Gender Identity Issues Can Harm Kids’ Mental Health: Study [health.com]

By Lisa Esposito / HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 20 (HealthDay News) — New studies show that children struggling with their gender identity also face higher risks for abuse and mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

Children with gender identity disorder show a strong, persistent discomfort with their biological sex. They identify with and display behaviors usually seen in the opposite sex.

One study, from Children’s Hospital Boston, looked at the emotional and behavioral problems of children and teens referred to its specialty clinic for evaluation and possible medical treatment.

“The study only focuses on kids who experience profound distress or [sadness] with their changing bodies, so the psychiatric manifestations of that distress include much higher risks for self-injurious behavior, depression, suicide attempts and anxiety,” said Dr. Scott Leibowitz, a pediatric psychiatrist affiliated with the hospital’s Gender Management Service.

Ninety-seven patients younger than 21 were included, 43 born as males and 54 as females. Forty-three patients already had psychiatric symptoms, 20 reported self-mutilation and nine had attempted suicide.

The studies appear online and in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Dr. Walter Meyer III, author of an accompanying journal editorial, said many problems arise from the reactions these children face at home and in school.

“These kids are really normal — they just want to be the other gender,” said Meyer, a psychiatrist who works with transgender patients at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston. “The ones who are well-adjusted and well-accepted by their families and at school don’t have the psychiatric issues.”

The other study, from the Harvard School of Public Health, looked at long-term data on nearly 10,000 young adults, average age 23. Those who rated high for childhood gender nonconformity were more likely to report physical, psychological and sexual abuse as children. They were almost twice as likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder as young adults.

“Gender conformity” relates to how children express themselves — through their clothes, their interests, their mannerisms — and how these behaviors mesh with what’s typical for their biological sex.

One expert said the study is “important,” and that it helps tease out why these kids have trouble coping.

It “tests one of the key proposed factors — childhood abuse,” said Stephen Russell, a professor of family studies at the University of Arizona. “There has been concern that parents may react to gender nonconformity in harsh ways. This is perhaps the first study to show evidence of that and of the lasting implications for health.”

Fear of the unknown is part of the problem.

“We’ve seen in studies of gender nonconforming LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] youth that what most people think of as abuse comes from a place of concern and fear on the part of parents — that is, they think they can help their kid by ‘toughening them up’ or teaching them to ‘fit in,’ ” Russell said. “Many parents literally have no framework for understanding gender nonconformity in children.”

Meyer, meanwhile, said he sees signs of growing awareness and acceptance, spurred by the media. Once parents are onboard, treatment can begin, sometimes quite early, he said.

“At age 5 or 6, treatment is mainly psychotherapy and working with family to help them [kids] adjust,” Meyer said. “Sometimes that means reassuring them and letting them dress up at home. Some might start school taking on a new gender.”

Pent-up need for treatment appears to exist.

Since Children’s Hospital Boston established a Gender Management Service in 2007, the population of gender nonconformists seeking treatment quadrupled.

“By having clinical services that are specialized and interdisciplinary, you’re providing an avenue for parents to come and present for treatment,” Leibowitz said. “That brings a lot of people out of their closets, so to speak, and shows this is a less stigmatized issue, so that people can get the appropriate assessments and treatments that they deserve.”

Some children receive treatment to delay puberty and buy them time while deciding whether to proceed with a gender change.

Puberty blockers, which are not covered by insurance, are expensive. “Injections can cost upwards of $1,000 a month.” Leibowitz said. Newer implants cost about $3,400 for two years.

Blocking irreversible changes of puberty has advantages for those who eventually opt for full gender transition, through cross-sex hormones or sexual reassignment surgery, Leibowitz said. “In their bodies and appearance, they will be perceived by society as the gender they affirm and thus have healthier outcomes,” he explained.

