In the midst of all the feedback my next blog post came to me: mental health in the black community. There is stigma in every racial and ethnic community around mental health. But especially so in the black community. There is the myth of the black superwoman, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments of the 1930s, those who believe in the power of prayer over medicine, and a distrust of doctors. For numerous reasons, black people do not seek medical help. Especially psychiatric help.
There is nothing more important than self-care. It is not a sign of weakness to ask for help. We were not meant to soldier on alone. We are part of communities for a reason.
My advice:
- Seek help. See a therapist. Not everyone is willing to take medicine, the side effects alone can be a deterrent. But talk therapy is cathartic.
- Use your support network of family and friends. If they aren't willing to help you in your time of need, maybe they aren't real friends anyway?
- Seek out support groups such as Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), and National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI). Each group holds local meetings in a town near you.
- If you need medicine, take it.
- Build a life that supports your wellness: minimize your stress (I'll write a blog about stress later), get your finances in order, make time for leisure, eat healthy, remove toxic people from your life.
- If you are spiritual, pray. Seek out your minister, pastor, rabbi, imam or other religious leader.
- Exercise. There is lots of proven scientific research about the mental health benefits of exercise. Also, try to maintain a healthy weight. This can be hard on psychiatric medicines, but try.
- Keep regular appointments with your primary care doctor. Some psychiatric drugs require monitoring through blood work.
- If you don't have health insurance, seek out charity care. Hospitalizations, psychiatric drugs, therapy appointments are all very expensive. But don't let the cost deter you from getting the help you need.
- Get adequate amounts of sleep. You can trigger an episode if you are not.
As a psychiatrist, I am mostly asked to provide medication but my patients will be the first to tell you how big an advocate for therapy I am. I couldn't agree more with the black superwoman myth. So many women, not just black women, but definitely more so, feel the need to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. I often ask why, even though I know why, I do the same thing sometimes, but I like to hear their perspective. Social support is probably more important than medication and therapy combined because you will be with the people who love you far more than in a psychiatrist or therapist's office and if you aren't getting the support from the outside, it will be difficult for you to succeed in managing your mental health. This was a great post, I hope it reaches people who need to heed the message and seek help.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with your assessment more. Therapy and good relationships with family and friends are both so very important. Thanks for reading!
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