Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are the target of prejudice, systemic discrimination, microaggressions, and physical acts of violence due to the color of their skin. Experiences of racism not only cause distress at the moment but can also lead to mental health issues that become more severe with each experience. Expand the description to find a list of free, 24/7 hotlines, and text lines below.
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If you feel you or a loved one might be experiencing a mental health condition, remember that these are biological brain disorders. Anyone can develop a mental health problem. It isn’t your fault or your family’s fault. Seeking treatment can help you live a fulfilled life and can strengthen you and your family for the future.
How Do Mental Health Conditions Affect The Minority Community?
Although anyone can develop a mental health problem, African Americans sometimes experience more severe forms of mental health conditions due to unmet needs and other barriers. According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. Common mental health disorders among African Americans include:
- Major depression
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Suicide, among young African American men
- Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), because African Americans are more likely to be victims of violent crime
Resources
NAMI’s Sharing Hope Program
Sharing Hope is an hour-long program to increase mental health awareness in African American communities by sharing the presenters’ journeys to recovery and exploring signs and symptoms of mental health conditions. The program also highlights how and where to find help.
Sharing Hope: An African American Guide to Mental Health provides mental health information in a sensitive manner through personal stories. Recovery is possible, and this booklet tells you where to find more information, seek help and be supportive. You can buy hard copies through the NAMI Bookstore.
Sharing Hope: An African American Guide to Mental Health provides mental health information in a sensitive manner through personal stories. Recovery is possible, and this booklet tells you where to find more information, seek help and be supportive. You can buy hard copies through the NAMI Bookstore.
ALL THE NAMI HELPLINE 800-950-NAMI info@nami.org M-F, 10 AM - 6 PM ET FIND HELP IN A CRISIS OR TEXT "NAMI" TO 741741
Educational Materials
MHA has developed unique materials for Black/African Americans
The Officially Accepted List of Mental Illnesses
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| Healthy Place |
Mental Illnesses List
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
These disorders involve problems, specifically with the brain, during development. The problems negatively impact life functioning. Typically, they begin in early childhood. They include: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), communication disorders, intellectual developmental disorder, motor disorders, and specific learning disorders. It’s not unusual for these disorders to co-exist.
Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders
Disorders in this category involve psychosis, which is an episodic break from reality. Hallucinations (sensing things that aren't there) or delusions (believing things that aren't true or real) are the hallmarks of psychotic disorders (Schizophrenia and Psychosis: Hallucinations and Delusions). Other characteristics are present, too, depending on the specific disorder.
Bipolar and Related Disorders
These mood disorders involve extremes in affect (outward manifestation of emotions). The swings range from depression to mania, and they vary in severity according to the specific disorder (take the Mood Disorder Questionnaire - MDQ).
Depressive Disorders
Another type of mood disorder, depressive disorders are characterized, among other symptoms, by prolonged depressed mood and loss of interest in activities.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders share in common intense worry and fear that affect thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and physiology (digestive troubles, etc.)
Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders involve extreme recurrent thoughts or preoccupations connected to behaviors, mental or behavioral, done to alleviate the obsessions.
Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders
Trauma- and stressor-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, are mental disorders resulting from outside forces. While they result from various types of injury, they significantly impact and/or alter the brain itself, thus qualifying as mental disorders.
Dissociative Disorders
With dissociative disorders, there's a disruption in the functioning of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception. Amnesia, senses of being unreal (depersonalization), or of the world being unreal (derealization) are some of the symptoms of these disorders.
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
Disorders in this category relate to physical symptoms that resemble a medical condition despite the fact that there is no medical evidence that the condition is present. This doesn't include physical symptoms associated with anxiety disorders.
Feeding and Eating Disorders
Extreme disturbances in eating behavior and nutrition are the hallmarks of eating disorders.
Sleep-Wake Disorders
These disorders involve disruptions somewhere in the sleep-wake cycle. Included features involve changes in the length/amount of sleep.
Elimination Disorders
Elimination disorders are those in which urine or feces is voided in inappropriate places, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Sexual Dysfunctions
Disorders involving sexual dysfunctions are those that relate to disturbances in sexual desire and response.
Gender Dysphoria
Gender dysphoria is a significant difference in the gender someone was born into and his/her experienced gender (Multi-Dimensionality of Gender).
Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders
Children with conduct disorders present with irritable, angry, and/or disruptive behavior. Disobedience and other clashes with authority figures are common, and law-breaking behavior can also be present in this category.
Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders
This category includes the use or abuse of 10 separate classes of drugs (Addictions Information Article). Gambling behavior is also included here.
Neurocognitive Disorders
This category encompasses disorders/diseases of the brain that contribute to decline in cognitive functioning and processing.
Personality Disorders
The 10 main disorders in this category involve deeply ingrained behavior patterns and inflexible responses to various personal and social situations.
These aren't included in the same section of the DSM-5 as mental illnesses. Not every professional agrees on whether or not personality disorders are mental illnesses due to the nature of the disorders and historical lack of evidence of brain dysfunction. As more becomes known about the brain, this may (or may not) change (Difference Between Mental Illness and Mental Disorder).
Paraphilic Disorders
Paraphilic disorders are ones that involve recurrent and intense sexual urges, fantasies, or behaviors. They involve unusual objects, activities, or situations.
Other Mental Disorders
This broad category is reserved for mental disorders that share symptoms with another mental disorder(s), are problematic, but don't meet the full diagnostic criteria of the disorder.
These categories, in the list of mental illnesses, provide an overview of the many different mental illnesses that people live with. Knowing the specifics of each category and each disorder within the categories creates understanding. Understanding brings empathy for individuals living with mental illness as well as hope that treatment and management are possible (What Is Stigma?).
Source https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/list-of-mental-illnesses/
