What does Depression look like in Black Women?
I recently watched a TikTok that seems to be going viral and it’s all about Black Women having Depression. I’m back in school to become a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (currently in my second semester at Walden University) and I am enjoying it so far. Anytime, I hear a creator discuss Black Women’s mental health my ears perk up. Keep reading for my why behind going back to school. And shout out to this creator for linking the NYU article in her blog and writing her own blog post regarding the article. Thank you for the inspo.
The article will also be linked at the bottom of my blog post so you can read it yourself. The main point the article is making is that Black Women have Depression, however we show it differently than our counterparts. In this study they tested over 200 Black women who were actually doing a study about high blood pressure related to pregnancy and were doing a general Depression screening as a part of the protocol. Within that Depression screening is where the researchers found a whole new set of research regarding how Black women show Depression.
Side bar, my corporate job is in the NICU department and a lot of our patients have their babies prematurely due to preeclampsia, which is pregnancy high blood pressure. I find it interesting and exciting that the researchers were able to get so many Black women to participate even if it was originally for high blood pressure reasons. The reason I am excited is because I recently posted a TikTok video saying I was sad that there is limited research on Black women and someone commented “very common because we are not typically apart of control groups”. This made me sad, and fueled the fire under me as to one of the reasons I am back in school.
As I am back in school, I want to stay relevant to the trends in social media related to Black Women’s Health and hearing that we as Black Women are Depressed it just looks different has felt liberating for me. That might sound strange to some, but for the people that this article is meant for, I know you get me. Finally there is an answer for US.
I have had my own mental health scares postpartum. I was not diagnosed with Postpartum Depression, instead I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety. I remember being in a complete blur during that time of diagnosis (I just wanted to feel better and also wanted my insurance to cover my therapy visits) by my therapist and feeling very alone because I did not have anyone to confide in about what the diagnosis did or did not mean. I remember taking that diagnosis and running with it. I made sure to do everything my therapist recommended which did help. But could I have received even more help if I received a second opinion?
I recently connected with someone who mentioned, maybe my therapist misdiagnosed me? I was taken a back by this statement but then realized, maybe they are right. According to the NYU article, clinicians can miss the depression symptoms in Black women because we portray it as fatigue and low libido. This makes me think maybe that person I connected with a few months ago was right?…
I did get the help that I needed, but what about the other women after me or that I currently encounter in my yoga classes that I teach, in my everyday life, that may be depressed but think that they just are not keeping up….
This is why I am back in school.
My mental health postpartum coupled with transforming my own life with therapy and life coaching is what has led me to advance my degree as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner because there needs to be more Black Women in the mental health space to make other Black women feel safe enough to want to share their stories. To want to participate in research. Research changes lives. Research saves lives. Have you participated in a research study before? Lemme know.
Disclaimer: I am not a licensed mental health professional. Please speak with a licensed mental health professional if you need help.
References
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2022/december/depression-Black-women.html
