African Americans and Mental Illness

 Why is mental illness such a taboo subject in the African American community? Oftentimes African Americans don’t like to admit that one of our family members, friends or even our self has a mental illness? Instead of acknowledging the problem and getting help for ourselves or helping the person to get the proper care, we begin self diagnosing them.  Somehow, without any real knowledge of mental illnesses we will come to a conclusion of what the person’s problem is, and the many times the conclusion is, they need Jesus. Yes they need Jesus, but they may also need some psychotherapy and medication to help them live with or recover from the illness. Jesus is ok with medication; you can ask him if you need to.

Many African Americans, especially in earlier years, went their entire lives without the proper care for their mental health issues. Everyone in the family would know that something wasn’t quite right with them, but they were never taken to a psychiatrist or even their primary care doctor to find out what the root of the problem was.  They showed signs of an illness, but the family didn’t acknowledge them as signs of a mental illness.  The reasons for families not regarding the illness as a mental disorder were not always negligence or the refusal to admit that someone in their family had a mental illness, many times people just didn’t know. They didn’t know that not all mental illnesses make you hear voices or want to act out in violent rages. They didn’t know that not all mental illnesses require a person to be handicapped and need constant care. Neither did they know that people can recover from mental illnesses.

So with only the view that something was wrong, they allowed them self or people who they were responsible for to go undiagnosed, many for their entire lives.  They prayed for them of course, but no one ever said, I think he/she/you need to go and have this checked out. There may be something the doctor’s can prescribe or there may be some therapy that will really help your situation.

For many black people with mental illnesses the real reason that “something was wrong” was never found. There was no therapy, just saying therapy would bring the family to say that Black people don’t go to therapy, they don’t see psychiatrist…all they need is prayer and Jesus.

Unfortunately for many of those people they lived a lifetime of torment and discomfort because they were never properly diagnosed.

Along with the hushed attitude towards mental illness in the African American community is the hushed attitude towards African Americans and suicide. In some cases they go hand in hand. Not only were the symptoms and signs of the mental illness overlooked or never taken into real consideration, but also the unfortunate belief that black people just don’t commit suicide sometimes ended in tragedy. This refusal or generational belief that mental illness is not a real issue in the black community caused many mentally ill people, who desperately needed help to lose a battle that no one ever acknowledged they were fighting. 

NIMH- National Institute of Mental Health

ABP -The Association of Black Psychologists

BPA- Black Psychiatrists of America

MHA- National Mental Health Association

Black Counselors.com

 

From Gay To Straight-Is it Possible?

Can a gay person become straight?

That question has been asked by many and answered with 100% proof by none. Some people believe that homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle. Those people believe that desiring the same sex is a conscious decision and is not something a person is born with. They believe that the homosexual tendencies are driven by a person’s own desires and have nothing to do with their genetic makeup. Others believe that some may choose a gay lifestyle but others are born gay. They feel that with the discrimination and ridicule that homosexuals often face, most don’t and wouldn’t choose a lifestyle that would knowingly bring them so much anxiety and ridicule. 

So the question is still posed and both sides still stand strong on their beliefs of whether homosexuality is a decision or if the lifestyle chooses them and not the other way around. 

I was completely wowed by this video taken from the Tyra Banks Show. On this episode Tyra talks with two men who went through extensive therapy to try and convert themselves from gay to straight. The video also talks briefly about the group Love in Action  which seeks to help homosexual people to find freedom from the desires of the homosexual lifestyle through Jesus Christ. The group believes that the power of Jesus can rescue anyone from any behavior, compulsion etc.

After a little internet browsing and searching, I found quite a few sites other than Love in Action, that desire to help homosexuals who have “Unwanted Same-Sex Attractions“.  These groups offer solutions for healing, books, cds, and other services that profess to help people who wish to rid themselves of their homosexuality or homosexual tendencies.

My question is this; if a person can rid them self of homosexuality, isn’t that a choice? If you can choose to no longer want, desire or act upon homosexual activities or lifestyles did you not choose to act, desire and live that way before?

I do not have the answer to whether or not homosexuality is a choice, or if some are born that way, but I do believe that if it is something you can change, it is something you chose.