“We as individuals who do not experience an incongruence between our minds and bodies take for granted how easy life is,” Leibowitz added. “You just need to meet one child and one family to see how this impacts their lives.”

http://news.health.com/2012/02/20/gender-identity-issues-can-harm-kids-mental-health-study/

A Salute To Dani Bunten, A Transgender Video Gaming Pioneer [kotaku.com]

Note from Helen Hill MFT: The views in this article (and any article on my blog) do not necessarily reflect my own views, but I feel they should be voiced and discussed because of their profound importance in whether one transitions, has surgery, or explores other options of gender expression.

by Luke Plunkett / kotaku.com

There are plenty of legends in the world of video games whose names will fly off the tongues of casual fans. Nolan Bushnell. Trip Hawkins. Shigeru Miyamoto. Will Wright. Sid Meier.
It’s a shame, then, that so few can name another of the all-time greats, Danielle Bunten Berry.

Or, as she was known before 1992, Dan Bunten.

The designer born as Daniel Paul Bunten in 1949 is important to video games for any number of reasons, some trivial, some vital to the progression of the entire medium.

Her first game, 1978′s Wheeler Dealers, was the first ever PC game to be sold in a printed box instead of a sleeve or plastic bag, a necessity born of the game’s inclusion of a custom controller.

In 1983, Bunten’s Ozark Softscape released one of the first games for Electronic Arts, and also one of the greatest cult hits in the history of the PC, MULE. A multiplayer… economic strategy… thing, MULE wasn’t a big seller, but it was very influential amongst developers, and retains a fanbase and community site even to this day.

In 1984, Bunten released the amazing open-world title The Seven Cities of Gold, a game she only made when she wasn’t allowed to make something very similar to what would become Sid Meier’s Civilization. Which wasn’t released until 1990.

In 1988 she designed Modem Wars, the world’s first PC game that could be played across multiple computers in an online environment.

In 1992, Bunten designed Global Conquest, the world’s first PC game from a major publisher that could be played across four computers online.

Then, sadly, things went a little off the rails. In the same year, Bunten’s third marriage fell apart, and in November 1992 she did something she’d been contemplating for a while: she underwent sex reassignment surgery.

Now known as Danielle (or simply Dani) Bunten Berry, she would never maintain as high a profile as she had enjoyed while a male. While continuing in games development, and continuing to work on pioneering the online interactivity of players, she quickly grew to resent her decision to undergo surgery.

“Being my ‘real self’ could have included having a penis and including more femininity in whatever forms made sense”, she would later write. “I didn’t know that until too late and now I have to make the best of the life I’ve stumbled into. I just wish I would have tried more options before I jumped off the precipice.”

In 1997, while working on a new, improved version of MULE for the internet age, Dani was diagnosed with lung cancer, and passed away a year later at the of 49.

Her work never made much money, with only Cities of Gold selling enough to be called a “hit”. Wheeler Dealers sold 50 copies. MULE, as important as it was, only sold 30,000.

But Bunten’s legacy hasn’t been determined by sales. It can be measured in her influence on the industry and the developers who followed in her footsteps.

Nearly every game Bunten designed or worked on turned out to be well ahead of its time, especially when it came to the possibilities for bringing multiple people together in the same game. That kind of vision made her a star to other developers.

“That was something kind of visionary of his: that he kind of saw the day when games wouldn’t just be for hardcore gamers,” says Civilization creator Sid Meier, a friend of Bunten through thick and thin. “People would play more casual games – people playing together, people playing on networks, people cooperating instead of being competitive. He kind of saw this evolution of gaming that was still pretty far off in the future.”

In 1998, just before she passed away, she was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association. In 2007, she was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

And perhaps most touching, when completing the blockbuster The Sims, designer Will Wright dedicated the game to Bunten.

Dani Bunten is survived by her three children (from previous marriages as Daniel Bunten), who now operate a company which trades under the name Ozark Softscape (Bunten’s old development studio), and which “manages their father’s intellectual property and digital legacy”.

If you’d like to read more on Bunten, this recent Arkansas Times piece gives a great insight into not just her legacy, but her personal life as well.

Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/02/a-salute-to-dani-bunten-a-transgender-video-gaming-pioneer/

San Francisco Police Department Issues “It Gets Better” Videos

Mayor Lee & Chief Suhr Unveil First of its Kind LGBT Youth Video. 

