Depression in Black Men

Depression in Black Men

Depression is a treatable disorder. This is important to note. People can recover from this. One of the biggest problems with depression is the lack of conversation. In America, around 16 million people suffer from depression. Studies suggest that an equal percentage - 12 percent - of black and white men suffer from depression. The real difference is in the treatment. Fewer black people are treated. While only one-third of Americans with a mental illness receive care, less than half of these African Americans receive mental health treatment.

Depression can cause feelings of worthlessness, sadness and hopelessness that tend to clog up his brain. In comparison, some think death seems calming.

Men suffering from depression may think suicide is the answer. It's not. Men who commit suicide do not realize that they are repeating the cycle and burdening their children with the same loneliness that the father endured. Her children would grow up knowing that their father had taken his own life. Depression can be very debilitating for African Americans.

This hideous disease affects men from all walks of life, and as I said before, depression affects everyone - from the black executive to the young street vendor. In many documented cases, several socially advanced black men suffered from depression for many years and refused treatment. There is a very troubling undercurrent: If an accomplished, well-informed black man refused to seek treatment for depression, how difficult is it for uneducated or poor black men to seek help?

As Black History Month comes to a close, some mental health experts who work with Black men suggest that these questions should be examined and discussed in greater depth.

Some experts believe depression is likely a key factor in a 233 percent increase in suicide among black men ages 10 to 14 from 1980 to 1995.

"Black men feel like they have to be twice as good as other people, that you can't be weak because other people will take advantage of you," Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. surgeon general, in a telephone interview last week. Satcher oversaw the 1999 Surgeon General's report on mental health in the United States. “Those [pressures] work powerfully against a black man seeking treatment for depression and other mental illnesses.”

And about one in four African Americans are uninsured, compared to about 16 percent of the U.S. population overall. African Americans are less likely to receive antidepressants, and when they do, they are more likely to stop taking them than whites.

Of particular concern to those who investigate and treat mental illness among black men is their disproportionately higher incarceration rate than other racial groups. Nearly half of the U.S. male prison population is black, and about 40 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system are black. Approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population is black.

It is a very difficult and very serious situation for these young men and for society. Psychiatrists who work with Atlanta's homeless and black youth said they see dozens of black men in prison or the juvenile justice system each year when they should be in treatment centers. They blame depression in some way.

“It happens all the time and is very alarming,” said Dr. Raymond J. Kotwicki, medical director of Community Outreach Programs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine.

While all mental illnesses are associated with stigma, mental illness among Black men is even more implicated. Historical racism and current cultural biases and expectations play a role, mental health advocates said.

Nearly two-thirds of African Americans believe mental illness is a deficiency that can be overcome through prayer and faith, according to a study by the National Alliance for the Mentally Il.

Neglecting emotional disorders among men in the black community is nothing short of racist suicide. Many experts argue that the problem of depression in black America can be traced back to the era of slavery, when it was believed that black people could not feel internal pain because they had no psyche. This myth has harmed generations of African American men and their families and created a society that accuses black men of being violent and aggressive without considering that depression may be a root cause

If you have any thoughts on this topic, I'd love to hear them.

Inspired by Reginald D Johnson