Inclusive, affirming care
Drug Rehab Options for the LGBT Community
Addiction treatment that takes the LGBT community’s real risk factors seriously — and a guide to finding care where you feel valued and safe.
About this program
LGBT community program
Addiction doesn’t discriminate, but risk isn’t evenly distributed. Research suggests people in the LGBT community carry elevated addiction risks — and are among the least likely to ask for help when they need it. Finding the right treatment sometimes takes digging, and knowing what to look for makes the difference.
For decades these stories were hidden from view, because researchers rarely asked about identity. Now the data exists, and some of it is worrisome — which makes respectful, trauma-aware treatment matter all the more.
Ambrosia’s West Palm Beach team has a history of helping people within the LGBT community, with care that is sensitive to each person’s history and takes their preferences into account rather than fitting them to a template.
What the numbers show
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, LGBT adults are twice as likely as heterosexual adults to use illicit drugs. The survey found marijuana use at 30.7 percent of LGBT adults versus 12.9 percent of heterosexual adults, prescription painkiller misuse at 10.4 percent versus 4.5 percent, and more frequent binge drinking.
Substance use also tends to begin earlier in LGBT communities — and the earlier drugs touch a developing brain, the more likely use becomes compulsive rather than voluntary. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that suicide is one of the leading causes of death for ages 10 to 24 in this community; those who survive can carry entrenched addictions into adulthood.
Minority stress and addiction
Researchers call it minority stress: living with the constant worry of being alone in a community that neither understands nor accepts you. That stress gets internalized — as chronic health conditions, and as substance use that starts early to numb pain and continues into adulthood to make life feel tolerable. Even the news can feed it, when every story of harassment or violence reads as a warning of what could happen to you.
NAMI reports that people in the LGBT community are three times more likely than others to have a major mental health concern such as anxiety or depression, and the link between mental illness and addiction is strong in both directions. When both are present, treatment has to address them together — leaving one in place lets the other strengthen.
What effective care looks like
Addiction is an illness of chemistry — brain and body change until they no longer function properly without the substance — so part of healing is physiological. But you will also need to come to terms with how the addiction started, which can mean working through bullying, internalized homophobia and a hostile inner voice, abuse, or coming-out conversations that still haunt. Your treatment should take your preferences into account and be sensitive to your trauma and your pain.
How to evaluate a treatment center
Not every program that advertises LGBT services delivers them: in one Center on Addiction review, 854 U.S. treatment programs claimed to offer LGBT services, but only 62 actually had them. Whether you choose a dedicated LGBT program or a mixed setting — and researchers debate which is better — investigate carefully:
- Open, inclusive terminology on intake forms
- LGBT people and symbols in posters and brochures
- Good reviews from people in your community
- LGBT people on staff, and respect for your pronouns
- Providers who can speak to their experience working with LGBT clients
- A plan for how your history will be worked into treatment
Ready to talk with admissions?
Admissions is available 24/7 to answer questions about mental health and substance use treatment options.