Ourselves Black continues the dialogue with Dr. Monica Coleman about her important new book, Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith as part of our discussion on faith and mental health. Part 1 is here.

Black folks are making progress with mental health. Yes, there is still stigma but it is slowly being chipped away by cultural and media forces that are gaining momentum and strength with each new moment of public transparency (Kid Cudi, Ricky Williams), each honest and humane depiction of mental illness (The Secret She Kept, Lila & Eve), every Twitter or Facebook chat. 

I recently had a discussion with a college buddy of some 38 years and discovered her newly developed conception of mental illness. She said that the symptoms and nightmarish journey I’ve been through for some 35 years was caused by the devil in my life implying that my walk with God was either non-existent or unknowing, i.e. “unholy.” I was shocked, hurt and angry.

Did you ever feel that you had to choose between your emotional well being and your academic advancement in school? Why or why not?

More needs to be said and done about the toll traumatic stress is taking on black students and what can be done to help them.

75% of black students in the survey admitted that they keep their struggles and hardships in college, and their feelings about their situation to themselves.

Even with anti-bullying legislation, criminalization of behavior too recently viewed as a schoolhouse rite of passage often creates more controversy than impactful change. Most schools nationwide have anti-bullying programs, but only eight percent of implemented programs are evidence-based and rarely incorporate metrics for success.

Students and school administrators are collaborating to come up with solutions to stop bullying in its tracks. These institutions aren’t just disciplining the bully, they’re putting systems in place that support victims of bullying as well.

The emotional life of a black teenage boy is a hard nut to crack. When he was in middle school he seemed fine at first. By all indications he had friends, and I never saw any signs that he wanted to avoid school or certain people. But honestly I didn’t know how to read those more subtle signs of trouble.

At the end of the day, while physical attraction is important, feeling safe and being able to trust your partner is what will make a relationship last. If a person with mental health issues feels that she cannot be herself around you, or he begins to treat you as a crutch, that’s a problem. 

While men are taught to be emotionally autonomous, women are socialized to seek emotional connection.  This leads to one of the most common dynamics seen in couples with communication issues: the Pursuer-Distancer Dynamic.

Everyday over 120,000 mothers in this nation wake up removed from their families and children due to incarceration.

Some parents and caregivers might have benefitted from more detailed information about what behaviors and characteristics constitute mental and emotional health. 

Relationships that compromise health and family stability can no longer be tolerated, and this applies to marriage and other romantic relationships, friendships, work relationships, and family members.

Men die because they don’t talk. My mom, suffering from manic depression herself, did the best she could but still could not alone teach me and prepare me for being a black man in America.