Suicide a Major Cause of Death For Young Adult Black Males

by Kenny Anderson

Recently a friend mentioned to me that a young adult male relative of theirs had died and his family initially lied about the cause of his death; he actually died from suicide. 

Knowing that I specialize in providing psycho-education services to young Black males, they asked me why would a young adult Black male in the prime of his life kill himself?

What my friend did not know like the majority of Blacks are unaware of, is that, suicide is the third leading cause of death for African-American males ages 15 through 24. 

According to recent statistics Black males account for 85% of all suicide completions among African-Americans. Black males aged 20 to 24 have the highest firearm suicide rate in the US.

Black males account for 88% of all suicides among African-American youth. Over the last 10 years statistics show a rate of suicide increase of 233% for Black boys between the ages of 10 and 14. 

Getting back to the question my friend raised, why are so many young Black males committing suicide? They are primarily killing themselves because of depression related stress, frustration, and joblessness.

Economic exclusion decreases young adult Black males sense of self-worth and increases hopelessness. In a fairly recent report, ‘Deindustrialization, Disadvantage, and Suicide Among Young Black Males', post-industrial cities like Pontiac suffering from tremendous job loses due to massive auto plant closings have higher suicide rates among young adult Black males. 

The external depressed socioeconomic conditions of deprivation and degradation so many young adult Black males live in are often internalized and becomes psychological depression. Furthermore young adult Black males live in family and community contexts where depression has a greater impact.

According to a report by the National Study of American Life published in General Psychiatry Today (March 6, 2007) found that African-Americans are significantly less likely to receive treatment for depression than Non-Hispanic whites. The study reveals the tremendous burden depression and other mental illnesses place on African-Americans. 

Findings includes African-Americans experience greater severity and persistence from depression; depression is more disabling and takes a greater toll on all aspects of their lives including work, relationships, social, and overall than for whites.

The International Journal of Social Psychiatry reports that racism is not only a stress burden on Blacks, but also a pathogen that generates depression. Untreated depression is the greatest predictor of suicide. 

As founder of the African American Adjustment Disorder Awareness Association (AAADAA), I know that too many young Black men are unconsciously suffering from Adjustment Disorder (AD) which is a stressed based mental health problem; suicide behavior is prominent among those affected by Adjustment Disorder.

For young adult Black males in America living daily is a very stressful process and there’s a lot at stake! If they don’t carefully calculate how to handle everyday situations in ways that usually go unnoticed they can easily end up out of a job, in jail, attacked or killed.

Though the Black community is not paying attention to the depression and suicidal tendencies of young adult Black males there are obvious signs. One blatant indication is the huge amount of blunt cigars that are sold in almost every party store and grocery market in Black communities. 

Too many young adult Black males are buying these cigars to roll their weed in. Marijuana is the antidepressant drug of choice for them; smoking it daily temporarily relieves stress, tension, and depression.

Substance abuse is often a consequence of untreated depression. During the marijuana high period young adult Black males may think they feel better, but often the depression gets worse as the drug effects wear off; thus they need to smoke more marijuana to get relief. Many rap songs are laced with lyrics of suicidal thoughts and the therapeutic benefits of marijuana smoking. 

In one of Tupac Shakur's most powerful rap songs, ‘Lord Knows', he rapped: "Another funeral! Lord knows I smoke a blunt to take the pain out, and if I weren't high I'd probably try and blow my brains out. I'm hopeless, they should've tried to kill me as a baby; now they got me trapped in the racist storm and I'm going crazy. I'm losing hope, they got me stressing; they want to see me in my casket, can the Lord forgive me."

Moreover the media daily trumpets messages to young adult Black males that they are useless and endangered. In his book, ‘Standing in the Shadows: Understanding and Overcoming Depression in Black Men’, author John Head states: "We are bombarded with statistics and stereotypes telling us that of all the inevitable deaths, ours may be the most inevitable. We have a greater risk of premature death. We're more likely to die as a result of violence, particularly gun violence. For too many young Black males, the real and perceived vulnerability to violence is an invitation to take advantage of the easy access to guns as a means of self-protection. Possession of a gun, of course, is a major step up the ladder of risk factors for complete suicide. For young men who accept the message that they are doomed to die early and who believe society values their lives less than those of others, it becomes even more likely that a decent into depression will allow the illogic of the inevitability of suicide to take hold. When these young men live in an environment in which guns – the most effective means of suicide are readily available, it should be no surprise that a suicide crisis develops."

Indeed, the Black community has ignored the obvious suicide warning signs of young adult Black males: preoccupation with death, no hope for the future, and self-destructive behaviors. 

