Why Do African Americans Suffer In Silence?

Mental illness is and has always been a serious topic. But it has not always been taken as serious in the black community. From my research, scholars and medical professionals in the field of mental health spoke on the fact that mental illness is a stigma in the black community and the conversation of this is not happening. There are many factors that contributed to this. Factors such as the distrust of medical professionals, mis-diagnosis, socio-economical factors and so much more contribute to the reason the black community is missed when it comes to mental health. I also discovered the inside factors that were culture, religion, mis-education, and family reliance. This also becomes why it is a stigma or why it’s not talked about amongst everyone in the community.

The Diagnostic Statistical Manual is used to diagnosis persons that are getting assessed with mental health disorders. The manual contains criteria the clinician can use to diagnosis a client. If the client meets a certain number of markers then they are given a diagnosis of a particular disorder. But, what if it’s not that easy? For African Americans, there has been a history of getting misdiagnosis by clinicians which has led to some mistrust. The cultural differences between African Americans and their white clinicians can possibly lead to the misdiagnosis of the clients. An article on clinician race states, “African Americans are less likely to be diagnosed with mood disorders and more likely to be be diagnosed with schizophrenia” (Adebimpe, 1981; Neighbors, 1997). Within this review, we will explore research conducted by scholars that examine the relationships between the diagnoses of African Americans by White Clinicians.

A mental illness is one one of many different disorders or conditions that affect one's mood thinking and behavior. Approximately 1 in 5 U.S. adults reports suffering from some form of mental illness. ANd about 20% of us youth are affected by some type of mental illness in their life. African Americans are 20% more likely to report significant mental distress but less likely than white counterparts to seek mental health care. For black people mental illness is surrounded by a stigma of weakness and religious disconnect.

This article is a great article that relates to African Americans seeking mental health treatment at lower rates than whites. The article states that this disparity can be attributed to attitudes toward services, alternate coping, and differences in care. This article also illuminates biases in counseling.

The internal wall that often keeps black men away from psychotherapy goes along with external barriers built just as high, if not higher. Mental health practitioners are overwhelmingly white, with the proportion of black psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts estimated at less than three percent of the nation 's total. This would mean that even if black men were to break through the self-imposed barriers and seek professional help for mental issues, it may be difficult to find someone with whom they can build a rapport, and whom they feel can relate to them, and they can trust. This feeling of comfort is what allows a patient to reveal his most intimate secrets. As Dr. Richard Mouzon, a prominent black clinical psychologist puts it, "Many of us grow up feeling that it is dangerous to give up too much of yourself to the white man." There 's no denying that access to mental health care is restricted for Americans in general. In private health insurance policies and government medical assistance programs, psychotherapy is too often considered a luxury rather than a necessity. It has been said often times that the only people with a guaranteed

Health care for mental illness is an issue in the African American community for Men, Women and Adolescents due to the underserving and lack of mental healthcare providers, the cultural stigma of having mental illness and

Per Vaterlaus, Skogrand, & Chaney (2015) studies have shown that African Americans reaching out for mental health services are perceived to be powerless or weak, and are often humiliated and feel embarrassed. In a study performed by (Ward, Wiltshire, Detry & Brown (2013) African Americans were found to be hesitant to confess any mental health problems and were more likely to cope using religious practices. In my opinion, African Americans are connected to

The lack of mental health care services for minorities is a long-standing problem in the United States. The first time the issue received attention was in 1985, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report that described serious health discrepancies that minority populations were enduring. In 1986, because of this report, the Office of Minority Health was formed to assist in the reduction of the health care shortages for

