I've been a little overwhelmed with news lately so I missed if you brought up the Nex Benedict story already. But here is the whitehouse statement. One message strikes me as a dangerously misleading lie. "we must all recommit to our work to end discrimination and address the suicide crisis impacting too many nonbinary and transgender children". There is no trans suicide crisis. And in fact, BPD has, and has always had, a stronger correlation with suicide. The rates of hospitalization for BPD are so high (like 80%) they arent even in the same realm of reality as trans suicidality. But even worse, these rogd girls are exhibiting the exact same behaviors as my BPD daughter who by sheer luck chose to surround herself with trans kids instead of becoming one. Out of her whole friend group with 10+ trans kids (only one natal male) she was the ONLY one who attempted suicide... 4 times seriously over 2 years. Never once have I heard politicians speak of this. But this is what brought me to this topic.
I dont see "trans", i see gay boys and emerging borderline girls. If you've been in as many teen mental hospitals as I have you very quickly realize that "trans" is a mirage and an easy way for adults not to truly care for a child. An excuse for adults to shirk responsibility.
Im not so bold as to think I know why Nex killed herself, but I can say that the details of the story fit the bill for a girl with BPD traits. But/and, even thats hard to parse because we're talking about teen girls. For example, at 21 we are just now getting my daughter tested for endometriosis because she landed in the hospital with crazy symptoms. If thats the case it explains a lot of the mental health issues she had at puberty.
The point is... AS ALWAYS, women are getting the shaft! Its sickening that we are championing girls literally trying to turn themselves into males simply because no one is responsible enough to look into their health AS females. I mean are we really saying here that girls are better candidates for mental or any healthcare if they BECOME boys?
This has tortured me for years and I'm curious if Lisa is considering writing about it? If she thinks there is something more interesting than 'yes thats happening' to be said on the topic? Specifically BPD + trans teens + suicide.
COMPLETELY forgot to write it up! That was going to be the other big news story I focused on. Crapadoodle. Thanks for bringing it up. The fact that Biden wrote about it...does every kid who dies of an overdose get such treatment?
My heart does break for Nex and her family, she didn't need to die of course but The White House statement is infuriating. The message there is that Nex was BRAVE and that it was bullying by peers that lead her to death. Do we want teens to associate suicide with being brave??!!! Do we want other kids to day-dream about being mentioned by THE PRESIDENT for their suicide?? Do we want to put the blame for her death at the feet of 14 y.o. girls who now have to live their formative years with that misplaced guilt??!!!
I’m sorry you are going through this. What you say is absolutely spot on. Another thing that happens is when these girls have eating disorders, their behavior becomes so extreme. It happened with our daughter. She couldn’t think straight when she was severely underweight. Once we healed her (ourselves!) she began to think more rationally. The first eating clinic we took her to tried to put her on T at the intake appointment before they even knew why she had disordered eating (it was due to ARFID related to her autism). I learned there is a 30% failure rate in eating clinics among girls. The treatment doesn’t work for a certain group. I suspect these are girls with undiagnosed autism and this treatment would be a nightmare for this cohort. Another group of girls ignored by the world … oh wait … not ignored! Celebrated for being ‘boys’.
I am so sorry for what you have been through and are going through. The insights you share here are really important. For one, this: “I dont see "trans", i see gay boys and emerging borderline girls.” I join you in hoping Lisa might be able to devote an article to it, maybe by means of a guest post from a mental health professional who also recognizes what you are seeing.
Thank you for bringing up the BPD/emerging BPD traits connection! It really bothers me this is not discussed more since a central trait of BPD is unstable identity. And, as you mention, these BPD traits overlap with normal teen girl development, as so perfectly described here (source linked below):
"The development of a stable female identity in adolescence is highly complex, demanding, susceptible to disruption and accompanied by crises."
It is malpractice not to consider how unstable identity, either from BPD or the normal but fragile developmental process of female identity in adolescence may be the cause of gender confusion. When doctors and therapists encourage this unstable identity and identity disruption through "gender affirmation" they are in fact worsening a core symptom of BPD and fueling an even more severe disruption of adolescent female identity development.
