Diane Anderson
Black men may need a strong shoulder to cry on, and they may be understandably skeptical of medical professionals, but they can take comfort in knowing there are therapists on the horizon who look like them.
With nine local therapy locations and another, Colton Wellness Center, set to open soon, Marty Sellers is bringing mental health to the attention of the Inland Empire.
Sellers, a marriage and family therapist, understands that people in her community are hesitant to seek help.
The problem isn’t just prejudice, he said: Young black men often feel lonely and suffer from inexplicable anxiety, which may be due to rising racial hatred, discrimination in the ways they live and work, or simply the high cost of living.
He advises clients to take deep breaths, take a walk in the park, go for a jog or go to group therapy, but he also understands that negative feelings are not all that uncommon in these uncertain times.
“It’s a natural bodily reaction experience, but if no one tells us it’s a normal reaction, we might think it’s weird,” says Marty Sellers, MFT, CEO of Marcel Wellness Centers.
Soon after, he opened his 10th wellness centre, which has grown over the years to include a clinical team of more than 25 therapists and over 150 employees across multiple locations, including Moreno Valley and the company’s headquarters in Ontario.
He also contracts with Riverside County for DPSS mental health and behavioral health services and provides domestic violence and anger management services.
Recently, he said money is no longer an excuse for not getting care or good treatment.
After nearly five years of wading through bureaucratic red tape, he’s finally able to accept Medi-Cal and provide free services to his clients, and he wants to teach other health care providers how to navigate the difficult process and pitfalls.
“This is not just about fighting the system, but we are systematically fighting those in power who hold the keys to the kingdom to give the people the support they need,” he said.
Young black men, in particular, need special support. He believes there are many reasons why suicide rates continue to rise. One of them is getting an education on how to deal with life’s challenges and that any problems are temporary.
“When you feel so overwhelmed, you can’t see the other side of things, and I think a lot of young black men feel overwhelmed by life,” he said.
Although more women are graduating from high school, they are not going to college at the same rate as black women, even though a college diploma these days is worth the same as a high school diploma from a few decades ago.
Another reason is that black children are too often given the wrong medication, under-medicated, over-medicated, or inappropriately diagnosed, which does not allow them to develop the emotional maturity they need to survive.
“The chemical imbalance and some of these symptoms can be triggered by the wrong medication,” he said. “Physical misdiagnoses happen all the time in hospitals, so imagine if you were also misdiagnosed mentally and given the wrong medication for years.”
Boys are slower to develop mentally than girls, reaching maturity in their mid-20s while girls reach maturity earlier, at 17 or 18 years old.
“We’re administering psychotropic drugs to underdeveloped brains,” he said.
Drugs are not a cure and can cause bigger problems in the future. Not all drugs are bad, but he feels it is a very temporary solution to a bigger problem.
“I have clients who have told me they feel like they’re under the influence of drugs all the time, like they’re having an out-of-body experience and they’re very tired. There’s a lot more we can do. Let’s look at the food deserts in these communities,” he said.
His group was a group of black men who met regularly to talk about things they were afraid to talk about, and being in a group with other black men helped them know they weren’t alone.
“These were young people who were pursuing their associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. [saying] “We never understood what mental health was. One person proudly talked about going to group therapy sessions, but he actually had permission to say he wasn’t OK and didn’t feel judged,” Sellers said.
Until recently, suicide in the black community was considered abnormal, but several studies suggest that this has changed.
Other than American Indians and Alaska Natives, Black people experienced the highest percentage change from 2011 to 2021, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Studies have shown that suicide deaths are increasing fastest among people of color, young people and people living in rural areas.
“Between 2011 and 2021, suicide deaths have increased substantially among people of color, with the largest increase among AIANs (a 70% increase from 16.5 to 28.1 per 100,000), followed by Blacks (a 58% increase from 5.5 to 8.7 per 100,000) and Hispanics (a 39% increase from 5.7 to 7.9 per 100,000) (Figure 3). Other studies have shown particularly large increases in suicide deaths among Black youth and young adults,” the study states.
Another recent report from the University of Georgia addressed why young black men are taking their own lives at shockingly high rates, pointing to racism and suggesting childhood trauma may be the cause of suicidal thoughts.
The study, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that suicide is the second leading cause of death among African-Americans ages 15 to 24, and that suicide is more prevalent among black men, whose death rate is more than four times higher than black women.
“When we talk about suicidal ideation, I think we don’t really consider where the disparities are and who is most at risk,” said Michael Curtis, a graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Georgia’s School of Family and Consumer Sciences and co-author of the study. “We just know that it’s bad, and that it’s particularly bad among young black men.
For more information on treatment, please visit https://marsellwc.com/
To read about the KFF study, see https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/a-look-at-the-latest-suicide-data-and-change-over-the-last-decade/.
For suicide intervention and support, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988).
