• Question: is transgenderism a mental illness

    Asked by anon-203753 to Alexandra, Dawn, Jane, Matthew, Tirso, Vassilis on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Dawn Rose

      Dawn Rose answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Although the DSM defined it as such, the DSM has been known to get things very wrong – and I believe it is in this case in general. However, that doesn’t mean that conditions such as body dysmorphia are not issues of mental health. But the two are other muddled up. Also, the way that people behave towards one another, with son little tolerance for any kind of difference can be related to poor mental health, such as depression and anxiety. So they may be connected, but that is not the same as saying transgenderism is a mental illness.

    • Photo: Matthew Longo

      Matthew Longo answered on 7 Mar 2019: last edited 7 Mar 2019 10:26 am

      What we call an ‘illness’ isn’t purely a scientific question but also one about our values and what we consider normal or acceptable. In the past, homosexuality was also considered a mental illness, but we’ve moved away from this and now don’t consider it to be a pathology, but simply another way of being human. I think we’re seeing a similar shift in how we as a society think about transgenderism, and in my view that’s a very good thing.

      As Dawn notes, the lack of acceptance of transgendered people and they way that they are treated may result in mental health problems like depression. But it’s the depression that’s a mental illness, not the transgenderism.

    • Photo: Alexandra Quigley

      Alexandra Quigley answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      I would agree with Dawn and Matthew. It is not a mental illness but there can be a huge amount of distress surrounding it, depression, anxiety, shame, confusion etc. Our ideas about gender roles and gender identity have changed so much over the past century, and I’m sure that it wasn’t thought to be as common in days gone by, but that it probably due to not feeling in any way able to express thoughts and wishes to live as a different gender. It is important to be supportive to any one going through a struggle, and changing gender is a very tough and long process.

    • Photo: Vassilis Sideropoulos

      Vassilis Sideropoulos answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      I entirely agree with the answers below. It’s definitely not a a mental illness, yet there are many implications around it (anxiety, distress) but this is due to the way society has been perceiving and reacting to LGBTQIA+ population. People belonging in that group have been feeling like they don’t belong anywhere, they are not being accepted as who they are and feel as outcasts. Taking into consideration all these thoughts and feelings, you can see how a lot of mental illness related issues can arise, e.g. depression, anxiety and so on. Thankfully things are getting better, but we still need to change things!

    • Photo: Tirso Gonzalez Alam

      Tirso Gonzalez Alam answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      I don’t think so. The answers above pretty much covered it all. For starters, what we consider a ‘mental illness’ is related to our values as a society (the mind doesn’t get ill like the liver does, because for starters we know way better what a healthy liver is supposed to do, as compared to a healthy mind), so it’s a bit of a social construct (although not entirely, I would argue; there’s definitely biological correlates to some things we call mental illnesses, like depression). So, the fact that somebody identifies with a gender that doesn’t match the body they were born in doesn’t necessarily have to be an illness, but the attitudes society can have towards it can make the person feel very very bad, and this can lead them to develop illnesses. Luckily, as a society I believe we’re moving towards a more open, accepting and loving attitude towards the gender spectrum 🙂

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