Mental health service experiences regarding sexual orientation: Relations with demographics, depression, and suicidality among queer adults.

to some degree, and 18% found the experience neither unhelpful nor helpful. Regression results indicate that compared to individuals who had never talked with a mental health professional about their sexual orientation, those who had an unhelpful experience reported slightly higher levels of depressive symptoms, were nearly three times more likely to have seriously considered suicide, and were nearly four times more likely to have attempted suicide. Lack of education and training for mental health professionals about queer-specific issues, experiences, language, and affirmative practice may contribute to unhelpful experiences. Improvements in training, services, and policies are needed so that service use is helpful and not associated with elevated depression and suicidality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).