Love Song for Coffee

4 February, 2012 - 7:41pm — NurseCourtney

As I was signing up to Oasis mag the sound of the coffee machine filled me ears. It a cheap one that takes 10 minutes to make a pot and itclicks and grrrs. I live off of coffee. Not shortly after my cate started hacking up a hairball. My floor is all tile except for the rug in my kitchen, and he slinked over to hack up on my rug. Why does he always do that?

I am a nursing student that is a month away from being a full nurse. I joined to talk about health issues, talk about my wonderful anti anxiety meds and howthey affect my mood as I play with them to find a good dose for me and to figure out what health concerns the queer community faces. I am slightly concerned for the gay community in Edmonton where I am from. I am worried about the impact of being socially focused around bars on the gay community. It has negatively affected my life so once again Ive jumped on the sobriety wagon.

Queers are much more likely to commit suicide, have mental health problems, addictions to drugs and alcohol, and we have a significantly lower life expectancy. Lesbians are more likely to smoke and have alcohol addiction and gay men are more prone to the use of designer drugs. I call the use of club drugs a form of cosmetic psychopharmacology.

Another trend I noticed was that much of the safe sex talks in my city , as well as other resorces for queers were strongly geared toward gay men. When speaking to women they aren't all aware of lesbian sexual health. This is something I took the ,iberty of studying on my own.

One very positive fact about my city is that we are home to a Dr. that specializes in gender confusion and helps transgendered people through therapy and hormone treatment. He is very well known and I have had the priviledge of knowing certain individuals on a personal level that see this man.

These are my thoughts on queer health. I will probably write about them in more detail eventually

Tags:

Comments

4 February, 2012 - 9:44pm — elph

Your intentions?

So many questionable allusions and assertions in this first journal! :(

I'll mention just one: The term "queer" is now generally consider offensive except when employed in a jocular fashion between gays and their friends.

How can we help?

4 February, 2012 - 11:46pm — NurseCourtney

I say queer as a umbrella

I say queer as a umbrella term so I don't miss out on anyone such as two spirited or transgendered individuals. I want to include everyone. It would be more offensive to say gay because that leaves out many individuals. In Edmonton Queer is not seen as offensive. In the future try to remember cultural diversity. What may be offensive to you is not always offensive to everyone. Perhaps you are just too sensitive.

I am speaking from the perspective of myself within my own community. I notice trends in Edmonton and have a collection of subjective and objective data to defend my stance. You can help by telling your story.

5 February, 2012 - 2:08am — lonewolf678

Eh,

"Queers are much more likely to commit suicide, have mental health problems, addictions to drugs and alcohol, and we have a significantly lower life expectancy. Lesbians are more likely to smoke and have alcohol addiction and gay men are more prone to the use of designer drugs. I call the use of club drugs a form of cosmetic psychopharmacology."

Care to cite any sources? Welcome to Oasis. :-)

5 February, 2012 - 6:14am — radiosilence95

Hmmm...statistics like that,

Hmmm...statistics like that, about gays being more likely to have mental health problems and be addicted to drugs and alcohol...yeah, I'm skeptical to believe that. I'm always skeptical to believe any statistics, because it's easy to misrepresent them, or they can be affected by bias.

5 February, 2012 - 9:14am — Just Dave

On Skepticism

1) To my knowledge, most of the claims Courtney made where pretty legit; at least, they're consistent with what I've been learning in my sociology courses. Hell, a simple Google search can find some reputable sources that back them up.

2) I don't understand how these claims are hard to believe. It makes sense that a marginalized portion of society is at a higher risk for mental health and substance issues. I don't think anyone is claiming that being queer makes you an alcoholic or suicidal. It's just that the glbtqwhatever community is at a higher risk of these issues, because people tend to treat us like shit.

3) Welcome to Oasis Courtney. I feel like I should tell you that this is primarily a kind of teen lgbt blog site; most of the members are in their teens, and most of the posts are written like, well, journals. That said, pretty much everyone is welcome.