Black Mental Health Matters
Date: July 3, 2020
Written by: Shandra Reed, MSW Student at Walden University and intern at KBT Counseling and Consulting, PLLC
As a young African American women who grew up in the “hood”, I can go on and on and on for days about the factors that impact mental health of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). What I am going to do is highlight from my own experiences specific factors that impact BIPOC.
One of the major factors that impacts my mental health as a young brown girl was my environment, childhood traumas, and the “generational curses”. Up until I was 5 years old I lived in a two parent household in what seemed like a normal life. My mother passed away two weeks after my 5th birthday and mental health begin take its toll. My father became a substance user and my siblings and I moved in with my maternal grandmother who was bitter and depressed. The environment, traumas, and “generational curse” was the core of what I later learned lead to manic depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideations. My grandmother was not a physically affection women and she didn’t show it. My great grandmother was a house wife and my grandmother did everything in her power to not become “belittled” as a woman. When my mom passed away I would have crying spells for no reason at all and when I would tell my grandmother she would say just sit and watch TV. As a child I never dealt with the loss of my mother and in the 1st grade I completely stopped talking to non-family members voluntarily. I went through a series of testing in and out of school until I met my 3rd grade teacher who would spend time with me one –on – one and I begin to talk again.
When talking about my generational curse, I was raised on the “what happens in my house stays in my house” rule. I never addressed the issues with my father of being molested while in his care or telling my grandmother that I had suicidal ideations as a kid. The revolving door of not having a father at home lead to many symptoms of anger and depression for several years resulting in unhealthy relationships. I later learned that crack/ cocaine was introduced to the black community in the 80’s when my father was a young man. It took several years of rehab for him to fully be clean. His absence wasn’t because he didn’t love us, it was because he had his own feelings of being ashamed and dealing with his own mental health. Later in life I came to know that bipolar disorder can be genetic and two of my siblings have been diagnosed with the condition. Now in my late 20’s and pursuing a MSW, I as an African American have followed the phrase being “woke”. I have identified that many of the situations and traumas I have experienced in childhood and as a teenager contribute to coping mechanisms that I have today .
Coping skills that have helped me heal from my childhood trauma was first “Living In My Truth”. By this I mean that, I accepted that I developed habits and thought processes that were not healthy for my mental health and cognitive functioning. Once I begin to “Live In My Truth”, I sought out therapy for not just childhood trauma but being a divorcee at 24 and having an abortion at 17 years old because I felt that if I had a child I would become a statistic and never make it out the “hood”. Some of the main coping skills that I use is a technique called thought stopping and replacing, identifying my defense mechanisms, positive affirmations, self-care, applying boundaries, and using my transferable skills. One of the biggest coping skills that I have recently learned is “FACTS CHECK” aka “CHECKING YOURSELF AT THE DOOR”. I have the tendency to think with my emotions and taking things personal. When I have identified that is happening I take a minute to remove the emotions and state the facts. This usually works for me as it not only allows me time to calm down and communicate appropriately but it also allows my reaction to be less “dramatic”. As a young women I struggled with low self-esteem, using the coping skill of THOUGHT STOPPING AND REPLACING has changed my life and elevated my self-confidence to where I realized that I need to learn to TRULY SELF LOVE before I can give love away. My best advice to anyone reading this is there is a difference in being a survivor and a victim and we all have wounds that need to be healed. #BlackMentalHealthMatters
Written by: Shandra Reed, MSW Student at Walden University and intern at KBT Counseling and Consulting, PLLC