Talking about mental health concerns and having a supportive community are essential for improving mental health for Black men, Jason Gibson said Saturday. Even if it can be difficult to share those feelings, he said.

“I would argue that communication or the lack thereof is the nucleus of the majority of our problems,” Gibson said to an audience at Mississippi University for Women.

Gibson, chair of the Tougaloo College Department of History, was the keynote speaker at this year’s justUs Black Men’s Mental Health Conference. The conference also hosted a panel of speakers, including Rayford S. Mullins Sr., a child and adolescent therapist at Sky’s the Limit Counseling Service; John Griggs, a certified life coach; Charles L. Bailey Jr., a motivational speaker and author; Dr. Julius Kato, a doctor of cardiology and internal medicine with Baptist Medical Group and Keith Worshaim, a former Columbus police officer.

The men discussed the importance of using effective communication in supporting Black men facing mental health challenges while also encouraging them to seek the help they need. 

“I understand that so many times we are the victim in the matter,” Gibson said. “But the fact of the matter is, life is hard. Adversity is inevitable. Mental traumas will happen… We will have to go through things, and we will have to choose our hard. Life is hard. Just choose which hard you want.”

Bailey offered a different perspective, saying the problem isn’t always a lack of communication from Black men, but rather a lack of being heard. 

“We’re communicating effectively, but it’s not being taken seriously,” he said. “We don’t feel like we’re being heard.

“… We want the people in our lives that we consider close to us … to hear what we already know and adjust their behavior so that we can feel accepted, validated, seen and heard,” he later added.

Kato also noted that bottling up emotions like stress, depression and anger can lead to health complications. 

“We talk about stress, we talk about anxiety, we talk about depression,” he said. “These conditions are very prevalent in our society today, and so when you talk about mental health, the stigma comes from a standpoint of someone is mentally crazy, and they probably are going to go in a mental institution. That’s not the type of mental health we are talking about.” 

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention notes mental health and physical health are closely tied and mental health conditions like depression can increase the risk of physical and long-lasting chronic conditions. 

Griggs said part of the solution to addressing and destigmatizing these issues is to continue having events like the conference in more spaces across the country.

“Sometimes … we go to spaces like this, and it feels like I’m at a hospital,” he said. “… Sometimes you need to do things like this in a park or do things like this at a basketball court because now the wall that you already have built is down.”

Bailey also emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces for community members to seek out when addressing their mental health.

“Many of you don’t recognize that you’re already (in) a seat of leadership,” he said. “You’re already in a position to impact lives and change culture, right where you are. … Quit looking for other people to start what it is you say you need, and be the person that other people need.”