[Pixeleen]

Comprehensive mental health treatment needs to be generally available in a non-threatening, universal, single-payer way. "Managed care" has an awful ring to it when you are mistrusting. I suspect that many cases being treated as gender dysphoria are actually other mental health disorders, such as self-loathing, borderline, schizoid personality disorder, substance abuse, or one or a combination of many others.

I personally believe that only a licensed, Ph.D. psychologist, or in some cases psychiatrist providing short courses of medicine, without pecuniary interest, is qualified to treat these kinds of non-gender dysphoria disorders.

Transgender medical care usually involves medicine, and the trans rights movement had a moment in the 2010s. I believe it inappropriate to use victim status to force others to provide an inappropriate treatment. It is also inappropriate to rush an inappropriate treatment because of the ticking clock argument.

I draw a comparison to how many people go to the emergency room, which cannot turn them away, because they do not have first-line care like a family doctor, or basic health upkeep such as not smoking and eating healthy food.

For clear or severe cases of gender dysphoria, early treatment is essential. Pharmaceutical and surgical. However gender transition only changes your gender! You still have to deal with whatever mental issues you had, integrate into society, and work hard to become a whole person.

The gay rights movement came of age around 1980 in my view, but everybody agreed that how inappropriate it is to attempt to treatment that medically, except for self-harm or AIDS.

I suspect that what we need is mental health to have its moment. Not "pride", or boasting about how many pills you are on. Maybe psychology programs need to be subsidized and promoted. We spent the past decade focusing on our smartphones, and I don't think it made us much happier. I suspect that we have the courage to turn some of that focus inward.

[kevingadd]

While I personally think gender related care is far too restricted in most places, I agree that comprehensive mental health treatment is the biggest priority. People will have a much easier time dealing with gender-related stresses and issues if they're not ALSO staring down a bunch of other problems in their lives without access to care.

It's also my understanding that trans and non-binary individuals tend to have other co-morbid problems going on, mental health or otherwise. This may be a data problem - the other problems being diagnosed more often because they go for treatment, etc - but from the specialists I've spoken to, it probably is an actual connection, induced by stress or otherwise.