What subgroups do you wish their was a Black version of because you don't fit in the 'white' version? Or what Black subgroups are you already in and you're not fitting in?

I wish there was subgroups on Black Marriage, Black Marriage Over 50, Mental Health Over 50, RegretBeingAParent or HateBeingAParent, LonerStoners to name a few.

I'm in BlackGirls. I'm not a girl.

No, I'm not creating any subgroups, I'm just wondering.

It doesn't need to be a grand gesture, it can be: completing chores, getting out of bed, getting a new job, staying alive, doing something scary, taking a shower, etc.

Share what you are proud of from this past week. Pat yourself on the back. Treat yourself to something nice today.

If you need self-care ideas, tips for finding a therapist, or links to call/text a hotline check out our Resources Wiki Page here.

We're on discord! Join us here.

If you feel drained after interacting with someone thats a sign, not a coincidence

Black female - I'm in Los Angeles, CA. I'm hard working and I adhere to company rules and policies and only check my phone on my breaks. I'm serious about work. I'm applying for jobs with my real name...a Nigerian name and these are jobs that usually start anywhere from $20-$26 an hour. I just need to get my foot in the door somewhere but I'm finding it difficult in customer service jobs, call centers and appointment clerks. I already have the experience (I was born in the US). A lot of these types of jobs say Spanish preferred or required, but I only speak English. I'd greatly appreciate someone giving me a chance if anyone knows of anyone who's hiring at an on-site/in-person location. Lately, I've only been successful obtaining a job, through recommendations - I assume it's because of my name, causing employers and recruiters to overlook me. I'm not sure. Thanks.

TLDR; I (26f) run a suicide prevention non-profit for Black women and femmes and want to think of new community support strategies.

Hey y'all, I am wondering what types of support you or your friends/fam would benefit from when feeling suicidal. It'd be great to know ages and gender identity too. I am trying to workshop existing and create new programs and resources that really support people.

First time poster on here. I recently learned that I have borderline personality disorder and as a Black Man, it feels 10x harder to manage with this and also handle my identity as such. It feels like I have extra weight to carry not only with my racial issues but also my emotional state and regulatiuon...and the latter is hard enough as it is these days. The splitting thoughts, the Jekyll and Hyde moments, the ideation, the imposter syndrome, the emptiness...it's crippling. Throw in micro aggressions from others, someone deciding to act a fool because they decided it was a good idea to pick on a POC in their thought process, and other external radicalized factrors, and you essentially have a perfect storm of mental anguish that's hard to overcome. Not sure if anyone else in this sub has been diagnosed with BPD and not to confuse it with bi-polar but can anyone at least slightly relate to this?

Hi BMH folks,

I’m starting this thread for anyone to chat about how they are feeling post-election. Please comment below your EMOTIONS regarding any of the elections results—national or local.

We, the mods, believe mental health is not mutually exclusive from our social and political environments.

I know there are a lot of feelings swirling around. I do want to reiterate that r/BlackMentalHealth stands for the rights and respect of ALL Black folks (LGBTQIA+, disabled, women, men, trans, Afro-mixed race, thin, curvy, immigrants, etc.)

Please share how our current political climate may be affecting your mental health.

(WE DO ALLOW FOR DISAGREEMENT. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL AND NOT INTENTIONALLY ATTACK ANYONE TO SPUR INCITEMENT.)

“What's the difference when your heart is made of stone and your mind is made of gold and your tongue is made of sword, but it may weaken your soul?”

Just thought about giving into “venom”.

I'm 23 years old and all my life, my family has preached nothin but positive affirmations about black people while bashing other races. Sayin things like black people have super powers, other European and Asian countries don't even know their skin used to be darker, they're tryna wipe us out, watch who you hang with, those white people don't care about you, etc.

I'm not saying any of this is or isn't true but, for some reason, I can't feel as passionate about black issues. Something just doesn't click in my head. Whenever my mom starts talking about how she hates another race I roll my eyes and chalk it to her being racist. But, she grew up in a very racist town that would treat our family like shit to the point of some of the parents telling their kids that they didn't want them dating my mom or not letting them in their house so it's not like I can say she's wrong for it.

