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What 's Race Got To Do With Stress?
"Everyday, whatever their income or social status,
Black people face related stressors called micro-insults", one reads in
the book Health & Healing for African-Americans.
"I can go into a supermarket dressed in a designer
suit, and customers will ask me, ' Do you bag groceries?' says in the same
book William Lawson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the Richard
University School of Medicine, chief of psychiatry at the Richard L.
Roudebush Veterans Administration Medical center, both in Indianapolis, and
president of the Black Psychiatrists of America.
At the same time, there's plenty of denial, even from within
our own community. " The chances of an African-American heading an
American corporation are virtually nil, yet it's common to hear our young
adults claim that racism doesn't exist," says Dr Lawson (ibid.).
When one combines the everyday stresses of adult life -
alarm clocks, difficult bosses, whining children, flat tires, and glaring
spouses - with the circumstances that often face African-Americans, stress
is the end result, write the authors of the book.
In it, stress is defined as any change that you have to
adapt to.
The more severe the adaptation, the more likely it is that
stress will set off mental and physical reactions: your breathing quickens,
your heart pumps faster, and your stomach churns out more acid.
" If the stresses are frequent or chronic, your body
can become hypervigilant (always functioning in overdrive), which is
very damaging to the cardiovascular system and organs of your body's
gastrointestinal system," states in Health & Healing
Samuel Gordon, Ph. D., clinical psychologist at the National Rehabilitation
Hospital in Washington, D.C.
African-Americans males are known to keep their emotions
hidden. They tend to respond to stressful situations by denying their
impact, which causes more stress.
Psychologists call this behavior John Henryism, named
after the legendary Black railroad worker who stoically took on a steam-driven
rail machine and then dropped dead of exhaustion.
Other men use gambling, compulsive buying of lottery
tickets, alcohol or illicit drugs, to deal with their stress.
Black women, according to Dr. Lawson, handle things a little
bit differently. They are more likely to seek support from friends and
counselors to help them cope with a stressful situation.
How to handle stress?
Use your support network, find a mentor, exercise (walking
or working out), take a deep breath, adopt a pet, these are the
recommendations provided by Health & Healing for African-Americans,
which by the way is prefaced by Joycelyn Elders, M.D., former U.S. Surgeon
General.
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