Joe decided life wasn't worth living when he was 17
His older brother had been shot in the leg and spent more than a year recovering. He was tired of the comments about his weight.
His classmates would ask if he could sit on that chair.
They said simply: "You're fat."
Joe, who was a lineman on his high school football team, would sometimes not eat for three days because he was so depressed.
The names of Joe and another young person are being kept out of the article to protect their privacy. Joe is identified by his middle name.
He contemplated ending his life if the harassment continued. He took a small amount of pills one day after coming home from school. It was enough to cause a bad stomachache.
He was still depressed months later. Let me see a therapist. He told his father that his head was not right. I think you would be better off without me here.
Joe remembers his father saying that was not true. We love you. Do you want to tell someone that? They are going to think you are crazy.
A mental health crisis has been brewing among Black youths like Joe, one that very few people, including Black families, have spoken about publicly. The prevalence of suicide attempts by Black adolescents increased from 1991 to 2019, while the prevalence of attempts by other races and ethnicities did not change. Legislators and academics are pushing for better research to understand why, especially in light of new evidence that suggests Black children may have unique risk factors for self- harm.
A study published in September found that Black teenagers were more likely to attempt suicide than white teenagers. The authors speculated that the questionnaires might fail to identify some Black youths who are at risk of suicide, or that there could be additional factors that might indicate a need for intervention.
A study done last year suggested that black children and adolescents who died by suicide were more likely to have experienced a crisis in the two weeks before they died. They were more likely to have had a history of suicide attempts.
If he had been asked if he was going to kill himself that day, he would have said no.
He said that he couldn't even think about that far ahead.
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He broke his bones in the fall, including his left leg, wrist, skull and jaw. He would not be able to walk again for four years.
Mr. Burnham, who is now 32 and travels to as many as 60 schools a year to speak about suicide prevention and mental illness, said that he didn't want to die. I wanted the part of me that was sad and depressed to die. I wanted that part to go away.
He was confronted by his parents about the alcohol they found in his car after he attempted to kill himself. Even though Mr. Burnham was diagnosed with depression as a teenager, he hid it so well that even his family members did not fully understand how much pain he was in.
Michael A. Lindsey, the executive director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University, said that suicide and mental illness are often seen as a white phenomenon.
It is easy to understand why. White deaths by suicide are more than those of Black people. There is a different picture when taking into account youth suicide rates.
Dr. Lindsey was the first to document trends in rising suicide attempts among Black adolescents.
The suicide rate of Black children was low, but it was more than twice that of white children in the same age group. A 10-year-old black girl with a diagnosis of autism died by suicide in Utah in early November. Her parents said she had been harassed by her classmates.
Whites, Native Americans and Alaska Natives have the highest suicide rates. The suicide rate has gone down among those groups, but it has gone up among Black youths. The suicide rate of Black boys and men 15 to 24 years old increased by 47 percent and the rate of Black girls and women of the same age increased by 59 percent.
A national survey conducted by theTrevor Project found that adolescents of color who identify as L.G.B.T.Q. are at higher risk of suicide attempts.
There has been a lack of research examining the racial and ethnic differences in youth suicidal plans or suicide attempts.
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The director of the National Institutes of Health issued a public apology for "structural racism in biomedical research" in March, but also because there are only a few academics who study these topics.
The principal investigator at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said that culture and racism have to be brought into the discussion. It is something that Black youth experience.
There are gaps in research and policy that have resulted in more research dollars flowing to studies related to Black youth suicide, including a program to teach middle schoolers about mental health and a suicide prevention intervention called Success Over Stress.
LaVome Robinson is the lead investigator of the Success Over Stress study and is a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago.
Black girls have a higher suicide rate than Black boys, according to a study published in September. The girls were more likely to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety. Within 24 hours of their deaths, nearly 20 percent of the girls had engaged in an argument.
A high school senior in Cleveland, she lives with her mother and six siblings. She struggles with depression and anxiety due to conflict at home and the trauma of a sexual assault.
