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The Queer Mental Health Workbook | Dr Brendan J Dunlop

"To be queer is to feel different - a felt sense that you don't fit in. This can be alienating and difficult and lead to mental health challenges and lower wellbeing throughout life. Using a range of therapeutic approaches, this comprehensive, down-to-earth self-help workbook is designed to be your personal mental health resource. It is filled with techniques and activities you can read, tailor and 'pick and mix' to improve your wellbeing as a queer person, at your pace.

The workbook is split into two sections - the first part focusses on laying the groundwork by exploring identity, psychological wellbeing, and mental health experiences in order to situate mental health challenges in context and improve overall mental health. The second half hones in on ideas and techniques applicable to specific challenges and situations. It explores difficult topics such as anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal ideation, shame, trauma, substance abuse, sleep, and low mood, all whilst maintaining a focus on your needs as a queer individual.

Empowering and reassuring, and written by an experienced queer mental health practitioner, this one-of-a-kind workbook will help you to flourish as a queer person and begin to overcome any challenge."

The Queer Mental Health Workbook | Dr Brendan J Dunlop | Jessica Kingsley Publishers | Mar 2022

Straight Jacket  | Matthew Todd

"Written by Matthew Todd, editor of Attitude, the UK's best-selling gay magazine, Straight Jacket is a revolutionary clarion call for gay men, the wider LGBT community, their friends and family. Part memoir, part ground-breaking polemic, it looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be – and if not, why not?

In an attempt to find the answers to this and many other difficult questions, Matthew Todd explores why statistics show a disproportionate number of gay people suffer from mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, addiction, suicidal thoughts and behaviour, and why significant numbers experience difficulty in sustaining meaningful relationships. Bracingly honest, and drawing on his own experience, he breaks the silence surrounding a number of painful issues, explaining:

• how growing up in the closet can overwhelm the gay child with a deep sense of shame that can leave young people with perilously low self-worth and a powerfully negative body image
• how many gay men overcompensate for childhood shame by pursuing unobtainable perfection, aspiring to have perfect bodies, boyfriends and lives
• how gay culture, so often centred around alcohol, drugs, quick sex and even quicker wit, exacerbates the problem, and what we can all do to make things better

Meticulously researched, courageous and life-affirming, Straight Jacket offers invaluable practical advice on how to overcome a range of difficult issues. It also recognizes that this is a watershed moment, a piercing wake-up-call-to-arms for the gay and wider community to acknowledge the importance of supporting all young people – and helping older people to transform their experience and finally get the lives they really want."

 Straight Jacket | Matthew Todd | Bantum Press | Jun 2016

Queer Up | Alex Caught

In this empowering and uplifting book, award-winning podcaster Alexis Caught sets out to help queer and questioning teenagers explore their LGBTQ+ identity and understanding. Alongside the author's personal experiences are first-hand stories from notable LGBTQ+ figures, providing an inclusive account of what it means to grow up queer.

With chapters on questioning, coming out, friends and family, love and relationships, sex, shame, pride, being transgender and/or non-binary and allyship, this helpful, honest and heart-warming book is essential reading for any queer or questioning teen and their allies looking to support them. With chapters on questioning, coming out, friends and family, love and relationships, sex, shame, pride, being transgender and/or non-binary and allyship, this helpful, honest and heart-warming book is essential reading for any queer or questioning teen and their allies looking to support them.

Queer Up | Alexis Caught | Walker Books | Jan 2022

The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness | Michael Hobbes

"Marriage equality and the changes in legal status were an improvement for some gay men,” says Christopher Stults, a researcher at New York University who studies the differences in mental health between gay and straight men. “But for a lot of other people, it was a letdown. Like, we have this legal status, and yet there’s still something unfulfilled.”

This feeling of emptiness, it turns out, is not just an American phenomenon. In the Netherlands, where gay marriage has been legal since 2001, gay men remain three times more likely to suffer from a mood disorder than straight men, and 10 times more likely to engage in “suicidal self-harm.” In Sweden, which has had civil unions since 1995 and full marriage since 2009, men married to men have triple the suicide rate of men married to women.

All of these unbearable statistics lead to the same conclusion: It is still dangerously alienating to go through life as a man attracted to other men. The good news, though, is that epidemiologists and social scientists are closer than ever to understanding all the reasons why."

The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness | Michael Hobbes | The Huffington Post | 2 Mar 2017

The Velvet Rage | Alan Downs

Today’s gay man enjoys unprecedented, hard-won social acceptance. Despite this victory, however, serious problems still exist. Substance abuse, depression, suicide, and sex addiction among gay men are at an all-time high, causing many to ask, “Are we really better off?” Drawing on contemporary research, psychologist Alan Downs’s own struggle with shame and anger, and stories from his patients,

"The Velvet Rage passionately describes the stages of a gay man’s journey out of shame and offers practical and inspired strategies to stop the cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behaviour. Updated to reflect the effects of the many recent social, cultural, and political changes, The Velvet Rage is an empowering book that has already changed the public discourse on gay culture and helped shape the identity of an entire generation of gay men."

The Velvet Rage | Alan Downs | Da Capo Press | 2012

Pride: The Story of the LGBTQ Equality Movement | Matthew Todd

"In June 1969, police raided New York gay bar the Stonewall Inn. Pride charts the events of that night, the days and nights of rioting that followed, the ensuing organization of local members of the community - and the 50 years since in which activists and ordinary people have dedicated their lives to reversing the global position.

"Pride documents the milestones in the fight for LGBTQ equality, from the victories of early activists to the passing of legislation barring discrimination and the gradual acceptance of the LGBTQ community in politics, sport, culture and the media. Rare images and documents cover the seminal moments, events and breakthroughs of the movement, while personal testimonies share the voices of key figures on a broad range of topics. Pride is a unique celebration of LGBTQ culture, an account of the ongoing challenges facing the community, and a testament to the equal rights that have been won for many as a result of the passion and determination of this mass movement. A fully updated edition of Matthew Todd's essential 2019 book, Pride is a celebration and a clarion call."

Pride: The Story of the LGBTQ Equality Movement | Matthew Todd | Welbeck Publishing Group | 2019/ 21