1. The Federal Minister for Health has yet to reply to my email asking him why the participant information questionnaire for Australia's national bowel cancer screening program doesn't ask participants the scientifically and medically significant question of what biological sex they are.
2. My own bowel cancer test results have come back negative. Yippee!
Great round-up, Lisa and Alejandra. Yes, the number of stories is mind boggling. What I also particularly appreciated in this edition was your opener, Lisa, and especially your observations as a parent, like this: “What I didn't understand about parenting until years in: when kids push on boundaries, the parents' job is not to acquiesce but to hold boundaries in place.” Thank you for all.
Yes, please post more lists of the evidence that the tide is turning back this gender madness! I vote you focus on exposing and refuting the false claims about suicide/trans connection. The ideology leads their charge with “life saving treatment “ of transitioning. Then kids hear “now that you agree with our diagnosis of GD (practicing without a license !?), your parents hate you, you should be suicidal, stop trying in school and demand that nothing else matters more than this cause.”
Jonathan Haidt has come out with an important and urgent piece. He talks about how desperate young people are to have meaning in their lives and cannot acheive it because of a smart phone childhood. This is a huge part of why we see this contagion.
Rhode Island is considering a "Health Care Provider Shield Bill", (RI H7577) which received a couple of hundred letters of support from all sorts of doctors and medical orgs, including a letter from Dr Jason Rafferty, who is himself currently being sued by a detransitioner. TBH I can not quite decipher the legalese of the bill, but it does specify that any care that follows WPATH guidelines is considered appropriate and legal in our state.
I've been a little overwhelmed with news lately so I missed if you brought up the Nex Benedict story already. But here is the whitehouse statement. One message strikes me as a dangerously misleading lie. "we must all recommit to our work to end discrimination and address the suicide crisis impacting too many nonbinary and transgender children". There is no trans suicide crisis. And in fact, BPD has, and has always had, a stronger correlation with suicide. The rates of hospitalization for BPD are so high (like 80%) they arent even in the same realm of reality as trans suicidality. But even worse, these rogd girls are exhibiting the exact same behaviors as my BPD daughter who by sheer luck chose to surround herself with trans kids instead of becoming one. Out of her whole friend group with 10+ trans kids (only one natal male) she was the ONLY one who attempted suicide... 4 times seriously over 2 years. Never once have I heard politicians speak of this. But this is what brought me to this topic.
I dont see "trans", i see gay boys and emerging borderline girls. If you've been in as many teen mental hospitals as I have you very quickly realize that "trans" is a mirage and an easy way for adults not to truly care for a child. An excuse for adults to shirk responsibility.
Im not so bold as to think I know why Nex killed herself, but I can say that the details of the story fit the bill for a girl with BPD traits. But/and, even thats hard to parse because we're talking about teen girls. For example, at 21 we are just now getting my daughter tested for endometriosis because she landed in the hospital with crazy symptoms. If thats the case it explains a lot of the mental health issues she had at puberty.
The point is... AS ALWAYS, women are getting the shaft! Its sickening that we are championing girls literally trying to turn themselves into males simply because no one is responsible enough to look into their health AS females. I mean are we really saying here that girls are better candidates for mental or any healthcare if they BECOME boys?
This has tortured me for years and I'm curious if Lisa is considering writing about it? If she thinks there is something more interesting than 'yes thats happening' to be said on the topic? Specifically BPD + trans teens + suicide.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/14/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-nex-benedict/
PS... 1000% Lisa wins the book cover of the year award! My husband is so confused, he keeps glancing at it but wont dare ask 😆
COMPLETELY forgot to write it up! That was going to be the other big news story I focused on. Crapadoodle. Thanks for bringing it up. The fact that Biden wrote about it...does every kid who dies of an overdose get such treatment?
My heart does break for Nex and her family, she didn't need to die of course but The White House statement is infuriating. The message there is that Nex was BRAVE and that it was bullying by peers that lead her to death. Do we want teens to associate suicide with being brave??!!! Do we want other kids to day-dream about being mentioned by THE PRESIDENT for their suicide?? Do we want to put the blame for her death at the feet of 14 y.o. girls who now have to live their formative years with that misplaced guilt??!!!