We are ignoring these warning signs because we are in denial and for the most part the subject of suicide is taboo in our communities. Suicide particularly is a hidden crisis in our communities because the general subject of mental health is unsettling to us. 

We have the misperception that mental illness means you are 'crazy', a moral failure, or personally weak. Young adult Black males of the misleading 'super macho' hip-hop generation have been socialized that expressing feelings and emotions is unmanly, weak, and soft.

Thus many young adult Black males with despondent feelings, emotional pain, trauma, and psychological distress don't seek mental health care. When their mental heath issues are not addressed and treated, young adult Black males are more vulnerable to substance abuse, incarceration, homicide, and suicide. 

From my perspective the tremendous rise of suicide among young adult Black males stems from an attitude of worthlessness and correlated logic. They believe what difference does it make if I live or die, who cares? Nobody wants to hear about my feelings of hurt and pain. I'm all alone! I'll end my own life and everybody will be satisfied. I'll be just another dead Black man; you know how it goes just another one bites the dust!

To provide prevention and intervention assistance to suicide at-risk young adult Black males, the Black community must stop believing in the myths and stigma that anyone who tries to or has killed himself must be crazy. 

Most suicidal young adult Black males are not psychotic or insane, they may be grief-stricken, depressed, frustrated, and alienated; extreme distress and emotional pain are signs of a mental health crisis that needs immediate attention. 

I wrote this article to raise mental health awareness of the rising suicide rates among young adult Black males.

Black History Month: Focusing on the Emotional Distress of Racism

by Kenny Anderson

From this writer’s perspective Black History Month has a historical and contemporary significance. Historically it is a time for ‘Ancestor Veneration’, remembering, honoring, and learning from our ‘Freedom Fighting Ancestors’. Contemporaneously, it is a time to focus on and assess the current critical issues that negatively impact on the mind, body, and souls of Black folk. 

One enduring critical issue that has negatively impacted Blacks from past to present is the emotional distress of racism. In her book, ‘Environmental Stress and African-Americans’, author Grace Carroll states that race is brought to the consciousness of African Americans every day through interaction with employers, service providers, landlords, the police, and the media. Carroll says the stress experienced by Blacks merely as a result of being African American causes micro-aggressions that include experiences such as being denied jobs, being targeted, being falsely accused, being negatively portrayed and singled out on account of one's race.

Carroll labels the stress resulting from such micro-aggressions as Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress (MEES) that has a daily significant negative impact on one's psychological well-being, physical health, and world view; it is environmentally induced, frustrating, detracting, energy consuming, immune draining, and overwhelming. Racism induced emotional distress whether in the form of stress, worry, depression, or anger can increase the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke a growing body of research studies have found.

In 2007, Jesse Stewart, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, led a three-year research study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry that has linked negative emotions - depression, anxiety, hostility, anger - with atherosclerosis, or thickening of the inside walls of the coronary arteries. Thickening of these walls can slow or block the flow of blood to the heart and brain, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Not only do Blacks suffer disproportionately from heart disease, heart attacks and strokes due in part to emotional distress, Blacks also suffer more from obesity-related diabetes driven by emotional distress eating habits. To reduce emotional distress Blacks often times engage in ‘stress eating’ that allows us to temporarily avoid the emotions we’d rather not feel. Eating has become a coping mechanism; it is how we temporarily escape from uncomfortable emotions like anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, resentment, and shame.

When we are emotionally distressed it leads to high levels of the stress hormone cortisol that triggers cravings for salty, sweet, and high-fat foods that gives us pleasure but causes significant weight gain. Emotionally distress based eating has caused an obesity related diabetes epidemic among Blacks. Emotionally driven to eat more two-thirds of Black folks 20 years and older are either overweight or obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regarding diabetes, one in 7 Blacks has the disease and Black folks are twice as likely as Whites to develop diabetes.

According to the most recent data diabetes was listed as the underlying cause on 71,382 death certificates and was listed as a contributing factor on an additional 160,022 death certificates. This means that diabetes contributed to a total of 231,404 deaths. Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death for Black folks and is the seventh leading overall cause of death in this country; twice as many Black are dying from diabetes than Whites.

To address the significant negative impact of emotional distress on Blacks health, the Community Healing Network in collaboration with the Association of Black Psychologists (ABP) initiated Emotional Emancipation Circles (EEC) where Black people can gather in circles to share our stories, to deepen our understanding of the impact of history and racism on our emotional lives, and to learn essential emotional wellness skills for healing.

