Dear Creatives of Color, Do Not Allow Your Outlet to Become Your Suppressor
By: Rocxzie Writes
Edwidge Danticat once said, “Misery won’t touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of”
This quote can be easily used to explain long and short-term traumatic experiences one may encounter throughout life.
Personally, I think it best describes the artistic works generated by creatives of color who also have mental health issues. I refuse to delve into the discussion on whether or not “The Tortured Artist” is a thing. However, I’d like to talk about black creatives, their use of art as an outlet and its potential to suppress mental health issues.
I am a black woman, who also identifies as a creative.
I have used my art to do a number of things that include making people happy, giving people closure, and helping people make it through their darkest hours. I have also used my art to express myself in ways that I feel I couldn’t do with anything else. As a person of color, understanding how mental health issues affect me is extremely important. As an artist, it’s imperative. These two attributes used to describe me, and many others, can either make or break someone’s overall state of mental health.
How?
Let’s check the facts.
According to Mental Health America, in 2014, 45.7 million people identified as Black with 16% having a diagnosable mental illness. That equates to over 6.8 million Black people being diagnosed!
Let’s check a few more facts, shall we?
“African Americans sometimes experience more severe forms of mental health conditions due to unmet needs and other barriers. They are also 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population, and experience certain factors that increase the risk of developing a mental health condition.” (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
As a creative, it is easy to get caught up in your art, whatever that may be, and lose sight of what’s really important—you.
While expression through art has been known to help with depression, and anxiety, it can also lead to; you guessed it—depression and anxiety. So, we need to be especially careful about pursuing our creative passions. The stress to create one great project after the next, the stress to make money in order to compensate for the socioeconomic status that causes mental health issues for black people, and the stress caused by having to work twice as hard can all have a negative effect on the mental health of a creative person of color.
As our creative talents become more normalized on the world stage, we should strive to make our mental health a top priority.
Art gave me an outlet and almost killed me simultaneously. You push, and you push and you forget to take care of you and your sunlight soon becomes darkness. What once helped you gleam, now causes you pain, and each stroke of your brush, each camera click, each push with your thread, and each step with your dance becomes excruciating, agonizing, and unbearable. You begin to hate being creative and being a person of color. Your outlet becomes the suppression of your mental illness and you become lost. It’s crazy how one person closest to us is the most difficult to take care of, but it must happen.
And it must happen often.
