ABSTRACT
Lesbian and bisexual women who are trying to recover from the destructive effects of both chemical dependency and homophobia/heterosexism face formidable problems and tasks. Many such women must struggle with other forces such as the devastating effects of terrible emotional/physical neglect or physical and/or sexual abuse, often inflicted within a chaotic chemically dependent family system. Many lesbian and bisexual women with long-term recovery are plagued by such major problems as eating disorders, dissociative disorders, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, compulsive debting/spending, sexual dysfunction, inability to be intimate, relationship problems, internalized homophobia, sexual identity confusion, and self-harming behaviors. A sense of defilement or stigma is unavoidable in the face of societal disgust and hatred both for those who are alcoholic and for those who are lesbian or gay or bisexual. Gay people who are subjected to the constant, ongoing totalitarian system of societal and familial homophobia intensified by their own personal, internalized homophobia learn to survive this emotional battering by "numbing out."
