在十几岁的时候很难为之奋斗。社会等级制度的压力在越来越小的年龄上施加在他们的雷达上。与她的白人或拉丁裔同学相比，一个年轻的黑人少年与试图吸引她的注意力的各种信息进行战斗。她有很多想法。但是，如果她在一种文化中成长prioritizes strength over health，她可以在应该抚养她的村庄的手中受苦。年轻的黑人对刻板印象和标签也不陌生。
Teen suicide rates increase at an average of nine percent per year, and suicide has officially取代凶杀案是第二大死亡原因for Black teens age 15-24, according to theHHS少数民族卫生办公室。What can healthcare providers and parents of Black teens do to meet adolescents halfway and support them in照顾他们的心理健康?
专家说，围绕黑人生活和精神卫生保健附带的污名是问题的根源。
改变您谈论心理健康的方式
尽管验证可能并不是每个人的问题，但青少年需要确认他们的行为和经验是正常的，可以解决。Alisha Woodall, a licensed professional counselor from寻找基础in Dallas, tells SheKnows that many adolescents aren’t brought in for mental health treatment unless there is a drastic behavioral change.
伍德尔说：“您将拥有与其他人使用疗法更多的人口统计学，仅仅是因为对此的意义。”“这实际上取决于观点 - 我认为这就是为什么某些社区比其他社区更频繁地接受治疗的原因。”
Woodall treats mostly Black women ages 25 to 40 — but, nationally, the percentage of Black adults who receive mental health services in the last year was just 8.7 percent. Black teens are looking up to a generation that may not have prioritized their own mental health.
伍德尔说：“其中最大的一部分正在改变叙事和我们看到心理健康的方式，因为当有人寻求心理健康服务或治疗时，这似乎并不令人震惊。”“如果有人生病，那不是第二次去看医生。这是瞬时的。”
Even today, there is growing evidence that health careproviders see Black people as more tolerant of pain。心理健康问题虽然没有歧视。最近的少数民族健康办公室的调查表明,没有一个种族经验更多的精神愈合th issues than another, but cost andcommunity factors influence each person’s choice to seek help。
That’s why Woodall says that parents should be open to bringing up and讨论“自我”（内在思想，感觉，情感处理）with their young ones. “Being open to it early on — not just being open to therapy — but just being open to what mental health really is,” she says can make a difference. Woodall adds that a simple “how was your day?” is not enough — it’s about digging into their inner self and understanding what your child is真的在他们的一天中的感觉。
当然，这可能与较旧一代的消息背道而驰，这可能会鼓励推动并克服它，但这是至关重要的。根据National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)，随着青少年从13岁到18岁，精神障碍的增加，在17岁和18岁之间最急剧，这为开始开放富有成效，无耻的对话提供了一个简短的窗口。如果他们将来需要寻求帮助，那么很难知道在哪里看合伙人寻求羞耻的帮助。
伍德尔说，对心理健康的态度最终将取决于个人所拥有的教育，曝光和经验的水平：“即使在过去的五年中，人们认为人们对治疗的方式也发生了巨大变化。但是老一辈本来会在窃窃私语。”
Understand the Black experience & respect each child’s individual experience
Black people are not a monolith. While the realities of absent fathers and attitude problems are still prevalent, tip-toeing around these stereotypes will not make teens more comfortable to speak about their issues. How we discuss the Black experience, whether we’re part of the community or not, is crucial.
Lorenzo P. Lewis is the founder ofThe Confess Project，一家致力于为黑人男孩和男人打击心理健康污名的非营利组织。通过与少年拘留中心的黑人青少年的合作，他专注于在提供者和服务者之间充当障碍的地位。
“Think about the dehumanizing of social media and the lack of social connectedness leading to Black teens feeling more isolated. Then there’s also the family dynamics,”刘易斯告诉谢克斯。“贫困是有色社区的一个问题，贫穷直接与童年创伤联系在一起。如果他们可能被虐待或受到广泛的纪律（打屁股），那么他们可能更有可能遇到有关多动症或自杀念头的问题。”
All of this, tied in with faith-based values (like believing God is the only source of healing) or Black hyper-masculinity (which treats mental illness as weakness) creates specific language around the Black experience. Lewis also mentions a distrust of themedical community in general, and historical trauma那个黑人美国人由于奴隶制和歧视而经历。
The Black experience is nuanced and personal, and there is no way for non-Black providers tofullyunderstand it, as Lewis notes: “We need folks that really can show up and give a true narrative by being realistic and humanizing the experiences that we do go through, and letting the people that you serve know that.”
If you’re not Black, you can’t connect on a racial level, but you can connect on a personal level by setting aside your privileges and removing the status that society has assigned to Black people. Lewis suggests validating the teen where they are at, rather than bringing them to your level: “It’s about them,” he says. “It’s not about us.”
黑人青少年不是特殊情况或令人不安的故事。归根结底，他们只是十几岁的青少年，他们应该为自己的个人旅程提供个人关心。他们旅程中附带的黑色体验只是承认的关键部分。
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A version of this story was published February 2020.
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