Addressing Mental Health as BIPOC

Graphics by Hannah Chung

For most children, fifth grade is when they start thinking more about abstract ideas. For Kamryn Bouyett, Long Beach State student and host of the podcast “Awkwardly Adulting,” fifth grade was when she started thinking about her race.

“I started experiencing like, ‘oh my god, why am I Black?” Bouyett said. “Why can't I be like white?’”

Bouyett wanted her hair to be straightened all the time and she noticed that trying to assimilate with others helped her feel better about herself.

“And when I noticed that feeling of ‘ick,’ I tried to tell my mom about it and I know for sure she didn't know what to do,” Bouyett said.

Bouyett said she began therapy during the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement last year. 

“Everything started going out of control and I felt like I was suffocating,” Bouyett said. “My first therapist, she was white. So when I explained to her that I'm stressed out about this and this and she's like, ‘oh, okay…’

And she had a hard time going about helping me, which made me very uncomfortable. That kind of bugged me. So I didn't even talk to her about any of that stuff anymore after that.”

Bouyett’s story isn’t uncommon. People of color across the country experience problems accessing mental health services that address all of their needs.

People of color, compared to white people, are less likely to have access to or seek out mental health services.

Racism, cultural stigma and economic factors make it harder for people to receive the treatment they need, according to Counseling Today.  The American Psychological Association found that in 2015, 86% of psychologists in the United States were white.

“That experience of telling my therapist I'm stressed out about being Black and she really couldn't give me anything, it brought me down more because I felt like there was no way to maneuver through that issue during that time,” Bouyett said. “I kind of had to figure it out by myself.”

Graphics by Hannah Chung

July was recognized as BIPOC mental health awareness month beginning in 2008 to raise awareness of the “unique struggles that underrepresented groups face in regard to mental illness in the US.” 

“I think that people don't really seek help because they don't think it's that serious,” Bouyett said. “I don't think I saw it as serious at the time.

“I just thought it was normal. I thought all the kids went through it.” 

LA Times High School Insider intern Kate De La Torre said that growing up in a Mexican family, she was raised to deal with mental issues silently.

 “You just handle it on your own,” De La Torre said. “I don't talk about it to my family members. I don't talk about anything. And at times that could even make me seem as if I have no emotion.”

In De La Torre’s experience, mental health issues are dismissed very easily and aren’t seen as important or valid.

“It's hard and it affects the way that people tend to reach out,” De La Torre said.

For software engineer Tang, accessing mental health services was never discussed in the family.

“None of my grandparents would have ever gone to therapy,” Tang said. “And then my dad, it was at the point where my little sister was basically begging him to go to therapy. And he just for whatever reason could not even entertain the thought of doing that.”

Tang said they wish therapy were more accessible.

“Access to therapy is a really complicated thing,” Tang said.

“First, if you do have hang ups about getting help, you have to get over that first and then you spend months trying to find a therapist. And if you're sort of limited means like, if you're a student, if you don't have good insurance or don't get paid a lot, it can be really hard to find someone and then you end up on a waitlist for months. And then you can end up there and it still might just not be the right person for you.

“It's incredibly discouraging, because at the same time you're juggling whatever it is that is the reason that you need to seek therapy.”

For a list of BIPOC mental health resources, visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s website.

Graphics by Hannah Chung