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) along with Mayor Ed Lee is proud to announce the debut of the “SFPD It Gets Better” video project as part of the nationwide campaign to end bullying of LGBT youth. The video provides a message of transformation, hope and encouragement to LGBT yo…uth that it does get better. The SFPD is the first and only Police Department in the country to produce a video for the campaign.

“It Gets Better” is a nationwide project, that offers support and encouragement to youth who are struggling with their sexual identity or bullied for being “different.” These messages of hope let young people know that they are not alone and that help is available.

The making of this video was a concerted effort by numerous members of the SFPD with the assistance of San Francisco film maker Shawn Northcutt who produced and edited the video along with San Francisco local musician Lynden Bair who developed the musical score.

“Today our Police Department joins the nationwide campaign to end bullying of LGBT youth by producing a heartfelt video that provides a message of hope and encouragement that it will get better,” said Mayor Ed Lee. “San Francisco is a city that prides itself on embracing equality for all and this video is another great example of our commitment to reinforcing our City’s values.”

Chief Greg Suhr wants youth to know that it really does get better. “This is a first of its kind video for the SFPD and for any law enforcement agency in the United States. I hope this message of encouragement will give hope to anyone who might be bullied because of who they are. The members of the SFPD will continue to work with all young people and reach out to the communities, as mentors and role models.”

“Suicide is not the answer.”
If you’re considering suicide or need help, call the Trevor Project now.
1-886-4-U-TREVOR
(866-488-7386)

www.thetrevorproject.org

Just How Bad Is Child Abuse in America? Very. [jezebel.com]

by Cassie Murdoch / jezebel.com

 Child abuse is a dark and depressing reality in American life, but until now, it’s never been clear just how widespread a problem it was. A new study, led by Dr. John Leventhal of Yale University, offers the first comprehensive estimate of serious injuries caused by child abuse in the U.S., and the results are pretty horrifying.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that nearly 4,600 children in the U.S. were hospitalized for injuries caused by physical abuse in 2006, the most recent year for which data was available. Overall, six out of every 100,000 kids under 18 were hospitalized with injuries that ranged from broken bones and burns to traumatic brain injury. The average hospital stay for these children was one week, and 300 of them ended up dying. That puts the death rate for abuse at 6 percent, which is a far higher death rate than exists for other kinds of injury or medical problem that required hospitalization.

Very young children tended to be the most common victims of abuse. For babies under one, there were 58 cases of hospitalization per 100,000 infants. Sadly, children under one who were covered by Medicaid fared worst of all, with one out of every 753 of those babies ending up in the hospital because of abuse. According to Dr. Leventhal, “Medicaid is just a marker of poverty, and poverty leads to stress.”

Stress appears to be a key factor in abuse. There was another smaller study that showed an obvious increase in abusive brain injuries after the financial crisis in 2007, which researchers attributed to added stress on parents. Leventhal said stress disproportionately affects younger kids because they are by nature, more difficult to care for:

They are challenging for some parents to take care of because they cry, it’s hard to understand what they want and parents can get frustrated, exhausted and angry.

Of course, they also can’t defend themselves or runaway as easily as older children can. A heartbreaking reality, and one Dr. Leventhal thinks we need to address urgently. According to his team, at the rate this study found abuse to be occurring, it’s a bigger threat to babies than Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. And, of course, this study only deals with kids who are hospitalized. There are many more children who endure abuse but aren’t injured severely enough to require medical attention.

So Dr. Leventhal proposes we act to stop abuse in the same way we’ve worked to stop SIDS: “We need a national campaign related to child abuse where every parent is reminded that kids can get injured.” Another probably even more effective option would be to send public health workers to do home visits with new parents to offer support and advice, a practice that is already common in a lot of European countries.

While that level of intervention sounds costly, the expense to society of caring for the abused is far more substantial. Beyond the obvious personal cost to the children and individual families, the study found that abuse-related hospitalizations ran us about $73.8 million in 2006. And in terms of the overall expense of abuse, the CDC reported that one year’s worth of child maltreatment cases costs $124 billion over a lifetime.