It's not like I don't care. I don't lack empathy and I can feel bad for someone or something when something bad happens, it just feels like general apathy. I don't typically follow other non-racial events on the news either to be fair but, I hate that I don't have the passion, the drive or the cultural intelligence to feel deeply upset about a black issue.

Just now, my mom screamed in the shower and when I asked what happened, she told me about how a black college burned down. I told her she scared me because I thought someone died and she said that basically does constitute as a death because a lot of history was in there and our younger generation don't care about fighting to preserve our history for or kids and grandkids. I feel bad the college was burned down. I feel worse that I don't feel worse about it and I don't feel compelled to look deeper into problems like this.

While, I love seeing our people create and do amazing things and I love the way we can turn anything into a positive and how we have so much culture and flavor when I comes to turns of phrase or choice in vernacular, I don't feel like I have a strong connection to the culture when it comes to the negative stuff. And as a black man with a black mother who's so passionate and being told that as a black man, I should have more care, more passion, more willingness to fight, it hurts that I don't have the same mentality or activation in my head. Am I fake?

It doesn't need to be a grand gesture, it can be: completing chores, getting out of bed, getting a new job, staying alive, doing something scary, taking a shower, etc.

Share what you are proud of from this past week. Pat yourself on the back. Treat yourself to something nice today.

If you need self-care ideas, tips for finding a therapist, or links to call/text a hotline check out our Resources Wiki Page here.

We're on discord! Join us here.

Today I was surrounded by some bad people. For some reason me telling them I wasn't scared of them did the trick, even though I was. I told them I would pay them but never got around to it since I'm so broke. These people are violent and will use force, I feel like my next encounter with them will be confrontational. Been thinking of arming myself.

This is your monthly reminder that we have mental health resources & events listed on our Wiki page.

📑 Our Mental Health Resources Wiki page includes (but are not limited to):

• Therapist directories
• Resources for LGBTQIA+ folks
• Resources for folks with Neurodivergence (Autism, ADHD, OCD, etc.)
• Mental Health-related books by Black authors
• Tips for going to and attending therapy
• Self-care ideas
• How to manage and cope with your emotions
• Black mental health organizations/non-profits
• Links to other mental health subreddits (general and by diagnosis)

We continually update this list. Feel free to post mental health-related resources in the comments below and we'll add them to the Wiki page.

💛 We love hearing about folks recommending this r/BlackMentalHealth to other Black folks on Reddit. Please keep sharing this sub! We want to make sure we are reaching as many Black folks as possible to give them a safe space to talk about their mental health and get support and resources.

💬 Don't forget to stay connected with us via Discord. Join us here.

📣 MODS NEEDED! 📣 Check out our wiki page here to apply.

Today was a great day. I started to reminisce and I thought of something funny that my friend and I would do. I then thought that I should reach out to him soon….

He died a year ago. He was only in his late 30’s. He was well loved and respected in his community. A leader, a visionary, and a great friend. He was like a brother to me when I lived in the city for college. We were friends for YEARS.

We stopped talking for a few years, because I couldn’t take his diva attitude. Always said I would reach back out but never did. I wish that I would’ve.

Only his family knows how he died. They are keeping it a secret. When I lived out there, he was healthy and really valued life. But I’m assuming he went out in his own. The not knowing has been haunting me for a year. I hope that he didn’t feel so alone and unsupported that he decided to do that. I hope that is not what happened. But why else the secrecy.

I stayed up late a cried some. My poor toddler, she tried to comfort me in her own little way. I hate that he’s gone. I hate that sometimes I forget that he’s gone. Because when I remember that he is gone it’s like I’m hearing the news of his death all over again. That sinking feeling. Seeing him in his casket. He was so full of life. How is he lying there??

Idk how to move on. How to get closure about his death when I probably will never know how he died?

We all know this platform is predominantly white but it seems even other minorities and backgrounds have larger subreddits than we do. Besides BPT (which half of reddit complained about a few years ago) and the black porn subreddits (because for some reason a lot of people that don't really support our community sure support the naked women in our community), there's not really a lot of subreddits focused towards us and the ones that we do have generally don't have a lot of activity/people (comparably).

So what many subreddits do we actually have?

Hope everyone in y'all lives happy, healthy, alive and doing good. We gotta start putting more of our media on here more often.

