The negative effects of mental illness and emotional health are something that most Americans are aware of and acknowledge. When mental illness and emotional health effects ethnic minorities and women there is a great amount of stigma that connects to this. If an individual is lower on the social pyramid there is less of a chance that they will be treated accordingly. Mental institutions are being closed due to a lack of resources and the ones that are open are not always sufficient or effective and keep the mentally ill as prisoners of their own minds. Often the mentally ill end up in prison as their illness has allowed them to commit a crime that society will not tolerate, such as drug abuse and in more serious cases murder.
Mental and emotional health is something that has affected me throughout my life with …show more content…
bell hooks describes how slavery and apartheid have effected how African Americans deal with self-care and expressing love, she states, “Slave narratives often emphasize time and time again that black people's survival was often determined by their capacity to repress feelings" (hooks, 1993, p.251). This repression of emotion has been passed down from slave generations to generations of African Americans that have to simply deal with macro-aggressions from their peers in school to daily life in a nation still built on white supremacist ideals. Black children are often told to "never let them see you sweat" which is interpreted to mean never let anyone see that you are bothered or hurting, in relation to dealing with their struggles. This was a phrase that I was often told while being bullied by my white peers as a child, because not showing emotions would mean that my bullies would have no choice but to stop bullying me. This was my tool for survival, and as an adult I learned to confront those that harmed
Mental and emotional health is something that has affected me throughout my life with …show more content…
bell hooks describes how slavery and apartheid have effected how African Americans deal with self-care and expressing love, she states, “Slave narratives often emphasize time and time again that black people's survival was often determined by their capacity to repress feelings" (hooks, 1993, p.251). This repression of emotion has been passed down from slave generations to generations of African Americans that have to simply deal with macro-aggressions from their peers in school to daily life in a nation still built on white supremacist ideals. Black children are often told to "never let them see you sweat" which is interpreted to mean never let anyone see that you are bothered or hurting, in relation to dealing with their struggles. This was a phrase that I was often told while being bullied by my white peers as a child, because not showing emotions would mean that my bullies would have no choice but to stop bullying me. This was my tool for survival, and as an adult I learned to confront those that harmed