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National Suicide Prevention Week will be observed from Sept. 10 to 16, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention designates September as National Suicide Prevention Month. In August, many news reports highlighted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s findings that close to 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2022, which included an alarming increase of senior citizens.
For September, efforts are being made in Ohio to focus on how suicide is impacting the African American community. Vigils across the state will be held to remember those who took their lives in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and other cities. This initiative is being led by Jewel Woods, who founded the Male Behavioral Health outpatient mental practice in Gahanna. In an interview for “The Columbus Dispatch,” Woods pointed out that Black male Ohioans have the highest suicide rates in the state and that the stigma that has persisted in Black communities has caused many African Americans to believe that suicide is a “white thing or a crazy people thing.”
I can attest to attitudes of belief that many Black people were too tough emotionally to commit suicide while growing up in the South during the 1980s. Suicide was hardly discussed among my elders, but when it did come up, I remember them taking the position that many Black people did not succumb to death by their own hands due to having an incredibly resilient spirit. My mother would often say that as a people we knew how to endure hardship and difficult times because of our ongoing fight against racism and oppression in this country. It was thought that the resolve to survive made us strong and kept our minds intact.
As far as the perception regarding suicide as a “white or crazy people thing,” a 2022 study published in the academic journal Deviant Behavior addressed these assumptions under the title “Is This Really Our Problem?: A Qualitative Exploration of Black Americans’ Misconceptions about Suicide.” The researchers aimed to provide suicidal prevention educators in northeast Ohio with more knowledge that is “culturally grounded.” In the beginning of their study, they explain that Black women are more likely than Black men to seek help for psychological distress and suicidal thoughts, while Black men are more likely “to complete suicide.” One of the major protective cultural institutions mentioned is the church, which has traditionally served as a comforting sanctuary of refuge for African Americans. The researchers discuss how faith in God and “religious involvement” is connected to lower rates of suicide among Blacks but also explain “the notion that prayer alone” will resolve suicidal tendencies has “become increasingly contentious.” Having been a part of the church, or as researchers specifically like to refer to as “the Black church,” all of my life, I can acknowledge that there has been a misunderstanding in how to effectually incorporate prayer when it comes to mental health challenges.
A common saying in the Black church is that “Jesus will fix it,” and while the Bible does affirm the miraculous healing virtue of Christ, I strongly believe that many people have not been thoroughly taught that they also need an active spiritual walk in fellowship with the Lord. For example, regarding keeping our mind spiritually sound, the Bible commands us to renew it in Romans 12:2, which is a promise to bring about a divine transformation in how we live. For believers, renewing of the mind comes through meditation and study of Scripture. One Bible verse that I am beginning to lean on more for my mental well-being is Proverbs 4:23, which says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” “Issues” in this text refers to boundaries. Many of my boundaries revolve around my carefulness in whom I allow in my company and my avoidance of detrimental and negative content in the books I read and the music I listen to. Now this does not mean that I have not had emotional struggles in my walk of faith, and when many Black people are embarrassed to confess they are battling with their mental health, this feeds the well-known stigma in Black culture that these difficulties are a sign of weakness.
As more mental health researchers study African Americans’ cultural perceptions of suicide and look for more ways to reduce deaths in Black communities, I pray that those who feel shame in asking for help will overcome the humiliation they feel. No one should be compelled to end their life because they are afraid to admit they are not OK.
Dr. Jessica A. Johnson is a lecturer in the English department at Ohio State University’s Lima campus.
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