Protect Your Mental Health After Racial Violence I JED

How Black Youth Can Take Care of Their Mental Health After Racial Violence

By LaKeisha Fleming

Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Daunte Wright. Tyre Nichols. These are just a few of the Black individuals whose lives were cut short in recent years during encounters with law enforcement or acts of racial violence in the United States. Reading those names may have made your stomach churn or brought tears to your eyes. It’s hard to process stories of Black people being beaten or killed. 

When you hear that someone has experienced violence and it may be because of their race, you may brace yourself, because you know more information — or a video — is coming. You know watching it or reading more about it will be traumatic. 

At the same time, you may feel pressure to watch, to be a witness, to not turn away from what is happening to your people and community. 

This is the tug-of-war — between staying up to date with current events and protecting your mental health — that so many Black people face in this world of racial violence and social media. 

How Watching Racial Violence Can Affect Your Mental Health

Reading about racial violence or watching videos and images can lead to feelings of helplessness, frustration, and fear, and have a very real impact on your physical, mental, and emotional health. A study found that when two incidents of anti-Black violence received high national attention in the same week, Black Americans reported poorer mental health during those times.

So how do you strike a balance that lets you protect your mental health even as you recognize the reality of what is happening? 

Here are some things that can help.

Know That You Do Not Have to Read or Watch

It’s OK to choose which content you want to watch or read. If you decide not to, you may wonder, Am I still supporting the fight against racial violence? Am I still staying up to date with what’s going on? Is it wrong not to watch? Am I being selfish?

Those questions are natural, but you don’t have to watch violent acts to know they are wrong and take action against them. You can still be focused on the mission and support the cause while protecting your own mental health.

Don’t Share the Video, Share the Life

It can be more meaningful to center the life of the person who experienced racial violence by not sharing the video of — or article about — the violent interaction. Instead, talk about the positive things being shared in the media or by the family instead. You’ll be helping the person be seen as less of a victim and more of a valuable life that was lost. You can still comment on social media, using your platform to denounce the violence.

Pay Attention to How You Feel

If you decide you want to read or watch, pay attention to your reaction and acknowledge what you’re feeling. Pretending you’re OK doesn’t make difficult emotions go away. They have a way of letting themselves out. 

Shock, outrage, disgust, and fear are all normal responses. So are grief and anxiety. And so is feeling numb, which is a way to protect yourself and a byproduct of being repeatedly exposed to something traumatic.

Struggling with those emotions may cause you to feel physically ill, with muscle aches, headaches, and nausea, but processing those feelings helps you release them in a healthy way. 

That could look like writing in a journal or connecting with a friend who understand. Talk to your family and friends and those closest to you about what you’re dealing with. Sharing your feelings not only helps you process them, but it can also offer healing to other members of your community who are struggling. 

Unplug and Unwind

If the temptation to read or watch — or keep reading or watching — is too strong, give yourself a break from your computer and phone. Taking several minutes to an hour or more can give you a chance to do a mental reset. Redirect your focus while you take a break. When you decide to go back to social media, make a plan to protect yourself. 

You can block sensitive content on your digital platforms. On social media, you can block or hide an individual who is sharing content you don’t want to see. But if your friends are sharing it and you don’t want to cut them from your feed entirely, both Instagram and Twitter offer settings that let you hide sensitive content. For online searches, you can change your settings to block unwanted content. 

Take a Physical Break

It can be hard to escape images that continually play in your head, but a few things will help:  

  • Go outside to clear your head and take mental pictures of the beauty you around you. 
  • Try a guided meditation or let loose with a dance routine.
  • Do an activity that brings you joy or helps you relax, such as drawing, painting, coloring, moving your body, or playing a board game with a friend.

The goal is to give yourself a break from the images and the difficult work of processing them, and to release the stress and tension in your body.

Take Action

Peaceful demonstrations help you call attention to racial violence. They can also connect you with other people who share your outlook and give you a chance to be a part of something greater than yourself. By gathering together, you are unifying with other people who are motivated by the same cause. Your presence can serve to support, encourage, and even heal one another.  

You may not have the emotional bandwidth to take action. You may literally be in survival mode, coping with your feelings surrounding what you’ve seen, or you may be busy with other parts of your life right now. You have your whole lifetime to decide how you want to support movements. You will be way more effective if you give yourself the time you need to take care of yourself.

Find a Safe Way to Deal With Thoughts That Won’t Stop

You may realize you can’t stop thinking about the violent images you watched and that they are affecting your normal life. Here are some signs you could benefit from structured or professional support to help you move forward. 

  • Changes in how you are sleeping or eating (doing more or less of either)
  • Unexplained or prolonged sadness
  • Irritability or moodiness
  • Feeling anxious or fearful
  • Having difficulty participating in your daily activities

These issues can all be signs that what you saw is impacting you on a deeper level. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Start with someone you trust, who will be a source of strength and support as you work through your feelings or find professional help. It can be a close friend, a parent or older family member, a brother or sister, a teacher, a coach, or a spiritual adviser. If you’re open to it and want to seek help on a professional level, you can research support groups with people who share your experience and want to talk about it. One-on-one therapy can also be really helpful. 

Learn how to find a therapist who is trained to help you process the trauma of racial violence.

If all of these suggestions seem overwhelming or even scary, that’s OK. Sometimes it can feel safer to talk to someone you don’t know at all. 

  • Make an appointment with your school counselor or campus counseling center.
  • Text HOME to 741-741 for a free, confidential conversation with a trained counselor any time of day.
  • Connect to the TeenLine. You can text TEEN to 839-863 every day from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. PT (9 p.m. to midnight ET) to reach a trained peer counselor.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, including a substance misuse or suicide crisis, call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or use their chat function

Do what is best for your mental health when you’re confronted with violent media images. Tapping into your emotions, owning those feelings, and taking the steps you need to protect yourself are what matter most.

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If you or someone you know needs to talk to someone right now, text, call, or chat 988 for a free confidential conversation with a trained counselor 24/7. 

You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741-741.

If this is a medical emergency or if there is immediate danger of harm, call 911 and explain that you need support for a mental health crisis.