The National Alliance on Mental Illness dedicates the month of July as Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. A cause advanced by the late author Bebe Moore Campbell, it seeks to promote safe spaces and conversations around behavioral health within minority communities.
Mental health challenges impact everyone, regardless of race, sex, disability or creed. What makes mental health more difficult to address among minority groups is the influence of structural forces that directly affect personal well- being.
Let’s break this down. There are three “circles” to consider as we navigate actions to maintain our behavioral health. Think of them as concentric circles, like a dartboard, with the bullseye symbolizing our circle of control.
Circle of control
Within this circle are things we can act on without outside influence. Want to wake up at 6 a.m. to exercise and gain mental clarity before work at 7:30 a.m.? Set your alarm and do it.
Circle of influence
Now, consider needing to drop your spouse off at work at 7 a.m. because you share one vehicle. This places us in the second circle — influence. Here, you must coordinate schedules so both work and exercise can happen. Your actions are combined with others’ actions and circumstances. It requires compromise, give and take, and reciprocity. We can control what we put in, but not always the outcome.
Circle of concern
Now imagine your spouse shares that a recently passed law has affected their workplace and several co-workers have been laid off. Your spouse is now considering going back to school.
This introduces the third circle: concern — things we cannot control but that still affect us, our families and our communities. Structural forces exist in this space. While we need to be aware of them, we cannot pull them fully into our circle of control.
We cannot change the law, but we can learn about it. We can stay informed and exercise our right to vote. We cannot control whether a spouse remains employed, but we can discuss and adjust a family budget.
And we can still exercise before work. It may be 15 minutes. It may require waking up earlier. But it can happen because we act within our circle of control.
You may still carpool. You may still feel uncertain about your spouse’s job and future. You may regret not voting in a previous election — but you exercised. That action builds self-control and self-worth.
When individuals with increased self-control and self-worth come together, they form communities capable of challenging the larger forces that affect their lives.
In the words of Coretta Scott King, “The greatness of community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
Be compassionate toward yourself and others. That is within your control.
Ché Wilson, MSW, LCSW, is an outpatient behavioral health therapist at SSM Health Behavioral Health. She earned her Master of Social Work degree and graduate certificate in Public Health from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Additionally, she holds a Master of Arts in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice from Lincoln University. To make an appointment with her, please call 573-681-3249.
