It’s a feeling that many young adults experience, but don’t often share with one another. Whether the symptoms are temporary or long-term, mental health disorders continue to be a relevant subject matter on any college campus.
To shed light on the topic, the Afro-Ethnic Student Association (AESA) held an open discussion at the Titan Student Union on Thursday as a part of their “Health is Wealth” event series for the month of October.
The event was hosted in an effort to bring awareness to mental health issues that are prevalent among the African American community.
Cal State Fullerton students Kafilat Ahmed and Porsha Jones led the discussion and spoke about statistics surrounding mental health issues, healthy coping mechanisms and student resources on campus.
Mental health is the emotional, psychological and social well-being that affects the way a person thinks, feels and acts, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ahmed and Jones opened the discussion by asking students about problems in their lives that have recently affected their health. Many responded with tests, work, deadlines and the dangers of driving.
“There’s two kinds of stress: acute stress and chronic stress. Chronic stress is stress over long periods of time. Acute stress is actually good for you,” Ahmed said. “A little bit of stress is good. That’s how you change, that’s how you grow and chronic stress is what we want to avoid.”
Stress is the response your body has during certain situations and responds by producing chemicals and hormones to help combat according to Healthline Media.
Some common mental health illnesses among the black community are anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia, Ahmed said.
Jones described anxiety as the presence of stress that lingers for a long period of time. People who are diagnosed tend to experience an intense fear that something will go wrong.
According to the American Psychological Association, anxiety is the feeling of tension, worried thoughts and can cause physical changes such as an increase in blood pressure.
“I had like a really bad like panic attack maybe like a month ago to the point where I felt that I couldn’t breathe I had like a pit in my stomach but it was just ongoing stress,” said a student who participated in the discussion.
Jones recommended that students cry as a healthy way of coping to help alleviate those anxieties.
People who experience a shocking event may develop PTSD and tend to continue to stress or fear danger even when it’s not around, Ahmed said. This symptom is frequent within the African American community due to the history of slavery and other societal pressures.
African Americans are no longer enslaved, but the trauma continues to be generational through other terrorist acts, according to Dr. Kevin Washington, the former president of the Association of Black Psychologists said.
“Historically, people who do have mental health issues have been ostracized from society, so it has that instilled fear of ‘I don’t want to talk about my mental health,’” Jones said.
Ahmed addressed the group by defining another disorder within the black community, depression. Depression is known as the onset of sadness for a long duration of time. Those who suffer tend to experience loss of interest and worthlessness.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, depression causes feelings of sadness and decreases a person’s ability to work.
During this segment, students shared some coping mechanisms that were beneficial for themselves or someone else that has overcome depression. Activities such as listening to music, taking a hot bubble bath and working out have helped these students find some relief and comfort.
Speakers recommended a minimum of six to eight hours of sleep a night to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Students can also go the extra mile to relief their mind and body through journaling, meditating and exercising.
“When you’re in a good space mentally, you can perform better academically, you have a better support group with your friends and you’re able to support yourself and others,” Ahmed said.
Jones said people will often under report their symptoms of depression or PTSD because they simply do not understand their experiences. She states that approximately 30% of African Americans who become educated on their disorder seek treatment.
One of the obstacles that discourages people from seeking treatment is their socioeconomic status, which correlates to their occupation, education and income; this limits people’s access to healthcare and other resource treatments.
Naomi Belgrave, president of the association, said that those who are dealing with mental health issues on their own might be coping with their disorder in methods that could be detrimental to their well-being.
“I want to be more vocal to people to just go seek help whether it’s me, or a therapist, or to their parents, or whoever they feel most comfortable with,” Belgrave said. “I think it’s really important to have mental health discussions with your friends who may know a little bit more about it than you.”
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