Brave is what you’re doing

It is a principal of psychotherapy that one can only change oneself, not other people. A simple concept, and yet one that at is at odds with the very human desire to influence others. This desire starts in the family with children influencing their parents with their cries, and parents influencing children with their rules. Both chafe at these bonds, these expectations of other people, and carry these sentiments into the rest of their lives. We should not be surprised that a fundamental dynamic of growing up gets reactivated in many people in a crisis, like the one the world has been dealing with since 2019. The child in us seeks protection, safety from a threat that is omnipresent and protean. The parent in us wants to do the right thing, to realize that protection, and expects other to contribute to this same project. These tensions find their way into our clinical relationships as we encounter patients who are vaccine hesitant or openly resistant. Anger arises as we consider the costs to us, our professional colleagues, and our families of preventable cases of COVID-19. We also direct anger at decisions of governments that may or may not be based on the best available science, and consider as well the effects on mental health, both of the pandemic itself and the measures used to address it. Ultimately, the ability to make change beyond our own sphere of control depends on working together and engaging with others, weaving a social fabric that lifts everybody up. That takes courage. This issue of JGLMH has a number of articles that are very relevant to mental health during the ongoing pandemic response, including a meta-analysis of studies comparing loneliness in heterosexual versus sexual minority groups, as well as a qualitative study examining COVID-19 and other stressors affecting Latino sexual minority men. We are also happy to include two more contributions to our Oral History Series, led by JGLMH’s Emeritus Editor Jack Drescher. We’d like to thank Dr. Drescher for his tremendous contributions to this important series that interviews prominent contributors to the LGBTQ Psychiatry community. We are looking for a new contributor to take over the editorial management of this ongoing series, so if this interests you, please be in touch with me at editors@aglp.org.