Mental Health

During the month of June, I began counselling a 34 year old married mother of two. She explained she had not been "feeling herself lately"

I assessed the onset of her recognizable shift in mood. She explained it was the murder of Ahmad Arbery. She stated to see this young man, who could be my son or my husband murdered; traumatized me.

Over the next few weeks, friends, colleagues, and family members alike, called and shared their thoughts and fears over the racial pandemic known as being Black in America. As a result of this trending dialogue, I began to ask clients their opinion of racial climate in America and its impact on their lives. One by one, clients began to share stories of experienced discrimination. Studies show African Americans are 10% more likely to experience psychological distress. Data reflects only 30% of the African American community received mental health care, compared to the overall US average of 43%.

Being black in America facilitates unprecedented stress, anxiety, trauma, and fear. African Americans have encountered police brutality, systematic racism, poverty, health disparities, harrowed by the emotional traumas of simply being black. Findings from large scale national studies indicate that African Americans have a 9.1% prevalence rate for PTSD. This means almost one in 10 black people become traumatized at some point during their lifetime.

Learning to recognize and acknowledge a shift in your emotional state, is a key factor in maintaining your mental health. Identifying triggers which produce negative thoughts or feelings, allow one to decrease undesired behaviors, thus improving quality of life. Mental health can often be hard to diagnose, as it can be disguised as a bad day, the end of a relationship, or even job loss. Although every issue attached to day to do living may not require the support of a licensed health professional; some of them will. I encourage everyone to meet with a licensed therapist once a year, in the same way you would complete an annual physical for a mental reset. Mental health can be as simple as learning to cope with everyday life and its many changes

In closing, I am reminded of my grandmother who turns 98 tomorrow. Throughout her life, she has lost her parents, her spouse, 11 siblings, friends, and her only child. To my knowledge, my grandmother has never spoken to a mental health professional or a physician to share her pain. Lets be better than our grandmothers and embrace mental health. Share, process, transform!