For the sake of our Caribbean youth, begin the mental health conversation
Dear Editor,
Think back to when you were around 14 year olds, the absolute beginning of your formative years. Thoughts and emotions; a mental battlefield. How did you navigate those shark-filled waters? In the Caribbean, the idea of having even a modicum of mental instability has been and still is incredibly taboo today. At 14, you are already resigned to and jailed within the archaic mentality and borderline oppressive cognoscenti of your guardians.
Preconception has morphed the antiquated model of mental health into something of a joke, a farce, nothing but good ole’ Caribbean hokum. Isn’t it time we attacked the lingering but hushed demon head on?
To begin, we must understand the history and ask (then answer) the relevant questions.
1. Guidance and Understanding. How were our parents’ problems as youth handled? Were they neglected and trivialised? And are they now the irrefutable product of that environment?
2. Expectation. Is it unrealistic to expect the parents of this generation to react differently towards what has incontestably been identified as a very REAL problem? Are they not living and breathing in the same today as their children are? Are they not reading the suicide headlines? In effect, can they not hear the silenced cries for help?
3. Prejudice. Some guardians have completely suppressed the idea that their child could be the “one” with a problem. But the realm of trauma faced by every living human stretches aeons. The fear of public perception and rejection has incapacitated the willing hands of the few. How do we shift a culture engrained in victim shaming? How do we help without care of the social bias attached.
These are but a few of the core and underlying arteries of the mental health vessel that must be unclogged. So where exactly does that leave the youth of today? I am not a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a therapist or a counsellor, nor do I pretend to be. In fact, I seek help to fight this very demon that strikes in silence. I am simply a woman who has lost many a friend, who hears the cries of her peers and is pleading with the Caribbean society to begin the conversation. Many large strides forward are required to change a culture that is fossilized in its thinking; but it starts with a single small step in the right direction.
Yours faithfully,
Sara Sammy