Therapists say African Americans Are Increasingly Seeking Help For Mental Illness

[blackrain]

The notion, dating back to slavery, that one should endure life’s difficulties without complaint or appearing weak runs deep in African American culture.

“People kind of expect, ‘Gee, you should pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get yourself together, there’s nothing wrong with you,’ ” said Annelle Primm, deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association and director of its office of minority and national affairs. “We were always taught: ‘Don’t put your business in the street. Don’t put your family’s issues out in front of strangers.’ ”

As a result, “many African Americans have gone without needed care, and when they have sought care it has been at the crisis stage, which is not optimal,” she said.

African Americans have also tended to distrust the medical professions, Waters said, especially after the Tuskegee experiment in which the U.S. Public Health Service knowingly withheld syphilis treatment from black men to watch the disease run its course.

The dismal state of black hospitals during segregation fueled their suspicion, as did African Americans’ high rate of involuntary commitment into institutions. While they are underrepresented in outpatient therapy, they are committed to inpatient care at twice the rate of whites, sometimes against their will, Waters said.

“It’s been documented, the amount of distrust many African Americans have toward the health professions,” Primm said. Especially if the provider is of a different racial and cultural background, “they may have expectations that they’re not going to be treated well.”

Not all young people feel comfortable opening up.

“We as a culture have not overcome post-slavery,” said a 28-year-old African American woman in the District who sees a therapist but did not want her name used. “I think that in the black community we have to be strong and we cannot be perceived as weak.”

The woman said she has told close friends, but not family members, about her therapy. “I’m at a place where my peers are like-minded, but I think the older generation tends to think that it’s not needed.”

For many older people, a church, rather than a counselor or psychiatrist, is the natural place to turn for psychological healing.

“There’s no stigma going to a pastor, it doesn’t cost any money, and they know you because they see you every Sunday,” Barnes said.

Some churches have perpetuated people’s distrust in mental health services. “Many churches see therapy as antagonistic to some sort of spiritual calling,” said William Lawson, professor and chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Howard University.

But increasingly, black churches are forming partnerships with mental health providers and requiring their own ministers to get some training in counseling. At Zion Baptist Church in the District, Lawson and other mental health care providers give regular talks on topics such as depression and anxiety disorders.

“The black church can no longer be used for so-called one-stop shopping,” said Sherry Molock, an associate professor of psychology at George Washington University and co-pastor of the Beloved Community Church in Accokeek, where she offers therapy to parishioners.

“Prayer and connection to the church are all very beneficial, but it’s going to take more than that for someone who’s suffering from depression,” she said. “You do a disservice to your congregation to believe that you can treat people with serious mental illness” without professional help.

More churches in the Washington area are requiring their clergy to be trained in mental health counseling and referring parishioners to mental health professionals, she said. “In reality, we’re a team, and everyone has a role to play.”

Since her first visit to her university counselor, Dyson has gone from someone who used to hide that she was in therapy to someone who makes a living talking about it.

Her family didn’t really understand until this year. “They came and heard me speak, and it clicked,” she said. “They said, ‘We didn’t know how much pain you were in.’ ”

Her father, the Baptist minister, still doesn’t talk about it. But, she said, “he tells me he is extremely proud of me.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...tory.html?postshare=761457563436408&tid=ss_fb

 

[SolemnSauce]

Why not

 

[damobb2deep]

ive been to mental health twice... and my friend who works as a nurse says that I should look into antidepressants.. my mother take meds... im definitely not against getting help if you need it...

 

[Plutarch]

Good? But I'm against taking meds. Only if you're very desperate, imo. There are other healthier alternatives.

 

[jono]

It ain't until the police get hold of niggas that anyone cares.

 

[Elzo69Renaissance]

Didn't read but that s a good thing....I have a therapist and so does my boss .....it helps a lot

 

[Max.]

 

[Olorun22]

Maybe because America isn't what's best for us. We need our own land

 

[700]

Naw that shit aint for niggas

 

[jetlifebih]

Do we send rape victims to their rapist for therapy or counseling ?

 

[Ajackson17]

Do we send rape victims to their rapist for therapy or counseling ?

Yes, we need to. The mind gets sick and very sick.

 

[Colin$mackabi$h]

Maybe because America isn't what's best for us. We need our own land

 

[Arya Tsaddiq]

Maybe because America isn't what's best for us. We need our own land

@S2J

 

[jetlifebih]

Do we send rape victims to their rapist for therapy or counseling ?

Yes, we need to. The mind gets sick and very sick.

So we need to go to the people who caused this, and seek help?

How exactly would they know how to treat this?

 

[LcnsdbyROYALTY]

I'm not even gonna lie, upon reading the thread title I thought it was referring to the surplus of Black people tryna get checks from SS. No shade to my people in the least, that shit is real in Nashville.

 

[damobb2deep]

Maybe because America isn't what's best for us. We need our own land

you know after slavery they sent plenty of blacks back to africa and Liberia was formed..

 

[Catalyst2012]

went to therapy for two years due to anxiety, feel 100x better now

 

[Swiffness!]

Maybe because America isn't what's best for us. We need our own land

And motherfuckers that say they too black/

PUT 'EM OVERSEAS THEY BE BEGGING TO COME BACK/

- Ice Cube, "The Nigga Ya Love to Hate"

 

[jetlifebih]

Maybe because America isn't what's best for us. We need our own land

you know after slavery they sent plenty of blacks back to africa and Liberia was formed..

Tell the whole story....

 

[damobb2deep]

Maybe because America isn't what's best for us. We need our own land

you know after slavery they sent plenty of blacks back to africa and Liberia was formed..

Tell the whole story....

my point is that... what he said we needed already happened..