Depression and African-American Men Essay

First of exclusively it is important to understand what really constitutes depression. All of us feel d cause from time to time perhaps based on having a bad day. However when feelings of sadness last for several(prenominal) weeks, months, or years, and argon accompanied by former(a) symptoms such as dislodge of appetite, isolation from family and friends, sleeplessness, etc. these ar symptoms of depression.In 1999 Dr. David Satcher, Surgeon ecu workforceic of the United States, and an Afro-Ameri usher out, released a Report on work forcetal Health that was a landmark mo workforcet for America. This was the first comprehensive report on the narrate of the nations cordial health issued by Americas physician-in-chief. It is both an inventory of the resources available to promote work forcetal health and action workforcetal sickness, and a waul to action to improve these resources. It paints a characterization of psychical sickness, filling the canvas with the faces of A merica, revealing that the effects of kind complaint cut across all the nations dividing lines, whether gender, upbringing, economic status, education, or race. However, the 2001 supplework forcet to the original 1999 report indicates that it probably affects African American custody to a greater extent adversely than it does the general population. psychical Health Culture, Race and Ethnicity, which is the title of the supplement by Dr. Satcher, says that racial and ethnic minorities collectively birth a greater disability burden from kind illness than do white-hots.The ancillary report goes even deeper in that it highlights the disparity that exists for disastrous men in amiable health as it does in relation to just ab start health lines. For example, African-American men argon to a greater extent possible to live with inveterate health problems, and stu suffocates show that living with chronic illnesses increases the risk of pitiful from depression. In a 2002 repor t, The Burden of Chronic Diseases and Their Risk Factors, the Federal Centers for Disease reign over and Prevention points out that African American Men have the highest evaluate of prostate cancer and hypertension in the world. The report also says that blue men are twice as likely as white men to develop diabetes, and suffer higher(prenominal) rates of heart affection and obesity. The American genus Cancer Societys report entitled Cancer Facts and Figures, and written in 2003 found that black men are more(prenominal) than twice as likely as white men to die from prostate cancer. We are also more likely than opposites to wait until an illness reaches a serious stage before we stress sermon. Often time insurement is not sought-after(a) until we are in emergency rooms, homeless person shelters, or prison houses. match to a report by the Congressional corrosive Caucus Foundation in 2003, men in general are three times less likely than women to visit a doctor, and African- American men specifically are less likely than white men to go to a doctor prior to them being in unfortunate health. This is the case for somatogenic ailments. When one circumstanceors in the injury attached to noetic illness, and other barriers that keep us from tolerateting help, it is easy to see why black men are even less likely to look to treatment for depression. Yet, the nation, including the African-American community is a great deal silent on this issue. The muteness on the subject among blacks is due, in part, to our lack of vocabulary to talk intimately depression.We call depression the blues in the black community. We have been taught, at least in the past, and, to a certain extent even now, to gesticulate off this psychogenic state. For many of us, it is not just a concomitant of life it is a way of life. When bluesmen used to sing, E rattling day I have the blues or It aint nothing moreover the blues or similar words from hundreds of songs, they do more than brim lyrics. They voice a cultural attitude. They state an accepted truth at the heart of their music Having the blues goes along with being black in America. In addition, from the time we are childlike boys, black males have deep-rooted into us an idea of manhood that requires a silence about feelings, a withholding of emotion, and ability to bear burdens alone, and a refusal to front lightheaded. The internal hug to adhere to this concept of masculinity only increases as we mosttimes hear various forms of racism in a bon ton that historically has sought to deny us our manhood.The internal wall that often keeps black men away from psychotherapy goes along with external barriers built just as high, if not higher. Mental health practitioners are overwhelmingly white, with the proportion of black psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts estimated at less than three per centum of the nations total. This would immoral that even if black men were to break with the self-imposed barriers and seek professional help for mental issues, it may be difficult to find someone with whom they can build a rapport, and whom they feel can adjoin to them, and they can trust. This feeling of comfort is what allows a patient to reveal his most intimate secrets.As Dr. Richard Mouzon, a prominent black clinical psychologist puts it, many a(prenominal) of us grow up feeling that it is dangerous to give up in any case much of yourself to the white man. Theres no denying that regain to mental health kick is restricted for Americans in general. In semiprivate health insurance policies and government medical assistance programs, psychotherapy is too often considered a luxury rather than a necessity. It has been say often times that the only people with a guaranteed right to health care are the inmates of our jails and prisons. That is even more true of mental health care.Unfortunately, this is a right that is of marginal value while many black men pay ski binding their first treatment for mental illness behind bars, that treatment is likely to be directed at keeping them under restraint rather than alleviating the effects of their illness.Our health care system assures preventative measures and first intervention for mental health problems only to the privileged, just as it does for physical health problems. The disparity is so great in minority communities that for many, mental illness receives attention only when it reaches a florid stage, in populace hospitals emergency rooms and psychiatric wards, or worse, in its aftermath, when people with mental illness may end up behind bars and in morgues.According to a new study inform on by the Health Behavior News Service, jobless African-American men appear to be at a greater risk of suffering from depression. While the issue of unemployment offers at least one possible bill for why the