May Is Mental Health Awareness Month

New Journal and Guide Staff

The month of May has been set aside to focus attention on individual and collective mental health. It is a topic that carries a stigma for many people causing us to avoid discussing what it really means in our lives.

Mental Health Awareness Month is not just a campaign. It’s a checkpoint that offers a moment to ask: Are we okay? Are we being honest?  Are we taking care of ourselves—and each other?

Mental health has long been one of the quiet struggles within the Black community—present in daily life, yet too often hidden behind strength, survival, and silence. While conversations about economic inequality, social justice, and political representation continue to grow louder, the emotional and psychological weight carried by many Black Americans still remains largely unspoken.

Across the country, millions silently battle anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and emotional exhaustion. Studies show that nearly one in five Black adults experiences a mental health condition, yet only a fraction receive treatment or professional support. The reasons are deeply rooted and complex. Historical trauma, generations of surviving racial injustices, cultural stigma, lack of access to care, and mistrust of medical systems have all contributed to a cycle where pain is endured rather than addressed.

Many people are taught to “push through,” their emotional pain; “pray about it,” or simply stay strong. Strength is necessity for survival; but emotional fatigue can be debilitating. Many people carry burdens alone that they were never meant to do so.

What makes the crisis especially dangerous is that mental and emotional decline rarely announces itself loudly. It often appears quietly—in exhaustion, isolation, anger, hopelessness, or numbness. It can shape relationships, parenting, confidence, and decision-making without people fully realizing it. Every day, individuals make choices about what voices they listen to, what they believe about themselves, and how they respond to life’s pressures. Those choices gradually shape direction, either toward healing or deeper pain.

Mental health challenges are human experiences and how we handle them determines how we navigate our daily lives.

Faith has always been central within the Black community. Churches, prayer, and spiritual traditions have carried generations through slavery, segregation, violence, and systemic injustice. Having faith and caring about your mental health do not compete with one another. They can work together.

A person can pray and still seek therapy. They can trust God and still care for their mental well-being. Counseling, support groups, rest, medication, and honest conversations are not signs of weakness—they are signs of responsibility and self-preservation.

Mental Health Awareness Month serves as more than a national campaign. It is an opportunity for reflection within families and communities. It asks difficult but necessary questions: Are we truly okay? Are we being honest about what we feel? Are we caring for ourselves as intentionally as we care for others?

Healing begins with acknowledgment. It begins when people stop pretending they are fine simply because they have learned how to survive. The Black community has survived unimaginable hardships throughout history. But survival alone cannot be the final goal.

The goal must also be healing.

No one is broken for feeling overwhelmed by the weight they carry. Many are carrying far more than the world can see. But healing becomes possible the moment truth replaces silence, and support replaces shame.