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There's a big stigma in the black community about mental health.

 

Learn more about PTSD from Jeffrey Jones (US Army, 1989-1994) and other Veterans who’ve been there: http://www.ptsd.va.gov/AboutFace

Transcript

When Veterans show up,
especially living with PTSD,

especially being a Black
Veteran living with PTSD,

you need a double help
and a double scoop of hope

because you're gonna get
it from outside of the race

as well as the inside of their race.

Let me say this: there's a big stigma

in the Black community
about mental health.

We will jokingly say you cra-cra,

you need a cra-cra check.

We jokingly will say that.

But we don't go see a psychiatrist.

We don't see a psychologist.

We don't take mental health medications.

We just believe he had some
bad drugs and lost his mind.

He used something and he
ain't been the same since.

And we don't acknowledge
that mental health is real.

That mental health illness is real.

And we don't acknowledge that
enough in the Black community.

We don't. We just don't.

And I think that's something that me

being a person living
with the mental illness,

is that I have to educate my family.

And I have to talk about mental
illness so that you know,

"Look, you can recover,
you can live with it,

but you have to acknowledge it.

We can't just brush it off
like it doesn't exist."

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