Non-binary mental health

What is non-binary, it is a term used where a person fully identify as a man or a woman (traditional gender types). They could identify as genderqueer, agender, bigender and genderfluid.

Being non binary doesn’t mean you have a mental health problem nor does cause mental health problems. However, you may have experiences that could lead to poor mental health.

These experiences could include:

• Negative media stories about trans and non-binary people. For example, they may suggest that trans and non-binary people are deceptive or threatening. Or that trans and non-binary people rush into decisions about their bodies. Being surrounded by these messages may make you feel worn down or unwelcome.
• Assumptions about you being male or female, if you’re non-binary. This could make you feel invisible, and pressured to conform to society’s expectations about gender.
• Denying your identity. This can be things like refusing to use your correct pronouns, such as she, they or he. Or not using your preferred name when speaking to you. This could make you feel unseen, not respected, and unsafe.
• Worries about expressing yourself in public. For example, you may change the way you dress if you’re worried about how people may treat you. You might find your experience of transphobia changes depending on how other people perceive your gender.
• Problems with dating and relationships. For example, it might feel hard to find a partner who accepts and validates who you are. This might be due to people’s fixed ideas about gender. These experiences could affect your self-esteem.
• Loneliness because of the negative attitudes you face about who you are. You may worry about building other relationships if you’ve been treated badly before.

At Manchester Mind we would like to support you at a time when you need to speak, explore, understand and help you find ‘your’ people and you can do this by contacting us.

Here are some useful links that can help you gain a greater understand and access other services that can help you.

You can also access further mental health information on Mind’s website.

Please don’t isolate yourself help and support is here for you.