Navigating Mental Health In The Caribbean
What it's like and how we can keep advancing.
Hola mi gente 👋🏾🌴🥥
Being in the therapy and mental health space is one of the biggest blessings of my life, and, it also carries challenges which I know Caribbean therapists and other mental health practicioners practising in the Caribbean are more than familiar with.
One of the prominent hurdles I’ve encountered doing therapy in the Caribbean is the stigma which exists surrounding it, which bleeds into how people engage with therapy, mental health, and conversations about both. There’s still negative messaging surrounding mental health, emotions, and therapy.
Some of the messaging we as practitioners can hear or observe include;
“Therapy is for white people.”
“Why are you so sensitive? You need to toughen up.”
“Children don’t have anything to be stressed or overwhelmed about.”
“Just pray about it and you’ll be fine.”
“Why are you being like that? It’s not that serious.”
“Go talk to someone I don’t know and tell them my business? No way.”
Shutting down, getting defensive, or being dismissive when discussions surrounding mental health or emotions arise.
Whether it’s with adults or younger, each population carries similar and unique challenges. Some of these challenges include pressure at school - peer pressure and/or academic pressure to be perfect or to make sure you get ‘all good grades’, navigating interpersonal dynamics, learning how to manage your emotions well, discovering who you are, trying to figure out how to balance your professional life with your personal life, and challenges with communication and conflict management, just to name a few :).
While I believe there’s been more openness and receptivity to therapy and things in the mental health sphere regionally, I know there are still some who feel embarrassed and are opposed to either someone they know getting therapeutic help or them getting it for themselves. There are still the narratives that if you just pray about it everything will be good, if you just talk with your friends you’ll be okay, or if you just stop focusing on “it” things wouldn’t be so bad.
Being a Christian myself, I believe in the power of prayer, and, I believe in the power of therapy. I believe God gifted persons to do this work, just as we have doctors, teachers, nurses, dentists - and the list can go on. At the end of the day, one of the truths that remains is that we’re all human and therefore, we’re all going to struggle. We aren’t required to have everything together nor to have all the answers. We have to get comfortable with not being able to just “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps”, and instead, be open to someone asking for help when they need it, and affirming them when they do. We also have to get comfortable asking for help ourselves, even when it may feel scary, recognising that the fear we experience is completely understandable, and many people experience it, too.
As a Black woman, I know a lot of the stigma surrounding mental health and therapy goes right back to our roots of slavery which manifests itself in various ways. I also know that our varying family cultures play a part in the perceptions and beliefs we develop about mental health and therapy. At the same time, I believe that we can choose to take care of ourselves and get the help we need and reframe that as a strength instead of a weakness. That said, the field isn’t perfect, but what field is? Caribbean people are a proud people - we’re proud about who we are and about our culture, and, reaching out for the help we need, sometimes desperately, doesn’t mean we’re less than or that we need to feel ashamed.
I believe that more education surrounding mental health and therapy is a significant part of dismantling the stigma which exists and advancing forward, and that education has to be shared as well as embraced. Some other ways include contributing to opportunities for open dialogue about mental health and therapy, exploring why there’s a stigma and what continues to reinforce it, having conversations about what therapy is and why it’s important, and openly discussing how mental health challenges show up and what taking care of your mental health practically looks like.
Some examples of practical ways are, genuinely apologizing when you get something wrong (and this includes adults apologizing to children), not saying yes to every request that’s brought to you, engaging in movement or exercise a few times a week, or making sure you eat meals everyday and drink your water.
Speaking as a proud Caribbean woman myself, I believe we have to assume a posture of humility, curiosity, and openness if we truly want to do better and be better when it comes to taking better care of our mental health. We have to be open to learning and growing. I’m a therapist, and I’m still learning, and I always will be. & the mental health field will have to keep improving, too.
I pray for the day when as Caribbean people, we place deeper value on our mental well-being and our emotional wellness, we embrace our emotions and encourage healthy emotional expression, and we celebrate and honour pouring into these aspects of ourselves and our lives consistently. Our mental health is connected to our overall health, and to be a mentally and emotionally well people is a blessing and a gift I pray we continuously move towards, one concerted and purposeful step at a time. 🙏🏾🌸
Action Prompt
Think of three ways you can intentionally tend to your mental and emotional health this week God willing, and engage in them.
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Well said. I can't add to it.