Homosexuality: An Addictive Disorder

The Clean Slate Addiction Site tells us that addiction is a choice, not a brain disease:

if the promise of a ticket to the movies is enough to double the success rate of conventional addiction counseling, then it’s hard to say that substance users can’t control themselves...to clarify the point, if you offered a cancer patient movie tickets as a reward for ceasing to have a tumor – it would make no difference, it would not change his probability of recovery.

According to the New York Times, it may be a learning disorder:

The studies show that addiction alters the interactions between midbrain regions like the ventral tegmentum and the nucleus accumbens, which are involved with motivation and pleasure, and parts of the prefrontal cortex that mediate decisions and help set priorities. Acting in concert, these networks determine what we value in order to ensure that we attain critical biological goals: namely, survival and reproduction.

In essence, addiction occurs when these brain systems are focused on the wrong objects: a drug or self-destructive behavior like excessive gambling.... Once that happens, it can cause serious trouble.

The learning disorder that is addiction may be the result of trauma or it may originate in a lack of social bonding. It may also be the result of a dopamine imbalance in the brain.

However, according to the National Council on Alcohol Addiction and Drug Dependency (NCADD) gene predisposition accounts for about 50% of addictive disorders. 

Whether a person decides to use alcohol or drugs is a personal choice, influenced by multiple biological, familial, psychological and sociocultural factors. But, once a person uses alcohol or drugs, the risk of developing alcoholism or drug dependence is greatly influenced by genetics. Research shows that genes are responsible for about half the risk for alcoholism and addiction, and while genetics are not the sole determinant, their presence or absence may increase the likelihood that a person will become alcohol or drug dependent. 

What does all of this have to do with homosexuality? As Psychology Today points out, even if addiction is not really genetic, it is certainly the case that addiction travels in clusters. What does it mean to say addiction travels in clusters? It means that if you suffer from one addiction, you are more likely to have a second or third as well. For instance, the NIH tells us smokers are more likely to drink, Someone who both smokes and drinks is more likely to use drugs. Smokers are more likely to suffer from eating disorders. The combinations are endless.

Medical News tells us men are about twice as likely to suffer from some form of addiction as women are. By purest happenstance, most studies show there are about twice as many homosexual men as homosexual women. Now, you may think this doesn't prove much. If that was all that could be brought forward, you would be right. Unfortunately, that isn't all there is to it. So, with all of the foregoing in mind (choice, genetics, learning disorder, lack of social bonding, clustering), let's see where homosexuality falls in the addiction spectrum.

The National Eating Disorders Association tells us homosexuals have a higher rate of eating disorders than the general population:

• In one study, gay and bisexual boys reported being significantly more likely to have fasted, vomited or taken laxatives or diet pills to control their weight in the last 30 days. Gay males were 7 times more likely to report binging and 12 times more likely to report purging than heterosexual males.
• Females identified as lesbian, bisexual or mostly heterosexual were about twice as likely to report binge-eating at least once per month in the last year.
• Elevated rates of binge-eating and purging by vomiting or laxative abuse was found for both males and females who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or “mostly heterosexual” in comparison to their heterosexual peers.
• Compared to other populations, gay men are disproportionately found to have body image disturbances and eating disorder behavior (STATS). Gay men are thought to only represent 5% of the total male population but among men who have eating disorders, 42% identify as gay.

The American Lung Cancer Association tells us homosexuals smoke at much higher rates than the general population:

"Although few studies have examined the link between sexual orientation and smoking, it is clear that LGBT individuals have a higher smoking rate than the general population. Only six states have published reports on tobacco use by sexual orientation: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. All six of these states found significantly elevated smoking rates in the LGBT community. A 2009 review of 42 separate studies measuring tobacco use among lesbians, gays, and bisexuals reported consistently higher prevalence of smoking among sexual minorities.2 Other studies have reported smoking prevalence among gay and bisexual men is 27% to 71% higher and for lesbians and bisexual women, 70% to 350% higher than prevalence observed for comparable gender groups in the general population.3"

The Pride Institute tells us homosexuals have higher rates of alcohol abuse:

In the LGBT community, research suggests that alcohol abuse and dependence occurs at even higher rates than in the mainstream population. Independent studies collectively support the estimate that alcohol abuse occurs in the LGBT community as rates up to three times that in the mainstream population. Said another way, alcohol abuse is estimated to occur in up to 45% of those in the LGBT community. 

The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, in union with the University of Lancashire, tell us homosexuals have higher rates of illegal drug use and abuse:

... new figures suggest that gay people are seven times more likely to take illegal drugs than the general population, with one in five of those surveyed showing signs of dependency on drugs or alcohol.  

More than a third of gay, lesbian and bisexual people took at least one illegal drug in the last month, according to the largest study of its kind.  

The National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse group informs us of a Yale University study that reports homosexuals are over-represented in gambling addiction self-help organizations:

One of the few existing studies on problem gambling in the LGBT community was conducted by two prominent researchers in the field of problem gambling studies, Jon Grant of the University of Minnesota Medical School and Marc Potenza of Yale University Medical School (Grant and Potenza, 2006). The study was conducted in 2006 with a sample of 105 treatment‐seeking men who had sought treatment for pathological gambling. The researchers found a substantial overrepresentation of gay and bisexual men among this sample of pathological gamblers (21% of the sample self‐reported as gay or bisexual) (Grant and Potenza, 2006). The researchers also reported greater impairment and a higher incidence of impulse control and substance use disorder among these gay and bisexual men.

Atlantic Magazine informs us that homosexuals beat each other up. A LOT:

In 2013, the CDC released the results of a 2010 study on victimization by sexual orientation, and admitted that “little is known about the national prevalence of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking among lesbian, gay, and bisexual women and men in the United States.” The report found that bisexual women had an overwhelming prevalence of violent partners in their lives: 75 percent had been with a violent partner, as opposed to 46 percent of lesbian women and 43 percent of straight women. For bisexual men, that number was 47 percent. For gay men, it was 40 percent, and 21 percent for straight men.

Update: Rutgers re-confirmed the findings on interpersonal violence in LGBTQ+ relationships. 

American Addiction Centers tell us homosexuals use drugs all out of proportion to the normal population:

• The rate of alcohol abuse in gay and transgender individuals may be as high as 25 percent compared to 5–10 percent in the general population.
• The use of tobacco products is significantly higher in gay individuals than in heterosexuals; some studies suggest 200 percent higher.
• Gay men are far more likely to use amphetamines than heterosexual man (as much as 12 times more likely).
• Gay men are nearly 10 times more likely to use heroin than heterosexual men.

The Wisconsin Arson Insurance Council undertook a study funded by FEMA, which found 25% of serial arsonists are homosexuals. One-third of thrill-seeking arsonists are homosexual. In fact, it is so typical for arsonists to be homosexual that homosexuality is actually one of the criteria of the US firefighter arsonist profile.

The arsonists also had poor military performance and records with only two of seven completing a term in the military with an honorable discharge. One-half had tattoos and one-fourth had some type of disfigurement. The sexual preference of the serial arsonists reflected 25 percent who identified their preference as homosexual or bi-sexual. ...[The thrill seeking arsonist] is most likely to be heterosexual but nearly one-third are bisexual or homosexual.

An additional study, funded by National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) and the Department of Justice, found 29% of arsonists were homosexuals. Even Wikipedia, in it's article on firefighter arson, recognizes the link.  Similarly, the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) found that homosexuality was linked to arson (p. 17). Homosexual arsonists even have their own Tumblr E-Zine.




Reuters and the Guardian tell us homosexuals actually act out sexually with both sexes. Remarkably, homosexuals are more likely to be involved in an unintended pregnancy than are heterosexuals.

Overall, about 13 percent of heterosexual females and about 14 percent of females who only had male sexual partners had been pregnant, compared to about 23 percent of lesbian or bisexual females and about 20 percent of girls who had male and female sexual partners.

About 10 percent of heterosexual males and those who only had female sexual partners experienced a pregnancy, compared to about 29 percent of gay or bisexual males and about 38 percent of males with female and male sexual partners. 

