The stigma against mental illness, depression and suicide within the Black community tends to enforce fears and stereotypes that keep people from getting the help they need. Black people in general tend to be overly religious. Everything is a sin so how can you talk about it. The church sweeps stuff under the rug as though all problems can be prayed away. They can’t.
Everybody thinks that if they pray over you, slap you with some anointing oil or speak to some supposed demon you may have that solves the problem. No. Troubled Depressed people need professional help and should not be stigmatized for speaking up and speaking out.
The only difference between myself and Don Cornelious is that I did not succeed in any of my attempts. Mental illness runs in my family on both sides. My mother Mable Elizabeth Palmer tried to kill herself in front of we children sometime around 1969 or 1970. She just wanted the pain to end. Later when it was my turn I wanted the paid and suffering to end.
It’s sad that mental illness, depression and suicide are labeled as sins and those of us who suffer are ostracized by the community and the Black Church. Mental illness is often genetic triggered by puberty, a tragic event, a traumatic event or a chronic physical illness. However in the Black Church they still blame unseen devils and demons left over from the Dark Age. Any minute now I expect the church to return to the archaic methods used during these times to determine who was a witch or a warlock. It may sound funny but I’ve heard things come out preachers mouths that made you think mental illness is a concoction of best sellers and Hollywood movies.
Mental illness is an ongoing battle you fight every day. And every day you wake up in this world is a win but if you do wake up on the other side I believe it’s because God has mercy on troubled souls.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
February 15, 2012 at 12:43 am
lorddavidprosserDavid
Everyone deserves the dignity of having their illness recognized for what it is and treated as an illness and not a sin. I’m sorry if your community sometimes has problems distinguishing one from the other.Your own illness has left you still able to communicate with the world through your excellent, imaginative and expressive writing.Mayhap you can bring the problem to the public eye and make changes so that those who still wake up suffering each day don’t walk round with the guilt of sin on their shoulders which may make their suicide attempts even worse for them and their loved ones.
I wish you well on your journey and hope it becomes a long and pleasant one on Earth so you can delay waking up in the other place for many years.
David
February 15, 2012 at 9:29 pm
dancingpalmtrees
David,
Thank you so much. I felt I had to speak out. Sometimes we have to reveal some unpleasant things about ourselves to serve others. To help those in the greatest need. I feel I’m like a prize fighter. I fall down, get knocked out sometimes, the ref says the ten count but I get back up, maybe retreat to my corner, regroup and fight the battle again.
Grace & Peace,
DeBorah