For example this video:

https://youtu.be/W274l2WOcsE

It's interesting how there's a lot of joke comments, people making jokes about him not being able to shoot, etc but you know damn well if it were a black person in the video, half the comments would be calling him the worst human to exist and making so many racial jokes about "the typical suspect" and all that bullshit.

I just think it's kinda funny they don't hold that same energy towards someone that does equally as fucked up things if not worse.

We gotta start calling this out more

Has anyone in this group ever considered or traveled to any parts of Africa as a means to heal mental health and connect with their heritage?

Wish I could’ve added multiple flairs because I’d also add “Inspirational” to this if I could, but I digress.

Black people! My people. I know that it seems like everything is shit at the moment, and if it’s not, it’s damn near on the brink of it. And as someone that has struggled with severe anxiety my entire conscious life lol, (scarred by Revelations at 10), I really want to say this to you:

Hold on.

If it’s because you’ve lost everything and you’re uncertain of the rest, hold on. If it’s because you feel unseen and silent in your suffering, please hold on. If it’s because you feel that we as a people are at a constant war within ourselves, within our communities, our neighborhoods, our cities, our suburbs and states, y’all know the damn country and please don’t get me started on the world, hold on! Please, hold on.

I implore you to hold on because seeing y’all hold on encourages me to hold on, it inspires me to hunker down, to hope and know that at least I am not alone.

You cannot Master the external, the world will forever be chaotic and ever changing, and in attempting to do so we often lose our own power, our own resilience over the turmoil internally. Let the Earth be the Earth, pull back that awareness to the surroundings immediate to you and breathe as deeply as you can stand it.

I want us to love ourselves more intensely than we could ever love another, so that we can then know what’s it’s like to give, share and receive love proper. Have grace in knowing that we will fuck up, all of us, even I might come off as a bit of a douche for this, but honestly, I need this as much as the person I hope reading it can relate.

I hope whomever reads this has a beautiful day, y’all deserve it and you will seize it.

I’m at a mental health program and one of the few black people here. Today things were going well until I found out some of the other residents were trump supporters. I fell down a rabbit hole, thinking about how anyone who supports him or is even indifferent about him, just doesn’t care about the well-being of black people. They wouldn’t care if I lived or died. It sucks because I was starting to like some of these people. The treatment team says socializing is important but I don’t trust these people anymore. I’m afraid to find out any of the residents true colors. And I can’t even handle indifference. I don’t want to be around anyone who doesn’t understand why this election is causing me anxiety. I’m scared of what could happen to me and my family if trump wins. I’m scared of his supporters. I don’t want to be the bigger person and educate anyone on why my life fucking matters. I’m tired already. I feel alone and am wondering what’s the point of continuing my treatment. Similarly I’m starting to feel more depressed and keep wondering what’s the point in general.

Update: thank you for the kind words and advice. I spoke to my treatment team and they seem very understanding. They supported my decision to not interact with any trump supporters and they understand why this is a big deal for me. To be clear, I feel physically safe. I’m fine. It’s just that before talking to my treatment team I felt alone and fearful for my future. Even though most of them are white, I’ve found some people who align with me politically and I feel less alone in that way. I just really hope Kamala Harris wins the election.

I have been struggling with my mental health for so long and I really want to start making changes that really help me. What are some resources? Apps? I do have a therapist, but I want to do more.

I don't know what it is with black family and mental health. When I was trying to talk to my mom about my mental health issues completely ignored me and then said you don't look like it. But when it comes to other family members my mom is so concerned about them. But it took 30 years for her to calm me as her daughter. My mom never listens to me. So I know that feeling of being alone.

tw: 5u1c1d3

I have a bad habit of being absolute dog shit at everything. Yes, everything. I'm terrible at living, I'm terrible at working, I'm terrible at being an adult, I'm terrible at being mature, and I'm even terrible at killing myself. Especially since I posted a suicide letter about 3 weeks ago and I have yet to go through with my plan.