Correlation or Causation?
For those who would argue that all of the above is merely correlation and not causation, this poses a serious problem. If homosexuality is not simply a sexual addiction, that is, if homosexuals were really homosexual, they wouldn't be involved in unintended pregnancy at all, much less would they generate more unintended pregnancies than heterosexuals. That fact alone tells us what the problem actually is: homosexuals are addicted to sex.

As even Slate admits, both male and female homosexuals have higher numbers of partners than the normal population.

Promiscuity among lesbians is less extreme, but it is still higher than among heterosexual women. Overall, women tend to have fewer sex partners than men. But there is a surprising finding about lesbian promiscuity in the literature. Australian investigators reported that lesbian women were 4.5 times more likely to have had more than 50 lifetime male partners than heterosexual women (9 percent of lesbians versus 2 percent of heterosexual women); and 93 percent of women who identified themselves as lesbian reported a history of sex with men.17 Other studies similarly show that 75-90 percent of women who have sex with women have also had sex with men.

Again, this merely confirms the earlier point: there is no way to make sense of the these numbers unless we recognize that homosexuality is simply one more addiction in a spectrum of addictive behaviors displayed by addictive personalities. In fact, the differences between homosexual addiction and normal activity is so enormous that it creates basic disconnects for both the homosexuals under study and the heterosexuals studying them:

[G]ay reporter Gabriel Rotello provides [data] for the United States, citing the book Homosexualities. It indicates that in the late 1970s, 75% of gay men had had more than 100 sexual partners in their lives... Further, 43% of gay men reported more than 500 partners and 33% more than 1,000. 

One well-known gay man boasted that by age 26 he'd had about 3,000 male partners, though he could see how people who had not been in the "fast lane" like him could barely envisage such sexual statistics. The differences with Rotello's heterosexual friends were so great that, when citing these figures, neither the gay nor straight people could believe them. Some found 100 or more partners a year inconceivable, while the gays could not comprehend people having so few encounters in life!

The NAADC, the National Association of Addiction Professionals, recognizes the links between homosexuality and addiction. It even produced a Powerpoint series outlining the various addictions that homosexuals habitually engage in.

For someone who has a genetic predisposition to become addicted, homosexuality is one way for that addictive predisposition to express itself.  Instead of, or in addition to, being addicted to alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, gambling, eating disorders or a host of other harmful behaviors, the homosexual is (also) addicted to maladaptive sexual expression. This maladaptive activity is, according to the NIH, just as physically unhealthy as alcoholism, drug abuse or any eating disorder. The homosexual should be viewed as an addict who is committing slow suicide. The maladaptation which causes alcoholism and other addictions, like homosexuality, may be treatable. It is possible that either serotonin or dopamine treatment can slash addictive behavior by up to 90%.. 

Speaking of suicide, some would argue, despite the evidence presented here, that homosexuality is not a choice. They would argue that attempting conversion therapy on homosexuals is deadly. After all, it is alleged that people who go through such conversion therapy have a high suicide rate:

People who have gone through conversion therapy face 8.9 times the rates of suicide ideation, face depression at 5.9 times the rate of their peers and are three times more likely to use illegal drugs and be at high risk for sexually transmitted infections.

Of course, the article that makes this statement then links to a PDF that you would think substantiates the assertion. But here is where it gets very odd indeed. The PDF that is the "source" for the statement says exactly the opposite. The referenced 2009 APA study ("Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation")  actually says:

Early and recent research studies provide no clear indication of the prevalence of harmful outcomes among people who have undergone efforts to change their sexual orientation or the frequency of occurrence of harm because no study to date of adequate scientific rigor has been explicitly designed to do so. Thus, we cannot conclude how likely it is that harm will occur from SOCE (sexual orientation change efforts). 

So, as of 2009, even the APA could find no evidence of a higher suicide rate among those who go through conversion therapy. So, what is the suicide rate of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders? Well, it is much, much higher than that of the general population. In fact, the suicide rate for those who have not undergone conversion therapy is even higher than it is for those who have undergone conversion therapy:

According to surveys, 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population has self-reported a suicide attempt, with that number climbing to between 10 and 20 percent for lesbian, gay or bisexual respondents. By comparison, 41 percent of trans or gender non-conforming people surveyed have attempted suicide

So, those who argue against conversion therapy quote studies that actually show conversion therapy results in a lower suicide rate for homosexuals. It's almost as if they specifically misrepresented the results. They appear to have deliberately lied about the fact that conversion therapy lowers the risk of suicide. How odd.

