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"As a Black boy and now a man, we don't get to emote" | Mental health advocate hopes more boys and men go to therapy

Many believe there is the stigma associated with therapy along with internal pressures of Black masculinity that is causing the gap.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — May marks Mental Health Awareness month and it is a topic many people do not feel comfortable discussing, but so many are struggling with. 

In the first year of the pandemic, the prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25% around the world, and so many of those people are not getting the care they need.

That often includes Black men, who for many reasons, are not reaching out for treatment. 

According to the National Institute of Health, African-Americans are 20% more likely to have serious psychological distress than white Americans, and Black men are four times more likely to die by suicide than Black women are. 

Many believe it is the stigma associated with therapy, along with internal pressures of Black masculinity that is causing the gap.

Brennan Steele is an advocate who is determined to change that, and is encouraging other Black men to reach out for help.

"My personal experience, as a Black boy and now a man, is that we don't get to emote. We have to abide by these ways of masculinity and not show emotion," Steele expressed.

Steele said this way of thinking is damaging and has affected his personal growth.

"I think our society has us in between two conditions that keep us not expressive, and then on top of that, just our history," Steele said. "We've had to survive so many things... it's like, 'Oh you'll be alright.'"

Steele said before going to therapy, he did not know what processing his thoughts and emotions looked like until he reached his breaking point while teaching his students. 

"At the time, I was teaching all Black boys 5th-grade math. It was the first time I had all these humans depending on me," Steele said. "I was like, 'I can't help them if I'm not good myself.'"

The more he tried to deal with his issues, the harder it was to help his students.

"The amount that they had, that they were asking me to help them with, caused everything to just come out, and so from there, I was like I need to go to therapy," Steele said. 

That is when he found freedom and never looked back. Now he wants the same for others, so he is going back to school to earn his degree in clinical health counseling.

"I could then create space for those people who felt marginalized in our society and don't always feel comfortable because of that stigma," Steele stated.

He also wrote a book during the pandemic in response to all of the Black lives that were taken in 2020.

"It hit me in a way that it hadn't hit me in a long time," Steele added. 

It is called 'Breathe, a guided healing journal for Black men'. It is his way of introducing others to what he learned in therapy through a 45-day journey. 

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