Gender-Affirming Care: A Life-Saving Practice for Transgender Individuals in Substance Use Recovery

Understanding Gender-Affirming Care

Gender-affirming care includes a range of social, behavioral, and medical interventions that support and affirm and person’s individuality and gender identity when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth. These interventions help transgender and non-conforming individuals feel more congruent in the gender they identify with within an environment that provides support, safety, compassion, empathy, and understanding. In substance abuse recovery, gender-affirming care is a life-saving practice for trans individuals who are seeking recovery from drugs and alcohol.

Harmful Effects of Un-affirming Treatment for LGBTQ+ Clients

Unaffirming treatment for LGBTQ clients can be extremely harmful to those dealing with gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria, simply put, means an individual does not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Un-affirming treatment can involve a treatment center that does not understand this experience and is not affirming a person’s identity during the challenging time of trying to recover from substance abuse. Some examples include not honoring proper names and pronouns, as well as “othering” the client and placing them in an individual room as opposed to allowing them to room with other people of the same gender identity. This can make a person feel isolated and like there is something inherently wrong with them, therefore they need to be “separated” from the rest of the community.

Un-affirming treatment practices interfere with the person’s recovery, shuts down the opportunity for self-discovery, and cause more trauma to a person as they feel the need to adapt to a state of survival where they are not able to be their authentic self, but have to develop a persona to “fit in” and please others who are not accepting of their individual experience.

Benefits of Gender-Affirming Care in Substance Use Recovery

Gender-affirming care allows individuals to feel free. It includes treatment where the provider is knowledgeable and understands interventions that support the trans and non-binary experience. This includes social interventions such as using proper names and pronouns and supporting the person’s gender expression through clothing, makeup, hairstyles, and any form of expression that allows the person to feel congruent. This also includes medical interventions, such as hormone-replacement therapy that supports the physical development of the gender the person identifies with. Gender-affirming care also encompasses emotional and behavioral interventions which involve clinicians who understand the trans experience and can help the individual work through the trauma of gender dysphoria.

The Importance of Science-Backed Gender-Affirming Practices

Gender-affirming interventions and practices are scientifically proven, and evidence-based, and research shows that it decreases suicidality by 56 percent. Not allowing individuals to live as their authentic selves, and explore what that looks like, causes an incredible amount of harm to a person who is just simply exploring what it means to be human in their own experience. The transgender experience is complex and diverse, and it is important for trans individuals to feel understood and supported to be able to thrive and grow in their recovery from substance abuse. Gender-affirming care is extremely beneficial and necessary for trans individuals to benefit from the treatment they are receiving.

Supporting Trans Individuals in Recovery: A Call for Empathy & Compassion

The human experience is complicated, messy, beautiful, and chaotic, but it is not black-and-white. The human experience cannot be defined in one, simple way. There are many different experiences of a person, and as treatment providers, it is our job to provide quality care for all humans that involves empathy, compassion, love, and understanding to help individuals find recovery and support in an environment that feels safe and affirming to the individual’s personal experience.