It’s time to stop overlooking Black men’s mental health struggles

Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter here. Following the pandemic, there has been an influx of diagnoses for depression, anxiety and several other mental health disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder. Due to the increase in mental health concerns, the number of teenagers and adults seeking mental health resources and treatments is also on the rise. More and more Americans are going to therapy and taking medications for their mental health. There has also been an increase in conversations and reports centered around the mental health crisis, with organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at the center as they work to raise mental health awareness and attempt to find solutions for the crisis. But, this cannot be said about every American or every organization and these conversations are not happening everywhere, especially not within marginalized communities, in particular the Black male community. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reported that suicide is one of the leading causes of death for Black men aged 15-24, with the suicide rate for Black men exceeding the death...