Why Do Black People Fear Therapy?

Why Do Black People Fear Therapy?



63 percent of Black people feel depression is a personal weakness. ...

It is quite common that mental health diagnoses or any problems with emotional health can be seen as a weakness in the African American community.  It is unfortunate because it stops so many of us from seeking proper help to move forward in our lives.  It is important to get the word out that it is not a weakness to need help and assistant by talking to someone who can get you through difficult times in your life.  This is very different from talking to a friend or loved one because this person is trained to give you an objective outlook, not necessarily to give you their opinion but to get you to address the obstacles in your life and get you to see how to mitigate those obstacles.  Those obstacles could include:  previous trauma, depression, anxiety, or just an inability to keep a job or having meaningful and lasting relationships.

Being emotionally and mentally healthy should not be seen as a weakness but should be seen as important as your physical health, having your finances in order, and having good valued relationships with others.   If you do not focus on your emotional and mental health you will have deficiencies in all the other areas of your life.  Your finances will suffer because you may not be able to keep a job.  Your relationships will suffer because people will find you hard to deal with or troublesome in some way.  Your physical health will especially suffer.  You will wonder why you cannot get out of the bed on some days, why you have so many aches and pains,  why you get headaches more often then most other people.  There are a myriad of other physical symptoms one can suffer when your mental and emotional health is out of balance.

For Me Talk Therapy is the place for you to come.   For Me Talk Therapy is focused on you as a consumer and not about what diagnosis best fit you.  However, sometimes naming what your issue is can be another way of labeling the disease and understanding the disease is separate from yourself.   The person and the disease are two separate entities that can give one the ability to learn new ways of dealing with an illness.  It is no different from a person with cancer learning that they need treatment for a fixed amount of time.  For example, a person who suffers from being bipolar can learn to manage their condition with or without medications.  Whichever is best for the person can be a discussion point between consumer and therapist to assure they are taking the right course of action for their treatment.

Therapy should be looked at as a time limited treatment to get a person back on track with their life.  It is not a weakness.  Therapy is a tool to improve one's emotional and mental health.

Register for individual or group therapy today (267)388-4909.