Bisexual Women More Likely To Suffer From Depression And Stress, Says Study

Bisexual Women Most Depressed

The Huffington Post UK   First Posted: 09/11/11 15:15 GMT Updated: 09/11/11 15:15 GMT

Bisexual women are more likely to suffer from depression and stress, and to binge drink, a new study has discovered.

The study by George Mason University found that although depression risks and the likelihood of alcohol abuse were higher among bisexual men and women during their teenage years, the odds drop for men as they get older, but for women, the risks remain the same.

During the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers used three different dimensions of sexuality (identity, behavior and attraction), and looked at how they linked with health problems.

Researchers found that women who are strictly identified as straight or gay didn't have the same risk factors of depression as those who were attracted to both sexes.

The bisexual participants said that they felt "invisible".

"There tends to be this expectation or standard that a person picks one sexual identity and sticks with it. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about bisexuals. I think their risk has a lot more to do with stigma," says lead researcher Lisa Lindly.

Bisexual men on the other hand didn't report any feelings of depression or urges to binge drink.

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Bisexual women are more likely to suffer from depression and stress, and to binge drink, a new study has discovered. The study by George Mason University found that although depression risks and t...
Bisexual women are more likely to suffer from depression and stress, and to binge drink, a new study has discovered. The study by George Mason University found that although depression risks and t...
 
 
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majesticjkr
Always look on the bright side of life
12:02 PM on 12/06/2011
you only feel crap because you havnt met the right people in your life, dont just except people you need to get rid of all the crap people and start looking for people that make you smile,
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emmaziff
The Sexpert!
11:23 AM on 11/14/2011
People have a 'need' to fit in to a group, a belonging. It's what defines people.
11:18 PM on 11/13/2011
The AJPH abstract linked in the article (http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/AJPH.2011.300262v2) explains that the bisexual women at greater risk are those specifically who identify as "mostly straight" or "bisexual" AND have mostly other-sex partnerships. This is the sub-group of bisexual women who report feeling invisible. And this makes sense, because there may be nothing obvious about them or their partner that distinguishes them from heterosexual couples.

In my experience, bisexual people dating people of their own gender may also feel invisibility among lesbians and gays. But the AJHP abstract doesn't highlight about that subgroup or address that issue. It _does_ highlight bisexuals in other-sex relationships and the HuffPo write-up doesn't make this very clear.

So yes bisexual people are apparently at higher risk for some issues. But not all subgroups of bisexuals are equally at risk.
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LintLass
"When you can balance a tackhammer on your head...
06:36 PM on 11/27/2011
That's really interesting. I can see some factors from experience: even more than invisibility, maybe it's about how much they're dealing with *men,* ...the fact is a lot of straight men can be pretty insecure about having a bi partner: most notably, if they're a possessive/jealous type, they tend to be jealous about you interacting with *anyone* ...in large measure because of ingrained bi-phobic prejudices on top of the usual: the idea one's particularly promiscuous, always on the prowl... that you might be 'turning gay' any moment you're not interested in sex right now... even that you're just somehow 'lesser' than straight people as per usual, etc.

That can add a ton of relationship stress right there, sometimes things get kind of abusive, ...and that alone can lead to long-term anxieties and all.

Coming out/early life experiences can be kind of complicated, too... Just cause you're attracted to men, too, doesn't necessarily mean you 'read' as 'straight,' and in a world of binary thinking and homophobia, it can be that much harder to figure yourself out.

It's probably about the particular kinds of stresses we go through, in part, I should think, and indeed a lot of the insecurity *around* us, particularly when it comes to a lot of the menfolk.
06:43 AM on 11/11/2011
As a bisexual (really pansexual, but I'm not gonna split hairs) woman, I fit right in here. I suffer from both depression and anxiety disorders.
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Hope Richardson
Cynical Comedian, Future World Dictator, Otaku
09:26 PM on 11/09/2011
*sigh*

Great, more happy news...