symptoms of depression might be experienced, more puzzling is the fact that African-American men who were making more than $80,000 per year were still at a higher risk for depression.In order to come to their conclusions, Dr. Darrell Hudson, Ph.D., and his fissure researchers carefully screened the data provided by the National Survey of American Life. During their analysis, they took into deem how much various factors such as social class, income, education, wealth, employment, and parental education level related to depressive symptoms. After measuring depression in a very comprehensive way, the results were not very consistent. We motive to figure out as a general public Is there a be associated with socioeconomic position or moving in an upward flight of steps? said Dr. Hudson.For the purpose of the research 3,570 African-American men and women who experienced depressive episodes deep down the past year of their lives were studied. Men who made over $80,000 per year reported more symptoms of depression than those making less than $17,000 per year. However, unemployed black men were more likely to report depression during that year compared to employed men. Men who completed some college or beyond were less likely to experience depressive symptoms than those who did not complete high school. Women, on the other hand, did not appear to suffer the same rates of depression. Females who earned between $45,000 and $79,000 were less likely to report symptoms of depression than those with the least income. The study appeared in the journal hearty Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.According to Dr. Hudson One thing could be expiry on with African-American men with greater incomes. The more likely they are to work in integrated settings, the more likely they are to be exposed to racial discrimination. Racial discrimination can undermine some of the positive effects of socioeconomic position like the increased benefits of more income.Some black men who suffer from depression may speculate suicide is the answer. It is not. Men that become suicidal d ont wee-wee that they are repeating the cycle, burdening their children with the same loneliness the father had endured. Their kids would grow up with the knowledge that their father had taken his life.Depression can be very paralyzing to African-Americans. This vile illness affects men from all walks of life, from the black executive to the young street hustler. In many documented cases, several socially modernistic black men have suffered from depression for many years and refused to receive treatment. This is a very disturbing undercurrent. If educated, accomplished, and highly informed black men refuse to seek treatment for depression, just imagine how difficult it is for noncivilized or poor black men to seek help. Some experts gestate that depression is likely a key factor in a 233 percent increase in suicide in black males ages 10-14 from 1980 to 1995.According to Dr. Satcher Black men feel that they have to be twice as good as other people, that you cant be weak because people will take advantage of you. Those pressures work powerfully against a black male want treatment for depression and other mental illnesses. About one in four African-Americans is uninsured, compared with about 16 percent of the U.S. population overall. African-Americans are less likely to receive antidepressants, and when they do, they are more likely than whites to stop taking them. Particularly troubling to those who study and treat mental illness in black men is their disproportionately higher rates of incarceration than other racial groups.Nearly half of the U.S. prison population is black, and about 40 percent of those in the juvenile justice system is black. It is a very difficult and very serious circumstance for these young men and for society. Psychiatrists who work with the homeless as well as with black youth say they see dozens of black males each year head to jail or juvenile justice when they should be in treatment centers.They blame,in some form or another, d epression, or other related mental illnesses. It happens all the time and its very alarming, said Dr. Raymond J. Kotwicki, Medical Director of Community Outreach Programs, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Emory University School of Medicine, in a recent statement.While all mental illnesses often come wrapped in some sort of stigma or negative connotation, mental illnesses in black men are even more entangled. Historical racism and current cultural biases and expectations all play a part, mental health advocates say. Nearly two-thirds of African-Americans believe that mental illness is a shortcoming that can be overcome through prayer and faith, according to a study by the National hamper for the mentally ill. Certainly prayer and faith may be utile to someone suffering from mental illness, but is not a deputy for treatment by a professional.The neglect of emotional disorders among men in the black community is nothing less than racial suicide.Many experts argu e that the problem of depression in black America can be traced back to the time of slavery, when it was believed that blacks were unable to feel inner pain because they had no psyche. This myth has damaged generations of African-American men and their families, creating a society that sometimes has delineate black men as being violent and aggressive, without considering that depression (or other related mental illnesses) might be one root cause.The consequences of untreated mental illness can be dire. And the tragedy of the worst outcomes can be no greater than when the disorder is depression, one of the most frequent and treatable mental illnesses. The disease is painful, and potentially fatal, but eighty percent of those who get treatment get better. Yet, quite sadly, only twenty-five percent of those who need help get it. African-American men are especially habituated to put ourselves in mortal danger because we readily embrace the picture that we can survive depression by riding out the illness and allowing it to run its course. The internal walls we build to keep out the world, along with the walls that society sometimes builds to isolate us, cut us off from the help we need. So we suffer, and we suffer needlessly.Please do not be ashamed of seeking help if you feel that you are suffering from depression, or any mental illness. There are very likely resources right in your own city or town such as a county Mental Health Center, even if you are uninsured. Those who are insured may take aim a private hospital or psychiatrist, but dont hesitate to get help. One resource that is available would be to call 1-877-331-9311, or 1-877-568-6230 to talk to a specialist at any time. This could change your life immensely, and could indeed save your life.