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Skip to main content. Sexual health. Home Sexual health. Sexuality explained. Actions for this page Listen Print. Summary Read the full fact sheet.
On this page. Different types of sexuality Discrimination based on sexuality Sexuality and mental health Helping someone struggling with their sexuality and mental health Where to get help. Different types of sexuality Sometimes, it can take time to figure out the sexuality that fits you best. Heterosexual and homosexual Most people are attracted to the opposite sex — boys who like girls, and women who like men, for example. Bisexual Sexuality can be more complicated than being straight or gay.
Discrimination based on sexuality Equality and freedom from discrimination are fundamental human rights that belong to all people. Sexuality and mental health LGBTI people have an increased risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, homelessness, self-harming and suicidal thoughts, compared with the general population. Some of the stressful experiences that can affect the mental health of an LGBTI person are: feeling different from other people being bullied verbally or physically feeling pressure to deny or change their sexuality feeling worried about coming out, and then being rejected or isolated feeling unsupported or misunderstood.
Helping someone struggling with their sexuality and mental health If you are worried that someone you know has a mental health problem, look out for changes in their mood, behaviour, relationships, appetite, sleep patterns, coping and thinking. Try talking to someone you trust — a friend, relative, doctor or counsellor, or use a helpline such as QLife , beyondblue or eheadspace.
Remember, there is no rush to figure out your sexuality. Take your time. If you want, you can read more about coming out. About sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status discrimination , Australian Human Rights Commission. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance.
Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Our teenage years are the most well known for being the time that we discover important parts of our identities such as sexuality, but questioning one's sexual orientation can actually occur at any age. Not only is it common for many people to be better able to learn about their identities in adulthood, when they're no longer heavily impacted by hormone induced mood swings and drama, but sexuality can also change with age.
One study that examined sexual orientations of people from teenage years through early adulthood showed that changes occurred throughout the duration, noting that "Substantial changes were common not only from late adolescence to the early 20s but also from the early 20s to the late 20s, indicating that sexual orientation development continues throughout emerging adulthood.
No matter what age you are, or what your relationship and sexual background is, it's perfectly okay for you to delve further into understanding your own orientation.
To help you best understand what you might be experiencing, we've broken down the various known sexual identities, along with how to find resources that can best guide you through your self discovery. Gender identity and sexuality are often grouped together, but they are separate topics.
Your sexuality is centered around who you are attracted to, whereas your gender is about how you yourself identify, not in relation to anyone else. There are more options in regards to sexual orientation than those represented in the acronym LGBTQIA, but that term is the most well known. Here is what the words in that acronym stand for. A lesbian is a woman who is attracted to people of her same gender.
Usually, people who identify as lesbians do not partner with people other than women. The National Center For Lesbian Rights works to advance the rights of lesbians and other marginalized people.
A gay person is someone who is attracted to people of their same gender, and the term is often used to describe men who are attracted to other men. However, women can identify as gay instead of or in addition to identifying as lesbian. Someone who is bisexual is attracted to more than one gender. Before the release of the " Bisexual Manifesto " in , it was often assumed that bisexual people were only attracted to cis men and cis women.
However, since then the term has come to include people who are attracted to more than one gender, period. Thinking sexually about both the same sex and the opposite sex is quite common as teens sort through their emerging sexual feelings. Some teens may experiment with sexual experiences, including those with members of the same sex, as they explore their own sexuality.
But these experiences, by themselves, do not necessarily mean that a teen is gay or straight. For many teens, these experiences are simply part of the process of sorting through their emerging sexuality. And despite gender stereotypes, masculine and feminine traits do not necessarily predict whether someone is straight or gay. Once aware, some gay teens may be quite comfortable and accept their sexuality, while others might find it confusing or difficult to accept.
Like their straight peers, gay teens may stress about school, grades, college, sports, activities, friends, and fitting in. But in addition, gay and lesbian teens often deal with an extra layer of stress — like whether they have to hide who they are, whether they will be harassed about being gay, or whether they will face stereotypes or judgments if they are honest about who they are.
They often feel different from their friends when the heterosexual people around them start talking about romantic feelings, dating, and sex. For them, it can feel like everyone is expected to be straight. They may feel like they have to pretend to feel things that they don't in order to fit in. They might feel they need to deny who they are or hide an important part of themselves.
Many gay teens worry about whether they will be accepted or rejected by their loved ones, or whether people will feel upset, angry, or disappointed in them. These fears of prejudice, discrimination, rejection, or violence, can lead some teens who aren't straight to keep their sexual orientation secret, even from friends and family who might be supportive.
It can take time for gay teens to process how they feel and to accept this aspect of their own identity before they reveal their sexual orientation to others. Many decide to tell a few accepting, supportive friends and family members about their sexual orientation. This is called coming out. For most people, coming out takes courage. But it's fine to find a certain label fits for a while and then find it doesn't fit so well over time, or that a different one fits better.
Also it's important to remember that each label still encompasses many different ways of experiencing and embodying sexuality. There's no 'one true way' of being bisexual, of expressing queerness, or of doing heterosexual sex, for example. LGBT charity Stonewall UK says: "The process of coming out can be very different for everyone and it can take some time to get to a point where you feel comfortable and confident enough to have those conversations with people.
So whether or not to come out - and what to come out about - should always be your decision. If it feels risky for you to do so, but you want to do it anyway, they suggest you seek support first. It's easy to feel shame around sexual preferences, but Barker and Hancock emphasise that whatever you find you're into sexually is completely fine so long as you always behave consensually with other people.
And do remember, even if there's no risk of pregnancy during your sexual encounter, you'll still need to consider protection against STIs. The main thing to remember on your journey is that there is no normal here, but diversity," they conclude. Hello everyone! Last time when I wrote about my struggles here it was probably a month ago my life was..
I just re-read my text and started balling my eyes out. I have OCD and few months
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