Racism on Rehab w/Dr. Drew and why Black people don’t seek mental help

blackridinnhood:

[Trigger Warning: Self harm, depression, racism]

I did want to watch this season of Rehab since it shows average people and not celebrities. Anyway, there is this one woman, an aspiring rapper from the South, who is, yeah, from a more street background than many of the other patients. Anyway, she wanted to vent when being discouraged from her mother to go to a sober living house to her fellow patients, you know have someone hear her out and encourage her, and this skinny blonde bitch (idk their names cuz I haven’t really been watching) goes on about how the woman is “ALWAYS angry” (which I’m sure she’s not, she just wants to vent from time to time) and whatnot. The girl then goes to say (behind the woman’s back) how she’s so “ghetto” in how she talks about her anger towards her mother and life (ie, discusses her problem in a real way, the way she knows how) and this other dude cosigns talmbout some “they talk louder and think they’ll get bigger” or some shit. Even in group, the one dude who is a recovered addict and helps out says “I feel like you complain a lot but you don’t try to get past it” (which is bull cuz ain’t everyone else getting that same critique; it’s only the Black woman being told by her mother that she’s a bad wife and mother for wanting to keep seeking treatment she knows will help her BE a better wife and mother and wants to hear encouragement that she’s doing the right thing by focusing on getting better).

The only woman who has this Black woman’s back is another brown WoC (she looks Latina but I’m not too sure cuz I never get a good look at her), who pointed out straight up that the white bitch had a problem with them for being “street.”

And this is part of the reason why Black people don’t seek out mental help when we need it. Because when we do, people write us off as being “angry,” or try to tone police how we express our anger. While white people get coddled, told how they’re allowed to be angry, and are given tips on “healthier” ways to express their emotions. This was why I cut myself. The very first few times I did it, I was very angry. And I had no idea how to express it. I couldn’t yell because my mother would yell at me for it. Anyone else would think I was this angry, Black girl who is always angry and hates life (and since I was a self-hating anti-Black bitch at the time, that was the last thing I wanted to be seen as), so I couldn’t call a friend and vent. So I took a razor and cut up my hands and fingers.

And it kills me because there is already a huge stigma amongst Black people (and those from the outside looking in) which makes it hard for those of us with mental issues to want to seek help. But then to know that we can go get help, go to a rehab or inpatient, and be told that we’re too “loud and ghetto” and need to shut up, why fucking go? If we’re going to be shut down in an environment where we’re SUPPOSED to be encouraged to talk and vent, why the fuck would we feel safe to go? And then we wonder why these recent studies are saying more Black kids are cutting, killing themselves, etc. People won’t LET us get help even if we break through the idea that “Black people are strong so they don’t suffer from mental issues.” We have to fight inside our selves and community in order to admit we need help, and when we seek help, get told to shut up?

This is why mental disorders are seen as a white man’s issue. Because us Black folk aren’t even safe enough from racism to seek help when we need it.

(via feministpizza)

Notes

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