Counselor: Black History Month and mental health is more encompassing than 28 days

This column is by Dr. D. Dionne Olaside Bates, a licensed professional counselor in Atlanta.

An extension of Black History Week, Black History Month has been a thing since 1976. Though not legalized in the United States until Congress passed a law recognizing the month in 1996, the concept was conceived, initiated, and legitimized in 1926 by scholar Dr. Carter G. Woodson.

Mental health, in the United States, is a part of the history of Black people and, in general, people of color. Starting with the African diaspora, our history and relationship with mental health has been distorted by systems built to traumatize, marginalize, and illegitimatize our communities physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally.

In 1851, physician Samuel Cartwright came up with a false mental illness, drapetomania, to explain enslaved people's desire for freedom and declared slaves mentally ill for running away. In 1946, the American Psychological Association named physician and segregationist Dr. Henry Garrett president. It has only been 63 years since his declaration that Blacks are “intellectually inferior” to whites was published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, a peer-reviewed academic journal.

African-American communities have historically been more likely to be harmed and targeted by entities that center profit, power, control, exploitation, oppression, violence, and trauma via eugenics, population control, desirability, and ableism – which might explain why a 2020 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) national survey found that, in comparison to 51% of their white counterparts, only 37% of African-American adults pursued mental health treatment, despite being 20% more likely to experience a mental health condition.

These systems have led to our communities into believing that mental illness is synonymous with mental health and is our life’s portion. In many instances, these systems have managed to safeguard illness within African-American and other marginalized communities by robbing them of their dignity, value, resources, agency, livelihood, and most importantly, their self-worth.

Though Black History Month occurs only one month out of the year, I suspect Dr. Woodson meant for the occasion to be a year-round commemorative, centering the achievements and contributions of African-Americans; centering their legitimization and centering the affirming, or that which is true, of African-Americans.

What we know to be true is that, despite the wounds our communities have incurred as a result of historical and contemporary systemic disenfranchisement, we have a right to heal. We have a right to be whole. We have a right to pleasure, satisfaction, and joy. We have a right to ethical and culturally relevant care.

There is still progress to be made to decrease the stigma of seeking mental health care among African-American and marginalized communities. There is also still work to be done to provide greater access to ethical care that centers cultural humility.

Progress has been and is continuing to be made. During the 1980s, Dr. Claude Steele revolutionized the social psychology field with development of self-affirmation theory. An African-American social psychologist, Dr. Steele’s theory shows evidence that self-affirmation helps individuals cope with threats to one’s self-concept and is beneficial in improving health and adaptive functioning. In 2021, that American Psychological Association issued an apology, in the spirit of healing and reconciliation, “for promoting, perpetuating, and failing to challenge racism, and the harms that have been inflicted on communities of color as a result.”

Through my own work, I have taken the principles of Steele’s self-affirmation theory to develop the self-SOULstice model of affirmation. The model moves clients to explore their core self and sense of individuality. It also seeks to restore the core self from woundedness to develop a more genuine view of self, as well as healthier responses to internal and external messages that pose threats to their self-concept and self-worth. The model also looks to accept self unconditionally and shift from self-worth protection to self-worth enhancement;. Lastly, it seeks to extend outward their affirmed self to confirm and support others in their present self-concept. This model is put to practical use through the Emotional Lifeline and Mapping Journal, also developed by me and is a call to affirm self, affirm others, and nurture self to bring healing to self and one’s community.

We are good and worthy enough of love and belonging in our relationship with ourselves individually, collectively, and the world. Yes, February is Black History Month. But the achievements and contributions of African-Americans are far more encompassing than just one month a year.

Black History Month is a time for African-Americans to be deliberately mindful about pursuing their healing and self-affirmation every day of every month of the year, whether physical, financial, spiritual, or otherwise. Moreover, we must continue to stop buying into the stigma regarding mental illness and, instead, invest in our mental and emotional health.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Black history and its relationship with mental health go hand-in-hand.