Mental health advocates aim to break the stigma in black men

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Undiagnosed and untreated depression and mental illness are taking their toll on African American men.

The daily internal struggle in dealing with childhood trauma led Duane LaRue to seek mental health services as an adult. He is now aiming at stopping other black men from suffering in silence.

“My mom was on drugs growing up and I was the oldest, so I had a lot of responsibilities,” said LaRue. “She would leave weeks at a time, and we had drug dealers coming to our house.”

Growing up in Chicago, LaRue says he lived his entire childhood surrounded by poverty and drug abuse and it affected him mentally, but he attempted to isolate his pain.

“I felt like I was robbed of a childhood. All of this was because of the development that I had growing up which is trauma, which is PTSD,” he said.

LaRue did not seek mental help services until he was older. His struggle also shines a light on the mental health concerns among Black men, which too often go unnoticed and unaddressed.

“LaRue comes from an authentic place,” explained Kenesha Fudge, a Clinical Pastor of Helping No Discrepancy (H.A.N.D.), a nonprofit that assists those with mental health services. “LaRue has dealt with his trauma and he’s actually seeked counseling and a lot of us are still afraid.”

There is a sense of urgency to address the mental health concerns of black men as children in the United States. According to the American Academy of Ch ild and Adolescent Psychiatry, suicide among black children between the ages of 5 and 12 years has increased by 60 percent two decades.

“If I’m going through trauma and you’re going through trauma and we are standing right next to each other, I’m thinking there’s nothing wrong with you because there’s nothing wrong with me,” said Tauheed Spense Executive Director of H.A.N.D. “Now we’re both in this traumatic situation that we can’t get out of because we don’t think there’s a problem.”

LaRue, now a crisis prevention specialist at Alabama A&M University, told News 19 that he is using his story to bring young men of color to share their mental health struggles.

“It is good to hear somebody else going through what you are going through but the only way that can happen is if we show up and then participate with each other,” said LaRue.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 50,000 people died by suicide last year. Suicide among men, regardless of race, is four times higher than women.

You can contact H.A.N.D. through their website here .

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