Honestly I'm just tired of being pathetic every single day. I'm tired of feeling nothing but sadness and anger. Anger that is unjustified sometimes. Today I went to Walmart and I got vocally upset at one of the employees because as I was walking out, they told me that I had to walk out from the exit door instead of the entrance door. The reason why I tried walking out of the entrance doors because there was a long line of people at the exit door and I just wanted to leave the store. Instead of being understanding of the policy, I reacted to the situation harshly and got upset at the worker for doing their job. It hurts even more because as someone who has worked at retail for over 2 years, it is beyond frustrating to be yelled at for doing your job. I am very ashamed of myself for doing something so stupid.

I can't get my emotions controlled. Whenever I get upset or angry, I get really upset or angry. There's no such thing as feeling any emotion lightly or mildly. I either don't feel it at all or I feel it to the absolute extreme. It sucks. It's unfortunate. I'm tired of living like this. I'm tired of living. I just want to go away forever.

But I can't even do that right.

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Has anyone seen an uptick of trolling or hate posting in this sub lately? I've seen 2 just in the last 30 minutes. They've been blocked and reported, but it still is concerning.

When I was growing up I was a lot more nice to people and willing to forgive, I was very selfless and would put people's needs before my own To the point it was extremely unhealthy to myself. I also managed to set myself back several years in life by not focusing on myself.

But as of lately most of my issues have inverted. I went from being exploited by everyone to being exploited by no one. I keep a healthy distance from everyone, and while I still have empathy for others. It's largely for Black people and my own family members who I understand have had to overcome more socially in this unbalanced world.

I don't know if my actions were necessary, justifiable or too extreme. I can't think of anything behaviorally I do that's malicious. I don't know if I'm feeling guilty just because I've always been a people pleaser, or if it's a sign I've gone too far.

Before I cut people off I was both depressed and having very violent thoughts, but I almost never do anymore. I have more energy and while I'm still behind in life I'm definitely going in the right direction for the first time in my life. I'd say I'm lonely, but sadly I was more alone around friends and family who would exploit me and kick me while I was down compared to now. I'm in good company of myself and God, and the rare meetup with a newer friend.

I know y’all bout to say. Me(M19) and my girlfriend(F20) work in the same retail store. We have been together for a year. My friends don’t like her she doesn’t like them. She’s a cashier and my friends and I are floor workers. Some of the guys from the floor.

One of my friends is the manager on the floor. He(M42) doesn’t like most of the cashiers, including my girlfriend. So the cashiers had a meeting recently, so one of the rules is to not talk to the guard which is one of the floor guys.

So some of my friends would listen in on the cashiers conversations(including my gf) and would report back to the manager, but for messy reasons, I would’ve never known this if she hadn’t told me. She knows because she overheard one of them. It pisses her off.

I understand that most times girls vent to their boyfriends because they just want to be heard or also because they want them to do something about it. I feel horrible because I feel like I never had her back with them. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know whether I should say something or keep quiet. tl;dr

I am in my 30’s, started therapy at 28, and I have seen various therapists over the years but feel no better.

I’ve seen therapists with specialties such as trauma informed and post partum issues. I’ve seen therapists who had me talking a lot and therapists who do a lot of psycho education and mindfulness techniques with me during session.

I’m feeling annoyed and alone. Maybe it’s because I cannot escape my triggers. I’m on medication now, so hopefully this will help. It may also be that I have struggled with everything going on that’s outside of me, such as politics, racism, sexism, stupidity in this country, inflation, etc. I find myself looking at nostalgia posts a lot (90’s-00’s) and I just cry so much. It wasn’t perfect back then, but idk I just miss it.

Anyway, I’m taking a break from therapy for a bit. This therapist is trauma informed, does a lot of psycho education during session, I barely talk, and it’s through my grad school so I’m limited in how many sessions I receive. I guess her goal is not to be my legit therapist but rather to provide temporary support. But it’s free. I’m hoping medication will help me until I graduate in 2026.

It doesn't need to be a grand gesture, it can be: completing chores, getting out of bed, getting a new job, staying alive, doing something scary, taking a shower, etc.

Share what you are proud of from this past week. Pat yourself on the back. Treat yourself to something nice today.

If you need self-care ideas, tips for finding a therapist, or links to call/text a hotline check out our Resources Wiki Page here.

We're on discord! Join us here.

Not even gonna lie, the depression has got to the point where I’m comfortably numb. I just gotta know what song(s) has been getting some of you thru or lets you feel what ya feeling?