But no matter what the cost is, preventing abuse is worth it. Leventhal says, “This is a serious problem that affects young children. We need to figure out a way to help parents do better.” We spend so much money educating people on everything from cancer prevention to the dangers of cholesterol, but now that we’ve got a more accurate picture of the damage abuse is doing across the entire country, there’s no excuse for not going after the problem immediately on a national level—especially because the children who are falling victim to this abuse can’t advocate for themselves.

Child abuse experts calls for U.S. campaign [Reuters]
Study: Child Abuse Affects More U.S. Kids than SIDS [Time]

http://jezebel.com/5882911/just-how-bad-is-child-abuse-in-america-very

Love Hurts (Other People), New Study Finds [livescience.com]

by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer

SAN DIEGO – The singers who croon “Love Hurts” are right — but it’s not just jilted partners and unrequited romantics who are at risk. It turns out that romantic love can also burn innocent third parties to a relationship.

People who are primed to think about how madly in love they are with a partner put down other appealing members of their own sex, and are even more aggressive toward them, compared with people who are instead encouraged to ponder sex with a significant other, according to new research presented here last week at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

“Love, arguably the most positive of all human emotions, also comes with a dark side,” study researcher Jon Maner, a psychologist at Florida State University, told reporters at the meeting.

Rating others

In a trio of studies involving 130 people in long-term relationships, Maner and his colleagues found that to protect their own commitment to their partner, people would lash out at potential threats. In the first study, researchers asked students at Florida State University in long-term relationships to write about either a time when they felt intense love for their partner or a time when they felt intense sexual desire for the person — both positive relationship-related experiences. Next, the students looked at pictures of either an attractive or an unattractive man or woman, followed by a picture of a Chinese character. They were then asked to rate the appeal of the character; since the Chinese character is neutral, this question was meant to gauge the participants’ leftover feelings about the real target of the study — the pictures of the men and women.

The students also filled out questionnaires about their basic levels of jealousy, answering questions such as, “How likely are you to surprise-visit your partner to see who is with him/her?”

The results showed that jealous sorts and more laid-back types rated the characters as about equally attractive when they’d thought of intense sexual desire for their partner. But when they thought about intense love for their partner, the jealous sorts suddenly became very negative about other attractive people, rating them much less appealing.

In a second study, the researchers upped the ante. They again had people in long-term relationships reflect on their love or sexual desire for their romantic partner, or some other nonrelationship-related story. But this time, the participants were told they were going to play a computer game with a partner in another room. Whoever lost got blasted with painful, but ultimately not harmful, bursts of white noise through headphones. The winner got to pick how long and how loud those blasts would be.

The researchers then showed the participants pictures of their alleged partners, who were always attractive and the same sex as the person in the experiment. Again, high-jealousy types who were reminded of their love for their partners treated this outside person harshly, blasting their eardrums with louder and longer stints of white noise.

Hey, jealousy

At this point, the researchers wondered if low-jealousy people were somehow different than jealous types. So they created something designed to really freak people out. [7 Personality Traits That Are Bad for You]

The students were told that researchers needed their help evaluating prospective daters for a new university dating site. The students then saw a number of profiles of “attractive, interesting, outgoing, fun-loving” people of their own sex, Maner said.

These photos were designed to be as threatening as possible, said Jennifer Leo, a study researcher and graduate student at Florida State. “Not only are they very attractive, and interesting, they’re on their campus, they’re single and they’re on the prowl for a mate,” Leo said.

This time, the students who were reminded of their deep, romantic love for their partner responded harshly to the potential daters, rating them as unattractive, unfriendly and other insulting adjectives. The results held regardless of students’ levels of jealousy.

“The surge of romantic love leads them to derogate these people,” Maner said. “The more love they felt for their partner, the more negatively they tended to evaluate these objectively attractive members of their own sex.”

In fact, the jealous types even said nasty things about the daters when they weren’t reminded of their love for their partners, suggesting that the threat was so strong thatlove’s dark side kicked in without help.

