RECLAIMING BELONGING AND SELF-WORTH
Addressing unique challenges for queer students
By Maddie Egli | Jan. 27, 2025
“WHY DOES everything feel so hard for me?”
This question and others like it have echoed through my office countless times – and, at moments, through my own mind, especially during my undergraduate years, when I was uncovering the layers of my own identity.
Students of all backgrounds and identities come to the CSU Health Network seeking help for their mental health struggles. One group I hear from most often is LGBTQIA students – those in the community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual people.
They face a unique set of mental health challenges: LGBTQIA students and adults report disproportionate mental health concerns in comparison to their heterosexual and cisgender peers. (Cisgender refers to those whose gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth.)
As both an LGBTQIA mental health researcher and therapist at the CSU Health Network, I’ve encountered firsthand – and seen documented in scientific literature – the unique stressors affecting the queer community.
These challenges, known in the research as “minority stress,” encompass experiences of discrimination, rejection, victimization, internalized homophobia, and the concealment of one’s identity. While many LGBTQIA students, their families, and queer scholars grapple with the question that sparked this essay – “Why does everything feel so hard for us?” – the answer lies woven deeply within our cultural fabric.
A common misconception is that simply being LGBTQIA leads to mental health challenges, but this could not be further from the truth. The heightened risk for mental health concerns among LGBTQIA individuals stems from the pervasive stigma against queer and transgender identities. Simply put, it is oppression that drives mental health concerns, not one’s identity by itself.
While it’s essential to understand the roots of these disproportionate mental health challenges, it’s also important to remember that people are far more than just words on a page.
In my journey of embracing my identity as a queer person, mainly during my years as an undergraduate college student, I felt a deep paralysis, haunted by the fear that revealing my true self might lead to rejection by those I loved most. These fears led me to pull away from relationships, gripped by the constant anxiety that someone might out me, risking the loss of close friends and loved ones. I went from being a lively, connected kid to a withdrawn, anxious, and depressed young adult. To heal, I had to learn to embrace myself fully, confront the oppression that had kept me unwell, and share my whole self – including my queerness – with family and friends.
“The heightened risk for mental health concerns among LGBTQIA individuals stems from the pervasive stigma against queer and transgender identities.”
While this journey was crucial for my own healing, it is not the path for every LGBTQIA individual. In fact, for many, it can be deeply harmful and can pose significant risks to share such a personal part of themselves – especially for those in situations where revealing their queer identity is either impossible or unsafe.
Whether coming out is possible or not, we heal in community; it was through the support of others that I discovered my own path to healing. As a mental health professional, I now help guide LGBTQIA students toward healing through the same power of community. To foster healing for LGBTQIA students, the CSU Health Network, the Pride Resource Center, and other campus partners have made significant investments in building a supportive infrastructure that nurtures wellness and cultivates a sense of belonging for LGBTQIA students.
Through CSU’s Mental Health Services, LGBTQIA students can access individual therapy; multicultural drop-in hours; psychiatry services; and community support groups, such as Coming Out Being Out for queer and questioning students and Transgender and Genderfluid Support Group for gender-diverse individuals across the spectrum. As both a person and a provider, I have seen how these services offered to queer students serve as a profound source of healing, offering not only support but also a sanctuary where they can reclaim their sense of belonging and value.
As I reflect on moments when I have the privilege of helping LGBTQIA students unpack the weight of their struggles, I am reminded of the profound importance of this work. These moments are a reminder that their challenges are not isolated or personal failings, but rather the result of larger systemic forces. To see the shift in their understanding – when they realize that much of their pain is not their fault, but a consequence of societal inequities – feels like a small victory in the ongoing fight for justice.
In these moments, I am reminded of the power of collective healing and the importance of dismantling the systems that perpetuate harm. I cherish these opportunities to guide students toward this understanding, knowing that each step they take in reclaiming their worth brings us all closer to a more compassionate, equitable world.
Maddie Egli earned a master’s degree in psychology at Colorado State University in 2023 and now is pursuing a doctorate in counseling psychology at CSU. They also work as an advanced practicum therapist with Mental Health Services at the CSU Health Network, with interests in concerns affecting those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual community, known as LGBTQIA.
Photo at top: Joe A. Mendoza /CSU Photography.
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