User:Eoconnell36/Self-harm

Self-harm and gender variance
It has been continuously established in the literature that identifying as a gender minority is associated with negative mental health outcomes, including engagement in risk behaviors, self-harm, and suicidality. Gender variance is a term often used interchangeably with the term gender-diverse, encompassing individuals who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, genderqueer, agender, and gender questioning. There is a need to expand beyond sex differences of self-harm, because the risk factors of self-harm are unique among gender variant people due to increased experiences of internalized stigma, discrimination, victimization, and rejection. Self-harm within this population may take the form of risk behaviors such as non suicidal self-injury, problematic substance use (including illicit drug use, alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette smoking), disordered eating, and sexual risk taking. Further, it has been demonstrated that experiencing microaggressions that directly deny or invalidate one's gender identity, is linked to increased sadness, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts.