When I was diagnosed with Social Anxiety, some of my black family disapproved. I remember my aunt telling me, “You’re not an anxious girl, you’re just shy. Black women aren’t supposed to be weak, and neither are you. You need to stop acting like you have problems when you don’t!”
Those words seared into my mind like a branding iron. I was denied my chance to end the stereotype. Even worse, I was feeling “not black enough.”
As a black woman, weakness is never an option. Either I push through the struggle, or I find another way to fight back. Anxiety was another reason to “keep me in my place.”
According to the NBC news article, A Look at How Anxiety Affects African-Americans, “Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the United States and impacts African-Americans at a higher rate than any other group — especially African-American women.”
Why do I have to mask my anxieties to please my fellow woman of color? Can we ever find a solution to break this stigma of mental health in the black community?
We need to break down these common stereotypes and find the source of the problem.
