It's Getting Better All The Time! Outreach

Topic

Today we are going to explore the topic of African Americans’ mental health and challenge that lie that African American’s as a group don’t care about mental health and don’t get help.

 

 Sigma impacts all people, and all people, no matter their race who have to focus on obtaining the basics in life (food/clothing), are less focused on mental health than those who do not have this issue. Poverty is an important indicator of how receptive a person will be to getting or not getting help. A person’s poverty level affects mental health status. African Americans living below the poverty level, as compared to those over twice the poverty level, are three times more likely to report psychological distress. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=24

 

Unfortunately, even in 2000, far too many African Americans in disproportionate numbers are still experiencing financial instability. Financial instability or poverty has the most measurable effect on the rates of mental illness. It’s easy to see how a person may become depressed when they are worried about getting and keeping a job. Basic needs must be meet first before we can feel safe enough to move onto other needs. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy, lower needs must be satisfied before higher-order needs can influence behavior. 

 

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in Psychological Review.[2Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has often been represented in a hierarchical pyramid with five levels.

 

The needs outlined by Maslow include

1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.;

2) Safety/security: out of danger;

3) Belongingness and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted; and

4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval, and recognition.

5) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore;

6) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty;

7) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one’s potential; and

8) Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential.

 

In other words, if I am looking for a place to stay or getting food, I may not be as focused on meeting with a therapist even though I may need to. So it’s not that African Americans don’t care about mental health, it’s just some of us are focused on survival. 

 

African Americans, because of a long history of economic oppression African Americans are significantly overrepresented in the most vulnerable segments of the population (homeless, foster care, criminal justice, lower-income). But despite all of the negative factors, African Americans still move forward, achieve, and our protective factors have sustained us.

 

Protective factors are characteristics associated with a lower likelihood of adverse outcomes or that reduce a risk factor’s impact. Protective factors may be seen as positive countering events and include things like: Religion/Spirituality, Sense of Racial Pride, Resourcefulness, Family Unity/Kinship Bond, and community involvement. 

 

So despite people who highlight things African Americans don’t do, let us continue to highlight the progress that has been made despite our challenges and embrace those protective facts that have helped us.

2020 the year that you walk in what the Lord has said about you. It is the year that you live your life to the fullest in the presence of those things in your life that you can’t change.

Admit it, accept it life has not gone the way you hoped. Divorce, death, sickness, medications, loneliness, and you are living with a chronic and persistent situation that you can’t change. Yes, you hear voices, you sometimes talk to yourself, you have been a patient on a psychiatric ward, you live with the symptoms of depression, and sometimes you isolate. Yes, sometimes you don’t feel like getting out of bed. Sometimes you don’t feel like showering, you lose your temper, you have to take medications, and sometimes you cry for no reason.

Yes, you are seeing your therapist, your MD, taking your medications, but even doing all of that, you sometimes have symptoms that cause you to have to slow down. Accept it. What does acceptance mean? First, acceptance is not giving up or doing the things that you need to do to live life to the fullest. Acceptance is not learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a condition that occurs among some people, and it is a result of chronic, uninterrupted, exhaustion, and defeat. When people believe that there is no hope for recovery or that things will never change, they tend to give up. If we think that we are destined to be a victim and that we have no control over what happens in our life, we can lose the desire to help ourselves or to even hope in change. Never give up, accept that there are some things in your life that you can’t control, rest, and make adjustments. You are not a victim, and life does not always go the way we hope, so rest.

When you rest, you are looking at life as it is and then adjusting. We can spend so much time mourning what is not, that we don’t realize that time and opportunities are passing. When we learn to rest in where we are in life now, we can begin to build a life and to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to us now. Acceptance means living life fully. Acceptance is freeing yourself from the prison of your limitations. God created you with a purpose, and that does not change because of the negative things in your life. Keep moving forward. Keep trusting and live your life.

Kanye West had been diagnosed and is living with a Bipolar Disorder (I do not know what type). People who are living with a severe and persistent mental illness like Bipolar also have friends, families, go to church, they have jobs, personalities, and opinions they are human. Kanye is disliked by many for various reasons to include his religious beliefs and political views, and I get it. But to those who are living with the symptoms of bipolar, those who think you may be and family members let me share a few points.  

 

Coming to accept a diagnosis of a disorder that is so persistent and pervasive like Bipolar can be a process for many people. For some, the process can start with a mandatory hospital admission. During that first hospital stay, they are provided with a diagnosis and, hopefully, information about their diagnosis. While in the hospital, the person will more than likely be given medications and probably some brief mental health counseling. At the time of discharge, the person will leave the hospital with information, a diagnosis, medications, and, hopefully, an appointment with an outpatient Psychiatrist.  

 

Once at their outpatient appointment, they will, among other things and depending on the location, be asked to complete some paperwork and then be seen at some point by a Psychiatrist (the may see an intake worker and nurse first). Depending on the team, the doctor and his/her depth and understanding as it relates to working with severe and persistent mental illnesses, the medications the person prescribed while they were in the hospital may be adjusted or left the same. The person will receive a follow-up appointment with his or her new outpatient MD.

 

Note: Not all mental health professionals understand Severe and persistent mental illness. Mental illness is any disease or condition that influences the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and relates to others and his or her surroundings. Severe and persistent mental illness is defined at the federal level as having, at any time during the past year, a diagnosable mental, behavior, or emotional disorder that causes severe functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. 

Severe and persistent mental illnesses last so long and are so severe that they seriously interfere with a person’s ability to take part in even minor life activities. Even with the use of psychotropic medications, individuals living with a severe and persistent mental illness may never really be free of symptoms. (https://www.samhsa.gov/disorders). Because the symptoms of severe and persistent mental illnesses started when the person was young, it may be difficult at times to determine if the behaviors you are seeing are part of their diagnosis or personality or a combination of both. Some people have been managing symptoms before they realized they had an illness. For example, some adults who are addicted to drugs started using as young adults after discovering that the pills helped to stop the voices they were experiencing.  

 

The newly diagnosed person should also meet with a mental health counselor (the discipline at this point does not matter) or a peer support specialist. 

 

What matters is that the person who is living with a Bipolar Disorder meets with people who can help him or her to understand their diagnosis better. It will be necessary for the newly diagnosed person to recognize the symptoms and presentation of their illness so that they can begin to separate the signs of the illness from their real selves. It will be vital for them to understand what living with their disorder will mean for their lives going forward. It will also be important for them to have a conversation around crisis management and relapse prevention. Learning to live their lives while taking medications for symptoms that they have grown used to living with, coping with depression, and engaging with other people who are in recovery are all strategies that will help them on their journey. Living with a disorder is a process that will require understanding, education, and patience.