study adds to prior research discrediting the connection between marijuana and common mental-health disorders. And it’s important, because much of the federal government’s current literature on marijuana includes claims about links between marijuana and depression that are inaccurate in light of the latest findings.

For example, the Drug Enforcement Administration makes these claims in its official fact sheet on marijuana. And in its 2014 publication, the DEA mentions ‘depression’ no fewer than 14 times, claiming that pot is linked to depression among teens, adults and even dogs.

Also, given that these documents are used to inform policy at the federal level and below, it is crucial that they reflect the best, most accurate research. This is especially true given the rapidly changing marijuana-policy landscape today.

All in all, this particular study is a step forward and the message coming out of it is that marijuana is not a benign drug.

Image Source: cooleasymagictricks.com.

Supporting Young Transgender Children Has A Beneficial Effect

Cannabis Use Is Not Linked To Anxiety Disorders After All

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