In fact, homosexuality is just one more disorder in a whole spectrum of addictive disorders. It should be viewed as such and treated as such. As long as the professional psychological community is in denial, the high rate of injury and death among homosexuals will continue.


UPDATE:
Here's a shocker. Everything I've documented above is now confirmed in this meta-study

The belief that sexual orientation is an innate, biologically fixed human property—that people are ‘born that way’—is not supported by scientific evidence.... 

Non-heterosexual and transgender people have higher rates of mental health problems (anxiety, depression, suicide), as well as behavioral and social problems (substance abuse, intimate partner violence), than the general population. Discrimination alone does not account for the entire disparity.

Jason Hill, a homosexual man writing in the Federalist, agrees that the homosexual lifestyle revolves around addiction.

Promiscuous sex and drug use are not exceptional or marginalized currents in gay culture. They are an omnipresent force in every register, crook, and cranny of the gay world. The new and disturbing “Poz Me” trend merging in gay culture needs to be nationally discussed. This culture consists in underground online sites where gay men who are HIV negative hook up with men who are not and beg to be “breeded” by HIV-positive men.

And this Townhall article provides even more information and links.

Considering the above non-biased, replicated, empirical and irrefutable scientific facts, its little wonder that an earlier study in the International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE), determined the “life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men.”

UPDATE:
Homosexual "marriage" doesn't improve health outcomes. Which is no surprise, given that homosexuality is itself an addictive disorder.

UPDATE:
Cambridge study affirming disproportionately poor impulse control, mental disorders and eating disorders.

UPDATE:
Conversion therapy REDUCES suicide (by up to 80%), just as I indicated above.

UPDATE:

Here is a BMJ letter confirming that homosexuality is an obsessive-compulsive disorder

Here is PubMed study that reached the same conclusion: "Conclusion: Same-sex sexuality is associated with impulsive/compulsive behavior and addiction."

Here is another study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,  reaching the same conclusion

American Addiction Centers reach the same conclusion. 

Healthy Life Recovery, same conclusion.

List of Links

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/eating-disorders-lgbt-populations

http://www.lung.org/assets/documents/tobacco/lgbt-issue-brief-update.pdf

http://pride-institute.com/programs/lgbt-treatment/lgbt-alcohol-addiction/

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/drug-use-seven-times-higher-among-gays-8165971.html

http://www.napafasa.org/resources/PGP.Problem%20Gambling%20and%20the%20Lesbian,%20Gay,%20Bisexual%20and%20Transgender%20Community%20Rev.11.0322.pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/a-same-sex-domestic-violence-epidemic-is-silent/281131/

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/lgbtqiapk-addiction/gay

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/lgbtqiapk-addiction/crystal-meth-addiction-gay-community

http://www.wiarsonhotline.org/pdfs/2012%2006%20WAIC%20Newsletter.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighter_arson

https://www.tumblr.com/flamingzine/106742594029/flaming-a-queer-arson-zine-is-finally-here-did

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/24/3

http://dailysignal.com/2016/08/22/almost-everything-the-media-tells-you-about-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-is-wrong/

http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/16/loveless-narcissistic-sex-addicts-a-gay-man-critiques-his-community/

http://townhall.com/columnists/mattbarber/2016/08/28/the-entire-lgbt-narrative-just-crumbled-n2211099

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cns-spectrums/article/links-between-sexuality-impulsivity-compulsivity-and-addiction-in-a-large-sample-of-university-students/6E51FC70C52590C02797A4FCD2B3D8E1

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/07/14/Study-Same-sex-marriage-legalization-may-not-have-improved-health/9461531513244/

https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/30/homosexuality-treatable-obsessive-compulsive-addictive-disorder

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30982481/

https://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/press-announcements/20230613/samhsa-releases-new-data-lesbian-gay-bisexual-behavioral-health

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/lgbtqiapk-addiction/why-substance-abuse-is-higher-within-the-lgbtq-community

https://healthyliferecovery.com/lgbt-and-addiction/