A survey conducted by the Washington Post found that approximately half of adults who identify as transgender in the U.S. reported feeling anxious (56%) and depressed (48%) despite a majority (52%) receiving “gender-affirming” therapy or hormone treatments (60%).
First, the survey explains the demographics of those polled, reporting that the trans adult population is “younger than the larger cisgender adult population, with the majority of trans adults [being] younger than 35 years old.” Researchers also stated that just one in seven transgender-identifying adults polled consider themselves conservative, the clear majority identify primarily with liberal values.
The poll noted that adults who identify as transgender are more likely to report experiencing feelings of anxiety or depression compared to non-transgender-identifying individuals. “The share of trans adults who report these feelings in the past year is larger than the share of cisgender adults (31% report feeling anxious, 21% depressed, and 21% lonely),” the survey documented. “Trans adults are also less likely than their cisgender counterparts to report feeling happy (40% compared to 59%) or hopeful (29% compared to 50%) always or often over the past 12 months.”
“Trans adults are about six times as likely as cisgender adults to say they have engaged in self-harm in the past year, and more than twice as likely to say they have had an eating disorder in the past year or had suicidal thoughts in the past year,” researchers said.
Additionally, the survey asked participants to recall if they have ever had to “teach a doctor” about transgenderism, to receive what they consider to be “appropriate care” commonly referred to as “affirming care.”
31% of participants said that they had this experience, while just 17% said they have been denied “gender-affirming” treatments, such as cross-sex hormone prescriptions. Hormone therapy drugs historically have been used to treat hormone deficiencies; however, in the context of “gender-affirming care,” have been used to purposefully create hormonal imbalances to alter a male or female body to either look and sound more masculine or feminine.
According to the results of the survey, 62% of transgender-identifying adults who have “supportive” families experienced anxiety “always or often” in the past 12 months, compared to 53% of those with “unsupportive” families.
Similar surveys conducted over recent years have found that a vast majority of young adults, primarily those who consider themselves liberal, struggle with their mental health.
Late last year, Harmony Healthcare IT released a study concluding that more than 42% of Gen Z has been diagnosed with a mental illness. A CDC study surveyed 17,000 students across the U.S. and found that young liberals reported feeling depressed more frequently than their conservative counterparts.
Several young adults have reported feeling anxiety and fear for the future because of the impending doom they are convinced is on the horizon due to climate change. Others fear that alleged racist police officers are seeking to terrorize black communities, and many are persuaded to believe that transgender-identifying children are under attack in conservative states. The popular narratives accepted by most on the left are anxiety-inducing, and it is unsurprising that those who subscribe to progressive ideology most fervently feel the most anxious.