Everybody heard the saying: “stay out of grown folks business” but, what if you were finally grown enough to join the conversation. While getting into a deep conversation with an old friend about your goods and your bads. You are told by the expert that mental illness for Caucasian people is schizophrenia and mental illness for African American people is Bipolarism. This shocks you because you never heard of this before. Then everything starts to make sense why in particular some of us act, talk, think the way we do. Is the problems in the foods we eat? The drinks we drink? What we watch? Or is it society’s fault we chose to act the way we do? I would say Yes, because in history a man named Willie Lynch taught the way an African American man and woman are supposed to act in society as a piece of property for their owner. Not knowing we pick up some of these behaviors of Post Traumatic Slave syndrome. Are we sick and are we getting help for it? The answer is No, we are not getting help for our mental problems since we sometimes don’t know it exist. “Bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6% of the U.S. population age 18 and older every year” (National Institute of Mental Health). Some of us need real help but don’t know who to go to for help. You might be feeling out of place, insane, irritable, euphoric, and talkative at the same time. When an individual has been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder they should follow the doctor’s orders

When experiencing a mental illness, African Americans face obstacles “related to understanding the problem or situation and limitation in awareness of possible solutions, strategies remedies and resources” (Hines-Martin, Malone, Kim, & Brown-Piper, 2003). In a study by Hines-Martin (2003), participants verbalized that they did not think they were “crazy” and therefore did not need mental health services. In this instance participants showed a lack of knowledge about what mental health illness looks like. They identified mental illness as dichotomous states (Hines-Martin et al., 2003). A study by Mental Health America found similar results. In this study, a majority of African Americans surveyed believed that depression was a “health problem” and in some cases “normal” (MHA, 2012). Talking about mental illness is taboo for African Americans, and as a result they possess little knowledge about specific mental health problems or available treatments (Alvidrez et al., 2008). For African Americans, stigma serves as an impediment to problem recognition. Because they have a misconstrued idea of what mental illness is, they are less likely to contemplate that they have such problems. Alvidrez (2008) found that stigma prevented 65% of their survey respondents from contemplating that they had such problems. Because many African Americans are uninformed about what mental illness is and how it

In effect, while race has special meaning for African Americans, it 's absent in the psychotherapy systems and clinical sessions that typically guide a clinician 's work with African Americans. What a pickle! For all the polemicists out there, in a nutshell, there are competing visions for psychotherapy with African Americans. Neither side is monolithic. On one side, which I 'll call the Universal approach, researchers and scholars hang their hat on the belief that psychotherapy systems are sufficient for treating African Americans because

Conversations regarding mental health can often be a difficult topic to discuss openly. The Huffington Post provided readers with the opportunity to understand mental illness and intersectionality in the article, 4 Black Women Writers Get Honest About Mental Illness and Race. This article provides a different perspective on mental health as it looks at mental illness through the intersectionality of race and gender. In the article, four black women participate in an interview to discuss their experience with depression, bi-polar disorder, and ADHD and how it affects their lives as both black and woman identified beings. Discussions of mental health in the black community are rare as there is a negative view of mental illness. Hearing

In the community, persons just ignore the illness and “hope it goes away” and in the family, the same approach is sometimes taken. In the journal of Amina, MK’s mother, there’s an insight given on how persons facing mental illness actually feel and how it affects them. It shows that persons with mental illnesses realize that they are being treated differently and it in turn makes them push others away more. Women overall tend to have more mental health issues than men, more specifically black women in comparison to their counterparts. The terrible effects can be reversed if the reasons why blacks don’t recognize mental health is addressed, meaning to educate persons more about mental health and maybe one day, they won’t suffer in

Mental health issues can develop in an individual as a result of racial stereotyping. “According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States face a social and economic environment of inequality that includes greater exposure to racism which takes a toll on mental health”.

Americans, black Americans especially, see depression and other emotional illnesses as a taboo. It should not be discussed, or ackowledged. If you are sufferering from one, it is all in your head, you should get over it, and you are told that you are just being crazy. Family members call you melodramatic, overly sensitive, and a pain. No one would tell a man with a brain cancer to think away his illness, but if you are depressed they say that happy thoughts will brighten up your day. See, mental and emotional illnesses aren't real ti many people and those who suffer daily, aren't truely seen as sufferers. They live in cinstant shame. Constantly wondering if they truely are crazy and if what they feel as pain isn't really what constitutes pain.