via BlackAmericaWeb:
May is National Mental Health Month. African-American boys are at particular risk for mental health issues as many of them live with untreated trauma and are exposed to harsh treatment and penalties for behavior considered a normal part of development in other cultures.
Mental health expert Rwenshaun Miller explains what we can do to help our boys.
WHY DO YOU THINK MENTAL ILLNESS IS SUCH A STIGMA IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY?
I believe mental illness is such a stigma in the African-American community for multiple reasons including ignorance, fear, and a mistrust of medical systems in this country. Ignorance is based on our lack of knowledge of what mental illness is and how it may present in an individual who is suffering. Common symptoms may be written off as other issues out of fear of being judged, labeled or condemned by others. In addition to that, we have a distrust for medical systems because we as a community were used for experiments throughout history, such as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
WHAT ARE SOME WAYS TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES WITH AFRICAN-AMERICAN BOYS IN PARTICULAR?
With African-American boys, we must attend to their needs on their level. Boys are always taught to “suck it up” or “man up”. Therefore, we silence their emotional expressions and only allow them exhibit anger and happiness as an acceptable feeling. This limitation also limits their ability to process what is really going inside of them so we must first begin with helping them develop a language that includes more than happy, sad, and mad to describe how they feel.
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