are men of color afraid to show their Emotions?

By: Damonte Rush November 4, 2018 ¨The only person holding you back is you.¨ Loves gaming and using the platform we all know as social media.

Anxiety is...

In order to begin the nose dive into this topic, we must ask ourselves, "what is anxiety?" According to Medical News Today , anxiety is, "an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure." Now that you know that, think about it.

Have you ever experienced any feelings of tension or worry that has caused you to breath faster or just worry more? If you have, you may not know it, but it is very possible you have anxiety.

You're not alone

Over 40 million people in the world have anxiety, and there is a very high chance you could be one of them, as that amount is growing. It is very likely that there are more people with anxiety than that, but many people have no Idea that they even have it. This is why it is very likely that many men of color (Blacks, Latinx) aren't getting the treatment they need for severe cases.

Stigma for men of color

I know that all people should be getting checked out and examined to determine if they have anxiety or not, but my focus is on men of color mainly for the fact that there is an ongoing stigma in our community where "expressing our emotions" isn't considered manly.

Not "manly"

The root of this problem is the fact that there is something ingrained in our minds that tells us that we aren't "manly" if we don't suppress our emotions. This is seen very often in movies when people say "quit acting like a girl!" which associates emotions with femininity.

I interviewed a very close friend of mine who would like to stay anonymous, but he suffers with severe depression and anxiety.

What is anxiety to you? Anxiety is when you think about things that are very little constantly and make it a bigger issue than it is. For example: when going to the store, you may be constantly thinking, “What’s gonna happen on my way there?”, “Am I going to die?”, “I don’t know what could happen!” Then, you decide that you don’t want to go because of the many possibilities and potential outcomes.

On that note, do you believe that Anxiety has an impact on your life? Yes, I do believe this, and I think it’s mainly because I can’t keep my emotions contained, because there are so many things that I care about, and to lose those things makes my emotions imbalanced.

Why do you believe it is important to talk about your emotions with therapists and your peers? I’ve always been open about my emotions, because they are so overwhelming to the point that I can’t hide them, so my only choice is to let them out. When you don’t talk about your emotions, those emotions become bottled up, and that’s not a good thing. If you have something to talk about, please tell your doctor or therapist. They are there to help you, even if it doesn’t seem like it.

A new perspective

Through these questions, a new perspective emerges. Specifically, what anxiety is and what it means to have anxiety. If you are wondering how you can get treated, or if you believe that there is something you need to say or express to someone, there is a great website called The Anxiety and Depression Association of America , where they give you step-by-step details on what you need to do in order to get an accurate scope of what you may have, whether it be anxiety or depression.