The takeaway, Leo said, is that there may not be a difference between low- and high-jealousy people. All that matters is the level of threat.

“Ultimately, love works in the service of protecting the relationship and maintaining it into the long term,” Leo said. “Even if that means acting out.”

http://www.livescience.com/18194-love-dark-side-jealousy.html

Can Depression Be Diagnosed with a Picture of Your Mom? [wired.com]

by Jonah Lehrer / Wired.com

Sigmund Freud gets a bad rap from modern science. (The immunologist Peter Medawar summarized the feeling of many with his remark that psychoanalysis is the “most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century.”) Sure, Freud’s theories mangled a lot of details — we no longer worry about penis envy or the Oedipus complex — but he was shockingly prescient on the big themes. In recent years, it’s become clear that, as Freud always insisted, the unconscious is the dominant force in our mental life. (What Freud called the id is now a network of brain areas associated with emotion, such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens.) He was mostly right about the logic of dreams, which often regurgitate those parts of experience we store in long-term memory. And he was basically correct to imagine the mind as a set of conflicted drives, with reason competing against the urges of the passions. We expend a lot of neurotic energy holding ourselves back.

But there’s another Freudian theme that deserves a little 21st century appreciation: his obsession with the mother-child relationship and the way it shadowed people throughout life. Freud saw this parental bond as a dominant motive for behavior, influencing both our development as children and our happiness as adults. (The super-ego, for instance, begins to form when the incestuous desires of the child are thwarted by the father.) Although many of Freud’s particular claims feel like cultural relics, modern attachment theory has confirmed the crucial importance of the maternal bond. As Harry Harlow put it, “You’ve got learn how to love before you can learn how to live.” And it’s our mothers who often first teach us how to love. (Thankfully, human parenting is slowly becoming much more gender neutral. But this a recent cultural innovation.)

A new paper in PLoS ONE expands on this Freudian theme. The study involved a team of scientists at Columbia University, Beth Israel Medical Center and Albert Einstein Medical Center who performed fMRI scans on 28 female subjects between the ages of 18 and 30, half of whom were suffering from unipolar depression. (The patients were evaluated using the Beck Depression Inventory II.) While lying in the scanner, the volunteers looked at pictures of their mothers, a few friends and a selection of strangers. The scientists focused their attention on the left anterior paracingulate gyrus (aPCG), a brain area that plays an important role in the regulation of social emotion. Previous studies have linked the bit of cortex to error and conflict resolution and the understanding of intentionality.

By looking at the differential brain responses of depressed and control subjects after viewing those various faces, the scientists came up with an impressive diagnostic tool. In fact, the fMRi scans were able to predict the presence of depression in nearly 90 percent of subjects; the correlation between actual BDI scores and the predicted BDI scores based on fMRI results was 0.55, which is quite strong. Out of the 28 subjects, the fMRI diagnosis generated one false positive and two false negatives.

Click Here to Read the Rest of the Article

 

 

 

Internet, Local Communities Remember Bullying Victim Jacob Rogers [advocate.com]

By Michelle Garcia / advocate.com

An 18-year-old high school senior from Tennessee took his life in his home Wednesday after enduring years of bullying from his classmates.

The harassment that Jacob Rogers of Ashland City, Tenn., faced from other students became so harsh that he dropped out of school last month, according to WSMV News. Rogers, a senior at Cheatham County Central High School, would tell his friend Katelynn Mooningham that he felt tormented by people calling him antigay slurs.

“Jacob told me no one was helping him. He constantly was going to guidance,” she said.

Mooningham said that while school officials knew of the constant bullying, little was done to end it. However, school director Tim Webb told WSMV that he and his colleagues were aware of only one incident, after which the offending students were given warnings. Webb said Rogers did not report any further harassment, but Mooningham said she knew something was still wrong.

After his death, Mooningham found notes that Rogers left, with passwords to his email and phone. The intention was to allow investigators to see the menacing messages he received from classmates.

