Internalización del estigma en personas LGB: Análisis de su impacto sobre la salud mental y la búsqueda de ayuda psicoterapéutica en Chile.

Abstract

Background: Studies indicate that the internalization of beliefs, prejudices and attitudes existing in society about sexual minorities strongly affect their mental health and could constitute a barrier to access to psychological and therapeutic support in LGB people. Objective: To determine the association between levels of internalized sexual stigma (ISS) in self-identified lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people with the presence of subjective distress, depressive and anxious symptoms, suicidality, and psychotherapy attendance. Method: An online questionnaire including questions on having attended or attending psychotherapy, as well as scales assessing internalized sexual stigma, subjective distress-subjective well-being, depression, and suicidality was completed by 669 cisgender self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Results: The results show a positive association between the level of ISS in LGB people with their levels of subjective distress, depressive and anxious symptomatology, and suicidality, and a negative association with being attending or having attended psychotherapy. Conclusions: The implications of the results presented for the development of culturally competent psychotherapeutic interventions for patients belonging to sexual and gender diversity are discussed.