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Stigma "continues to skirt mental unwellness," particularly in the black community, Philadelphia Inquirer editorialist Annette John-Hall writes. She notes that according to John Head, author of "Standing in the Shadows: Understanding and Overcoming Depression in Black Men," the stigma around mental malady in black men is "even worse."
According to John-Hall, Arthur Evans, managing director of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral and Mental Retardation Services, said that studies betoken that signs of depression show up in the form of aggression. "So it shouldn't come as much of a surprisal that the overwhelming number of victims and perpetrators of fury are dark men," John-Hall writes.
A recent "entree" by National Football League player Shawn Andrews that he has depression should "lift the veil of shame and encourage other young African-Americans to present their clinical depression and really understand that they john actually take steps to feel better," John-Hall writes.
"Fact is, depression favors no one. Multimillion-dollar contracts can't protect you from it. Nor tin can celebrity," John-Hall says, adding that Andrews' case should show other black men that "depression doesn't make you weak, stupid or to fault. And it sure doesn't make you less of a man." She continues, "If anything, it should force" smuggled men to accept the possibility that they could be depressed, seek treatment and take "on a path to healing" (John-Hall, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/8).
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