I’m sorry you are going through this. What you say is absolutely spot on. Another thing that happens is when these girls have eating disorders, their behavior becomes so extreme. It happened with our daughter. She couldn’t think straight when she was severely underweight. Once we healed her (ourselves!) she began to think more rationally. The first eating clinic we took her to tried to put her on T at the intake appointment before they even knew why she had disordered eating (it was due to ARFID related to her autism). I learned there is a 30% failure rate in eating clinics among girls. The treatment doesn’t work for a certain group. I suspect these are girls with undiagnosed autism and this treatment would be a nightmare for this cohort. Another group of girls ignored by the world … oh wait … not ignored! Celebrated for being ‘boys’.
I am so sorry for what you have been through and are going through. The insights you share here are really important. For one, this: “I dont see "trans", i see gay boys and emerging borderline girls.” I join you in hoping Lisa might be able to devote an article to it, maybe by means of a guest post from a mental health professional who also recognizes what you are seeing.
Have you listened to this episode? It gets at a lot of the things you're asking.
https://stellaomalley.substack.com/p/borderline-personality-distorted
Just finished listening. Very, very interesting. Thanks for alerting me to the link.
Thank you, Puzzle Therapy! I will definitely listen to this.
Thank you for bringing up the BPD/emerging BPD traits connection! It really bothers me this is not discussed more since a central trait of BPD is unstable identity. And, as you mention, these BPD traits overlap with normal teen girl development, as so perfectly described here (source linked below):
"The development of a stable female identity in adolescence is highly complex, demanding, susceptible to disruption and accompanied by crises."
It is malpractice not to consider how unstable identity, either from BPD or the normal but fragile developmental process of female identity in adolescence may be the cause of gender confusion. When doctors and therapists encourage this unstable identity and identity disruption through "gender affirmation" they are in fact worsening a core symptom of BPD and fueling an even more severe disruption of adolescent female identity development.
https://segm.org/gender-dysphoria-anorexia-korte-gille-elective-affinities
In a snippet from Australia:
1. The Federal Minister for Health has yet to reply to my email asking him why the participant information questionnaire for Australia's national bowel cancer screening program doesn't ask participants the scientifically and medically significant question of what biological sex they are.
2. My own bowel cancer test results have come back negative. Yippee!
Great round-up, Lisa and Alejandra. Yes, the number of stories is mind boggling. What I also particularly appreciated in this edition was your opener, Lisa, and especially your observations as a parent, like this: “What I didn't understand about parenting until years in: when kids push on boundaries, the parents' job is not to acquiesce but to hold boundaries in place.” Thank you for all.
A mammoth effort, Lisa. Thank you. Will post on X
Yes, please post more lists of the evidence that the tide is turning back this gender madness! I vote you focus on exposing and refuting the false claims about suicide/trans connection. The ideology leads their charge with “life saving treatment “ of transitioning. Then kids hear “now that you agree with our diagnosis of GD (practicing without a license !?), your parents hate you, you should be suicidal, stop trying in school and demand that nothing else matters more than this cause.”
Ms Chu will do what Ms Chu will do
To remain the TG spokesmodel go-to
To blend in and disappear
No longer on the radar here.
The real goal is without a doubt
To prove Ms Chu's brilliance at blending out.
Jonathan Haidt has come out with an important and urgent piece. He talks about how desperate young people are to have meaning in their lives and cannot acheive it because of a smart phone childhood. This is a huge part of why we see this contagion.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/teen-childhood-smartphone-use-mental-health-effects/677722/?gift=6kW-3kpyH7tV4NcHqyTUk4pQbLwhJ51mzwtSdzMDnc4&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Rhode Island is considering a "Health Care Provider Shield Bill", (RI H7577) which received a couple of hundred letters of support from all sorts of doctors and medical orgs, including a letter from Dr Jason Rafferty, who is himself currently being sued by a detransitioner. TBH I can not quite decipher the legalese of the bill, but it does specify that any care that follows WPATH guidelines is considered appropriate and legal in our state.