Three Main Causes of the Problem of Depression in African Americans, and the Three Major Effects of these Causes
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African Americans often undergo episodes of depression throughout their lifetime due to the everyday discrimination they face. In the USA, for instance, Most African Americans are unemployed or receive inadequate income and low standard education. This makes them be considered inferior compared to other racial groups, especially whites. The inferiority heightens the discrimination against African Americans, further increasing the chances of them suffering from depressive episodes. Therefore, the three leading causes of the depression among African Americans are discrimination, poverty and religious beliefs.
According to Dunlop (2018), discrimination in the form of racism is a significant cause of depression among the African American community. The racial discrimination starts early in an individual’s life, through puberty, to adulthood and old age. Consequently, the ratio discrimination results in stress and depression for the affected individuals (Conner & Brown, 2018). The age faster, experience more health problems prematurely, and their life expectancy is shortened in the long run. The main effect of racial discrimination is the lack of nationalism among African American people. They lose a sense of belonging from their country and motherland, making them vulnerable to committing crimes and other atrocities.
The research by Wilson & Foster (2018), unearths that another major cause of depression among African Americans is Poverty. Most African Americans are caught up in a poverty cycle. This means that they are unemployed or earn a meagre income, which in turn results in poor housing, poor education, poor diet and poor sanitation for them. These conditions then ensure that they remain in poverty as they will not get better jobs, education or housing with low quality or no training. This cause has numerous effects, the main one being the rise of crime among African Americans as they need money and food to live. On top of the depression, they also experience other health effects such as diabetes and hypertension.
Research by Coleman (2017), reveals the other major cause of depression among African Americans is their deep and intense religious beliefs. On a moderate font, the spirituality keeps them sane as it gives them hope and something to look forward to. However, extreme religious beliefs lead to depression when one becomes too religious to the extent that they expect all their needs to be provided by a superior being. They even lose trust in modern medicine and therefore, do not seek psychiatric help when they should. When spiritual support fails to come as expected when they start starving with no jobs or incomes for their households, depression kicks in.
The effect of religious beliefs as a cause is that it leads to increased suicides and murder among African Americans (Coleman, 2017). The shattered dreams and unanswered prayers make some of them lose hope and decide to take their own lives. Other results to murdering the same people who introduced them to religion such as parents, guardians and members of the clergy, thinking that they were misled. This seen sees the victims facing imprisonment, which worsens the depression.
In my opinion, the above causes can be prevented, and the problem of depression among African Americans can be handled strategically. Parents and teachers should teach African American children on how to deal and defend themselves against racism in a peaceful way. White children, on the other hand, should be instilled in them at an early age that all humans are equal regardless of their skin colour, race or societal class. This is because racism is the main problem that leads to the problem of depression. The government should put more efforts to ensure that African American receive a quality education at a standardized and affordable rate and that they can be employed with the qualifications they have. African Americans should be greatly sensitized that depression is a real health care problem that requires medical care.