Happy Mind Starts with Mental Health
dakotah carter
So, lets just start with the fact that my name is Kody and I’m not always okay. No matter how much I self reflect, how many times I meditate, and journal (on an inconsistent basis) somethings are just deeper, and I'm up to the top of my head with emotions that some times I just cant understand.
And then I realized, I need to see a therapist.
Therapy has such a negative connotation and in the black community it might as well be a sin to speak on therapy. When in reality we have been conditioned to believe that we are always supposed to be okay, and to keep it to ourselves.
I believe the biggest problem of all is a lack of knowledge. Mental health isn’t being sick, or being mentally ill, but it is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being. Meaning, to make sure that a person is literally okay and not just saying it.
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Mental health issues in the black community range from slavery and socioeconomic status to distrust and misdiagnosis from the post traumatic slavery disorder to the inadequate treatment and lack of cultural competence by health care professionals. In turn, all of these factors makes us believe that we cannot go to anyone about these concerns or challenges and the issue with this is that it conditions you to believe that you are okay and you don’t know when you are not okay.
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Often times, people turn to God and fail to realize that people are heaven sent, so speaking with a therapist may actually be extremely beneficial.
Another reason people often stray from Therapy is because of simple denial. Have you ever heard the phrase “you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves”? Well yea, it’s right there. If you are not ready to understand, you wont understand.
Fear also has a way of really getting in the way of accomplishing anything. Fear kills more than doubt. If you are afraid to commit to the healing process because of what you may have to uncover, you just simply won’t uncover. A lot of people fear being judged by their peers as well, due to the fact that the black community doesn't know how to address, or deal with mental health.
via Insecure HBO
Just Remember: Therapy is the process of healing. It's meeting with a professional to resolve problematic behaviors, beliefs, feelings, relationship issues and/or somatic responses or sensations in the body.