Community Healing Network on why Emotional Emancipation Circles are necessary:

“For nearly 400 years, we have been fed toxic lies about our history, worth, and value as people of African ancestry. These lies are all rooted in one big lie: the lie of Black inferiority. That lie was devised to justify the enslavement, colonization, and subjugation of African people in the United States and around the world. The lie of Black inferiority has led to the dehumanization of Black people and the devaluing of Black lives. It contributes to Black-White mental and physical health disparities, the criminalization, mass incarceration, and wanton killing of Black people, and many of the other problems we face. In order to address these and other challenges, we must free ourselves, our children, and the world from the lie of Black inferiority.”

“CHN’s aim is to engage a critical mass of Black people in the United States in the movement for emotional emancipation by 2019, the year that will mark the 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of Africans in Jamestown colony—so that we will see ourselves in a whole new light by the year 2020.”

Indeed Emotional Emancipation Circles are necessary because they foster positive emotional development based on Community Healing Network’s values of:

*Love: We are animated by love for ourselves, love for each other, and love for Black people.

*Hope: We know that our vision will be realized because we are the descendants of the people who made “a way out of no way.”

*Respect: We acknowledge the dignity of all people, especially the people we serve.

*Integrity: We will be the change we seek.

*Self-reliance: A spirit of self-reliance guides us in all we do and will ensure our victory.

There is significant research found in studies on the relationship between positive emotions and resilience. Studies show that maintaining positive emotions whilst facing adversity promote flexibility in thinking and problem solving.

Positive emotions serve an important function in their ability to help an individual recover from stressful experiences and sickness. Fostering Black positive emotions aids in counteracting the psycho-physiological effects of negative emotional distress of racial oppression. It also facilitates creative adaptive coping, it builds enduring social resources; it increases self-esteem and personal well-being.

Developing Emotional Emancipation Circles is a necessary grassroots self-determination initiative of ‘Internal Reparations’, where we as Black people can come together in our homes, centers, Churches, etc. for emotional release, repairs, and resiliency.

Black Male Sports Addiction And Its Negative Health Impact

by Kenny Anderson

I remember being an entering high-school Black basketball player in the early 1970’s when a popular song came out in 1973 titled ‘Basketball Jones’ by Cheech & Chong. This song got my attention because the title had ‘Jones’in it, an Ebonic term for a fiend craving drugs particularly heroin; it was a popular word used by Black heroin addicts. The following is a verse from the song:

“Yes, I am the victim of a Basketball Jones
Ever since I was a little baby, I always be dribbling'
In fact, I was the baddest dribbler in the whole neighborhood
Then one day, my mama bought me a basketball
And I loved that basketball
I took that basketball with me everywhere I went
That basketball was like a basketball to me.

I even put that basketball underneath my pillow
Maybe that's why I can't sleep at night
I need help, ladies and gentlemens.”

When I first heard the catchy song ‘Basketball Jones’ I did not understand how someone could be addicted to basketball like heroin, however when I went on to play college basketball I realized that too many Black males were addicted to basketball.

After graduating from high-school in Detroit I went to a college in Kansas to play basketball, while there I met a Black male who played at the college who had just graduated. The brother had talent, I played with him over the summer, he was preparing himself for a walk-on NBA opportunity; he was invited by the San Antonio Spurs to tryout.

After not seeing this Brother for several months, I ran into him over a friend’s house where some guys were just hanging, talking, playing Chess, and listening to music, when this Brother all of sudden jumped up ran outside and started running down the street hollering someone was after him. This Brother’s bizarre behavior got my attention, I never saw this Brother again but later learned that he was admitted to the Kansas State Mental Hospital; he suffered from a mental breakdown after being cut by the Spurs.

This Brother’s mental breakdown made it clear to me that basketball could have a tremendous negative impact on Black males health. I no longer looked at basketball as a game I loved playing with professional ambition, I began to look at the pathological side.

After playing college basketball for 2 years I left college to come home to work. Being back home I witnessed so many Black males I played basketball with and against who either never went on to college to play, played in college and left early like I did, or played all 4 years, still preoccupied with basketball; constantly playing basketball, watching it and talking about it; they could not transition from it; they were like the heroin addict who could not leave heroin alone.

Like recovering drug addicts who try to live on without drugs, Black males hooked on hoops had to make a living not playing basketball. Black ex-college basketball players had to make the transition, in most cases from pre­dominately white colleges and universities where they were privileged and had notoriety, to going back to their generally poor Black communities where they are just another struggling Black man.

