Talking about mental health in the Black British community

Topics mentioned: racism and mental health, cultural identity and mental health

About: Jade, 23, asked other young Black people about their experiences of mental health, asking for help, and growing up Black in Britain. Here's what she found.

Whenever I feel lost in life, I always connect back to my culture to feel a sense of hope again. While struggling with my mental health it’s hard for me to see the positive side to life, but somehow listening to my favourite reggae song - One Love by Bob Marley - reminds me that when I am with the people I love, everything’s going to “feel all right” in the end.

However, within the Black community, I’ve noticed that struggling with your mental health can be seen as a “weakness” or that “people with mental health issues aren’t actually ill like physically ill people." Over the years I have wondered, would it be easier if talking about mental health was part of my Caribbean culture? This view is not just my own, but the experience of other young Black individuals in Britain today.

Growing up Black in Britain will be different for every Black person, but we all share some similarities, such as facing discrimination, microaggressions, racism and trying to fit into a white society.

Racism and discrimination are two factors that may impact someone's mental health. Young Black people are also at risk of being treated as an adult when they are not. Adultification is when children of minority groups are treated by adults as being “more mature than they actually are." This can cause a lot of problems for boys and girls within the Black community. Young kids are being stripped and searched like Child Q, who was searched by police in her school while on her period.

Knife crime is also a growing crisis in the UK. Young boys’ lives are being lost too soon to knife crime. This is having a huge impact on the Black community. There are a lot of pressures being a young Black woman or girl in the UK. We are told to be "a strong Black woman" but sometimes we want to be vulnerable and not always be strong but be open about how we are truly feeling.

Despite all that we may face on a day-to-day basis, I want to shed light on what it’s like to have a mental health condition in the Black community in Britain. I believe mental health isn’t talked about as much in the Black British community compared with the white British community. I also want to highlight how Black British people are treated within the mental health system and how we can better support each other.

To find out more about the experiences of young Black people, I created an anonymous online questionnaire. Here is a summary of the responses I received.

There is a lot of stigma around mental health in today's society. The factors that may affect someone's views about mental health can include:

Black people, especially young Black men, are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act. Why is this the case? Black boys and young men are seen as "aggressive". People avoid sitting next to them on the train and bus. Other people start walking faster and start looking over their shoulder when there is a Black boy walking behind them.

Black boys and young men are told to “be a man”. This usually means that boys and young men cannot show any signs of weakness. Why can’t boys and young men show their emotions? Why do they need to be strong? It shows a lot of strength to open up about how you are feeling.

Growing up as a young Black woman, people always commented that I looked intimidating, which was often followed by “give us a smile." Am I supposed to walk around every minute with a smile on my face? That would be a workout for the 26 muscles it takes to create the smile. Sometimes that term “give us a smile” or simply just “smile” can be annoying. You don’t know what someone is going through when you see them.

Some young Black people find it difficult to open up about their mental health to family members. However, there are more conversations around mental health between friendship groups and peers of similar age. From my experience alone, talking about my mental health with a family member is like talking to a brick wall. You don’t really get a response back and they weren’t really listening in the first place.

Many young people in the Black community stated they wouldn’t discuss their mental health with parents because they were from an "older generation" and had "an old-fashioned mindset." Sometimes it's important to know who the right people are when talking about our mental health as we could "end up feeling worse off talking to them" if they don’t understand.

Overall, there isn’t enough support for young people dealing with mental health problems. Sometimes I wonder whether the support available for young people is too formal and doesn’t suit their needs. Maybe that’s why young people are less likely to reach out for help or too anxious to turn up to their first counselling appointment.

Young people are often “unheard or silenced” by older people as we are seen as amateurs to life who have no right to complain, especially about our mental health.

Following the discussions I have had with fellow young Black people in my community, a lot of people don’t know where to turn for support. In my experience I only sought support for my mental health when I was old enough to see a GP by myself. I felt that shame of having to open up about my mental health to a doctor in front of my Mum, when she was oblivious to my mental health decline.

I say this because, it was believed that I only suffered with my mental health while at university, but this was far from the truth. Probably around the age of eight I noticed that my mental health was declining. I had become sensitive to my surroundings and found it hard to process my emotions. I just didn’t feel as though I had anywhere to express that.

The mental health crisis is growing in the UK for young people. As we can see from the examples of organisations, there is a growing list of places that support young Black people struggling with their mental health, but it's not always visible to the people who may need it most.

It's important that discussions grow around mental health within the Black community so we can better support each other as a community. We shouldn't have go through the battles in our mind alone.

Below are some of my recommendations for further reading and listening.