Johnny Waller Jr. was shot in the head as a teenager. He recovered and survived physically, but the incident took a toll on his mental health.
“I had nightmares, PTSD, and other issues but didn’t have access to any mental health support for years,” says Waller. “We have to change that for our [Black] community.”
One in five Americans deal with some mental health issue. Even Martin Luther King Jr. reportedly suffered from severe depression at times during his life, yet refused psychiatric treatment – even when urged by his staff to seek care.
This scenario sadly continues to play out today, with African Americans not seeking mental health support at nearly the same rates as their White counterparts. Even though mental health issues affect the races at roughly the same rate, only about 25% of Black people seek mental health treatment when needed, compared to 40% of White people, according to Harvard affiliate McLean Hospital.
“In the Black community, if you say ‘you should probably go see a therapist,’ people often respond with ‘what, do you think I’m crazy? I ain’t crazy,’” says Waller. “There’s this huge stigma about seeking mental health — that it’s some kind of weakness or flaw — that we’ve got to address.”
Where’d the Stigma Come From?
Dr. Christine M. Crawford of Boston University School of Medicine writes that the stigma surrounding mental health issues in the Black community can be traced back to the era of slavery. At that time, the inhumane mindset was that enslaved people were not psychologically sophisticated enough to develop conditions like depression and anxiety.
Crawford says that mental health issues like depression and anxiety were dismissed in the Black community during the time of slavery. That minimization was passed down through generations, leading to the present day, where the impact of mental health conditions is underestimated. This also perpetuated the false notion that psychiatric disorders stemmed from personal weakness.
The trauma of experiencing racism itself also takes a major mental health toll on Black Americans that cannot be ignored. The CDC has declared racism a serious public health threat that puts communities of color at heightened risk of poor mental health outcomes.
This traumatic history, combined with mistrust of the medical system due to past exploitation like the Tuskegee experiments, makes it no surprise many in the Black community hesitate to seek care.
Why It’s Important to Seek Help When You Need It
“I went years without help trying to manage my feelings on my own,” says Waller. “It wasn’t the best way to do things.”
Waller struggled in his youth and ended up incarcerated on drug charges. With the eventual help of therapy — and other factors — he turned his life around. Waller is now a community activist with multiple college degrees, and he serves several key institutions, including positions with area universities, the city, and the board of directors for the Kansas City Black Mental Health Initiative.
“I know getting shot in the head, and my background is kind of on the extreme end,” says Waller. “But I encourage anyone who’s going through some issues to see a therapist.”
Therapy can help you:
- Get through a challenging life event or situation.
- Address symptoms like excessive sadness, guilt, or anger
- Treat a mental health condition like depression
- Navigate relationships with others, such as family, friends, and coworkers
The potential benefits of therapy include improvements in:
- Communication skills
- Sleep
- Happiness and life satisfaction
- Empowerment
- Mental function
- Productivity
- Number of days attending school or work
- Relationships and interactions with other people
- Physical well-being (like lower blood pressure or less chronic pain)
- Skills for coping with daily life challenges and stress
- Management of behavioral health goals (like quitting smoking or drinking alcohol)
Seeking out mental health care is particularly important for those who need to work through a traumatic event or experience signs of a significant mental health condition such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD.
“If you think about what happens particularly on the east side of KC, where there’s homicides, poverty, unemployment, and you’re dealing with these things day-after-day, or you’ve been in an incident of violence: you really do need some type of mental health care to treat that trauma,” says Waller.
Mental health treatment can be helpful to just about anyone and can improve your overall health. According to Dr. Kirby Randolph of the University of Kansas Medical Center, mental and physical health are interconnected, and seeking therapy can improve overall well-being and potentially reduce the risk of stress-related conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
Waller says that overcoming the stigma and reaching out for help can take you from surviving to thriving. He says that those in the Black community who seek mental health services should tell their friends about how it helped them and not take it personally if someone suggests seeing a therapist.
“We’re not saying that there’s something inherently wrong with you,” says Waller. “We’re saying that you are living in trauma, and it would be beneficial to talk to someone to help you move forward and to live a meaningful life.”
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