From ESPN highlights to invisibility basketball highs and NBA hopes are over

When college careers are over, Black basketball addicts suffer from mal­adjustment withdrawal symptoms; psycho-social malady issues. Dr. Harry Edwards has studied the impact of failure in sports and how it has affected the mental health in Black communities. Edwards stated there are a number of syndromes he’s iden­tified:

“Our prisons, for example are loaded with Black males with tremendous athletic potential. When they found out they could not make it, their ener­gies were directed toward anti-social behaviors – crime and drugs. We have all kinds of cases of depression and nervous breakdowns. We also believe there is some relationship between failure in sports and the increasing suicide rate among Black men. Many Black males whose college basketball eligibility is over, still live in a basketball fantasy world spending all of their time playing in gyms and on playgrounds; some of these men become ‘basketball bums’.”

So many of these Black males could not or did not make the transition away from basketball; they continued to play too much basketball over the years where they could have used that time going back to college to finish their degrees, enrolling into skilled trades job-training programs, or learning how to be entrepreneurs.

Before these Black males realized it a lot of time had passed them by and they were well into their 30’s. Once they started coming out of the ‘basketball daze’ they found themselves with just a high school diploma, little or no job-skills, and living in Black communities that suffered from very high unemployment and poverty, offering them very few job opportunities.

With all the problems Black males face on a day-to-day basis playing basketball or football wherever they can in the hood is a moment of freedom, expression, and recognition. Like the Black male heroin addict who feels free in his ‘nod’, Black male sports addict feels free while he’s playing in the ‘game’. Indeed, many of these maladjusted basketball junkies turned to crime, drugs, alcohol, many ended up in prison, became bums, and many of them have become television sports watching addicts.

From ‘Active’ Sports Addicts to ‘Passive’ TV Sports Addicts

From my perspective Black male sports addiction is psycho-socially engineered where sports is highlighted as one the few means to success for Black boys in a racist society that restricts them. Outside basketball courts, a few gyms, and vacant lots is the sole recreation available in most Black communities and a basketball or football is affordable.

Being ‘hooked on sports’ at an early age, by the time Black males finish their high-school or college sports careers too many of them become fully addicted television sports junkies. They have withdrawal symptoms no different than drug addicts. Compulsive passive sports television watching is similar to drug addiction except that the individual is not addicted to a substance.

Black males compulsive television sports watching meets several addiction features:

*Television sports watching dominates Black men’s time.

*Television sports watching results in Black males neglecting necessary physical activity; it impairs them from improving their health and contributes to chronic diseases.

*Television sports watching provides a satisfaction high.

*Television sports watching cause withdrawal symptoms of unpleasant emotions if Black men attempt to stop watching TV so much.

What I have noticed is once Black males hit the Midlife Period (40–65) beginning at 40 Black men increasingly become less active, inactivity increases and a sedentary ‘couch potato’ lifestyle begins to set in by sitting and watching sports on television. Being over 50 years-old myself, I personally know many Black men who watch sports on television 8-12 hours a day over the weekend. During the week days they watch sports 4-6 hours a day or more; they can watch sports on ESPN and the Big Ten Network 24-7.

It is my belief that many Black men especially ex-athletes in an unknowing mid-life crisis excessively watch sports on television viewing younger Black male college and professional athletes because it reminds them of 'being back in the day' when they had athletic prowess; it offers them vicarious gratification often stifling them in a state of 'boy-psychology', stuck in a mind state of games instead of dealing with critical age related issues and the challenge of recreating themselves.

Most of the time when Black men are watching all this sports on television they are eating unhealthy junk-food and fast-food; many smoke cigarettes and drink liquor too. Sitting for long periods of time lacking physical activity, along with poor diets results in many Black men becoming ‘obese’ physically sick with hypertension, heart disease, strokes, and diabetes. Sitting down for long periods stops the body from using its muscles and adequately processing sugars and fats.

According to a recent Australian study people who spend more than four hours in front of the television each day have a far higher risk of dying early than those who limit their viewing. Watching sports on television for prolonged periods is definitely bad for Black men’s hearts according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. People who watch more than four hours per day have a 46 percent higher risk of death from all causes. They also have an 80 percent increased risk from cardiovascular disease.

Moreover many Black men sit and watch television to distract themselves to avoid dealing with psychological male midlife crisis issues; many Black men watch sports on television to escape from their depression. Black males compulsive television sports watching is not surprising when you look at Blacks excessive television viewing as a people.

According to a Nielsen’s study on ‘The State of the Media: U.S. Television Trends by Ethnicity’, documents that the amount of television viewing in the U.S. remains high, suggesting that the average person watched more than 143 hours of television per month. African Americans indicated the highest rate of total TV usage, African Americans watched their TVs an average of 7 hours, 12 minutes each day above the U.S. average of 5 hours, 11 minutes.

