African-American Children’s Mental Health Journey
TL;DR: Follow me along my journey with mental illness, which is, sadly, compounded by the challenges of racism and systemic oppression as an African American woman. Oh, and I acknowledge the complex interplay between being a researcher and a subject in this context. Oh, joy!
Mental Illness is a thing for Black Folks
I’ve lived with a mental illness for most of my life. I use the term illness because it’s how I have come to conceptualize the set of symptoms that I have lived with and learned to manage since I was a preteen. Along with the trauma I sustained, living with these symptoms has been compounded by the unrelenting racism and oppression I face as an African American woman. As a preteen, my symptoms were discarded as attempts for attention and solutions were thrown at me, like washrags into the laundry. Learning firstly that demons weren’t tormenting me (as my Christian and horror movie upbringing led me to believe), then realizing that there was language for what I was experiencing, and finally embracing being a human who lives with a mental illness. There’s no diagnosis, but as I heal and learn to use language to navigate my own story (who knows, I might even change the way I say mental illness over time), and as a way for me to allow my process to evolve.