Along with the funeral on Saturday at Cheatham County Funeral Home, a vigil for Rogers is slated for Thursday night at River Bluff Park. Additionally, bloggers at Towleroad, The Stranger, and Joe My God have created a fund to help the family with the costs of the funeral. Any extra money raised will go to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, the It Gets Better Project, the Trevor Project, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/12/08/Internet_Local_Communities_Remember_Bullying_Victim_Jacob_Rogers/

Joe Clementi Still Cries Over His Son’s Facebook Page [gawker.com]

By Brian Moylan / gawker.com

Try not to tear up when reading this interview with Joe and Jane Clementi in People magazine. The parents of the New Jersey teen—who killed himself earlier this year after his roommate broadcast him and a partner having sex in their dorm room over the internet—are finally speaking out, and it’s heartbreaking.

His father says that he finds solace in a Facebook page dedicated to his son’s memory. “I’ll read a few things until I get choked up—then I’ll stop,” he says. OK, now I’mabout to cry. His mother says this time of year is especially hard for her, her husband, and her two living sons. “It’s especially hard right now because this was his favorite time of year. So we’re trying to find a new way to celebrate Christmas. I’m sad—and trying to get through it.” OK, now I am crying. Powerful stuff. Everyone go home and call your parents or hug your children or something. Then cry alone in your room. That is the dignified thing to do.

http://gawker.com/5866080/joe-clementi-still-cries-over-his-sons-facebook-page

Bullied Teen Shares Story of Pain and Perseverance in Online Video [gawker.com]

by Matt Cherette / gawker.com

A teenage boy named Jonah Mowry posted the above video to YouTube in August, in which he uses note cards to share the heartbreaking story of what a lifetime of being bullied has done to him. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen, by one of the bravest boys I’ve never met.

“I get bullied every day,” Jonah explains, adding that the abuse he’s suffered from classmates—including being called “gay,” “fag,” “dick,” “douche,” and “homo”—began when he was first grade. “I’ve cut… a lot,” he writes on another note card, before displaying several self-mutilation scars for the camera. “Suicide has been an option… many times.”

Jonah then reveals he’s about to start eighth grade. But since he has only one close friend remaining, he’s not ready to return to school. “I’m scared to go back,” he writes, before explaining why in the following set of note cards (which I’ve edited for spelling, punctuation and clarity):

A lot of people hate me. I don’t know why.

But I guess I do, because I kind of hate me, too.

I can’t do this anymore. I’m tired of being torn down and then building myself up, only to be torn down again.

Now sobbing, Jonah pauses. He stares into the camera. A deep breath follows. And then (again, edited for spelling, punctuation and clarity):

But I’m not going anywhere. Because I’m stronger than that.

And I have a million reasons to be here.

One update on a Twitter account bearing Jonah’s name led me to RandomTV201‘s YouTube channel, which features several videos of a boy strongly resembling Jonah (often with the same female friend). The account’s most recent video, a lip-sync of Rihanna’s “S&M,” was posted just yesterday. Based on that, I think it’s fair to assume Jonah is alive (and hopefully well).

Jonah Mowry has endured a lifetime of pain and suffering at the hands of bullies, yet he’s still with us. He’s still with us because he’s been brave enough, and strong enough, to persevere—to remember that life is always worth living. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about thousands of other bullied teens for whom suicide was the answer. So as we celebrate Jonah’s life, let’s commemorate those cut short by continuing to work to end bullying.

Jonah also dismisses any suggestion his original video was fake. “Yes, three months ago I decided to make a fake video about how I was being bullied for being gay just for attention,” he says sarcastically. “Really? No.”

http://gawker.com/5864842/bullied-teen-shares-story-of-pain-and-perseverance-in-online-video?autoplay

My Little Monster and Me [helensartblog.wordpress.com]

We all have our personal monsters…

Sometimes we just need to face them…

And in facing them we find out how frail, vulnerable,

and frightened our “monsters” really are…

Let’s go for a walk and a chat, shall we, my little monster and me?

http://helensartblog.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/ink-sketch-facing-my-monster/