Just as the Black community must continue to address the devastating effects of Black males alcohol and drug addiction, we must also begin to address Black males television sports watching addiction. We must create self-help and counseling programs to address Black males television sports addiction so they can become more aware, active, healthy, and functional.

Without intervention, too many Black males will remain addictively imbalanced and physically inactive by sports watching addiction, facing a likely future of suffering and premature death from chronic diseases.

Why Black America’s Battle with Mental Health is Failing

By Danielle Hester

Many in the field would say that the disparities in mental health services for African-Americans are detrimental to the state of Black people’s public health. 

Back in medical school, Dr. Carl Bell knew the least about mental health disorders, which is why he wanted to focus on psychiatrics rather than other medical practices.

Bell is now the CEO and president of the Community Health Council and director of the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He has dedicated much of his career to the treatment and prevention of mental health disorders among African-Americans a service that remains underserved and underfunded. “It’s really hard getting mental health services in black communities,” says Bell. “These services are a scarcity, because there is no consideration for poor people with mental illnesses.” 

Bell says there is little to no research on how to properly treat blacks suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, drug and substance abuse, and other mental illnesses, mainly because no one has devoted time to understanding the social and cultural issues affecting poor black communities. Access to good health care and modern treatment is a major factor as well.

A new national report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reveals that 20% (45.9 million) of American adults age 18 and older experienced a mental illness last year. The rate of mental illness was more than twice as high among young adults ages 18-25 than it was for adults age 50 and up. And women were more likely than men to have been diagnosed with a mental illness in 2011 (23% vs. 16.8%).

Rates of mental illnesses in African-Americans are similar to those of other races. The limited research available suggests that African-Americans are more likely to have schizophrenia than any other group, notes Bell.  In general, about four in 10 people who experienced a mental illness in 2011 received services, according to SAMHSA. Alone, only one out of three African-American patients who need mental health care gets properly treated.

Services that are available for Blacks are commonly accessible in jails, prisons and child protective service agencies. The underlying reason is that these places are where many Blacks end up due to their uncontrollable and misunderstood behaviors. This perpetuates a racial stigma that has existed for decades.

“This is America, where we’ve spent centuries saying Whites are the majority and Blacks are the minority, so who cares?” says Bell, who is African-American and has experienced discrimination as a general patient. “Go to a White community, and you’ll find private mental health services with modern technology. Go to a poor Black community and nothing!” He adds, “It’s a lack of cultural sensitivity.”

Historically, prior to the ’60s, psychiatrists theorized that African-Americans could not get bipolar disorder, nor could they suffer from depression. A lot of the literature around psychiatric disorders in African-Americans was negative and racist, says Bell.

During the 1960's, all references to race and ethnicity in medical literature were dropped. All research was focused on the “general population,” i.e., upper and middle-class Whites. Mental health research did not incorporate understanding of racial and ethnic groups.

Small studies made an effort to improve mental health awareness for African-Americans over time. It wasn’t until 2001, when former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher released Culture, Race and Ethnicity. A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, that disparities in mental health were extensively addressed on a national platform. “Before then, we didn’t know anything about mental health issues in Black people,” says Bell.

Today, Bell credits the work of the University of Michigan, along with his own research and public health initiatives, to the improvement of mental health research for African Americans. But there are disparities that remain, such as receiving quality care and mental health awareness. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, diverse communities are under-served by the nation’s mental health system.  

There are barriers to the access and quality of care—from insurance coverage to modern technology. Compared to the general population, African-Americans are more likely to stop treatment early and are less likely to receive follow-up care.

African-Americans are suspicious and reluctant to receive prescription treatment and medication. Bell says he does not blame them. “When is the last time Blacks got the benefit of modern medical care?” he probes.

“Based on racism and discrimination, I can understand. Black people think there is a genocide plot to putting them on anti-depressants. If they are experiencing something, they first go to their pastor, then their general practitioner, then, maybe, a mental health person.” He adds: “I receive skepticism when I treat African-American patients all the time. They always say, ‘You’re trying to put me on drugs.’”

To help change these behaviors, Bell has shifted much of his work to prevention rather than treatment. He has been aggressively campaigning to change the cultural insensitivity that resides in mental health services. He has also worked with the Obama administration, which is moving to promote the use of mental health services through health reform so that people, families, and communities will benefit from increased access to care. “The Obama administration gets it. A lot of stuff around prevention of mental health [illnesses] is included in health care reform,” says Bell.