She said I had nothing to stress about because I am a kid, when I told her how I was feeling.
There was nothing anyone could do to change the situation.
She told her school counselor that she didn't want to be here after a disagreement with her mother.
Her counselor told her to go to the hospital.
The first three nights of her stay in the hospital, she said, all she could do was cry. I was relieved that someone could understand what I was going through. It was good to let it all out after holding it in for so long.
In the school district, suicidal behavior is a well-known problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 percent of Cleveland high school students had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months, compared with 9 percent nationally. Many students in Cleveland face chronic stressors. Young people are more likely to die by suicide in high poverty areas.
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A counselor at a high school in Cleveland created an eight-week program for first-year students to help reduce the stigma of mental illness, which she sees as a large barrier preventing students of color from getting the help they need.
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Are you worried about your teen? There are a few things you can do to help your teen if they are depressed. Dr. Christine Moutier is the chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Look for changes. If your teen is having issues at school, such as slipping grades, notice the changes in his or her sleeping and eating habits. They used to love doing things, but now they don't. Stay aware of their social media posts.
Communication lines should be open. Start a conversation if you notice something strange. Your child may not want to talk. If that's the case, offer him or her help in finding a trusted person to share their struggles with.
Seek professional help. A child who expresses suicidal thoughts may benefit from a mental health evaluation. You can start by talking to your child's doctor.
If you have immediate concern for your child's safety, do not leave him or her alone. You can call a suicide prevention hotline. Any potentially lethal objects should be locked up. Children who are trying to harm themselves should be taken to the nearest emergency room.
If you don't know how to help someone in your life, these resources can help. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. The Crisis Text Line can be reached at 741741 3. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention works to prevent suicides.
The curriculum includes videos about mental health, as well as discussions about various mental health diagnoses and healthy ways to regulate emotions inside and outside the classroom.
A report by the American Psychological Association found that only 4% of psychologists in the United States were black in 2015. Social workers and psychiatrists have the same disparity.
Dr. Kali D. Cyrus said that it was a deterrent. Talking about your family business with a white person is discouraged in the Black community.
Most mental health care for children is done in public schools. In low-income districts, other resources are hard to come by. The professionals are in short supply.
Black adolescents are more likely to be treated for depression if they feel shame about their symptoms or if they think mental health professionals are not available.
Dr. Cyrus said that black families don't typically have literacy in discussing feelings with each other. Keeping your business out of the street is a strong value.
Kathy Williams has been teaching people in her hometown of Durham, N.C. about the importance of mental health treatment since her teenage son Torian Graves took his life in 1996. She said that the stigma is still strong. Some parents don't trust therapists because they are afraid of being judged. They say to just pray. It will leave.
She said that prayer is good. Mental illness treatment requires more than that.
She found a poem in his room that he had written as a class assignment.
It reads.
Part of me is Carolina Blue.
It was full of flavor and excitement.
Like a roller coaster.
On the ground.
At times.
I am mean, dark, lonely.
Black is mad at the world.
Like a lost dog in the desert.
They are both true.
Both of them are me.
She thought at the time that her child was feeling the same way.
She said she couldn't figure out why her son was angry at times. I think Torian was depressed and we didn't know about it.
The pilot program that Dr. Lindsey has developed is designed to remove the stigma associated with therapy by recruiting Black youths who are experiencing symptoms of depression and enrolls them in therapy with a clinician at a school-based mental health clinic.
When parents are told that their children have mental health challenges, they feel like they did something wrong.
The first thing we tell them is that it's not their fault, it's the result of bad parenting.
After struggling with depression in Boston, Joe found a therapist with the help of his mother and his primary care doctor, and started therapy at the beginning of his 12th grade.
He said that talking to someone every Wednesday for an hour did something. It made me feel like I was wanted.
His family noticed that he wasn't as angry.
Joe said that he was not crazy. I needed someone to understand what I was going through and give me a way to deal with it.
Joe said he loved who he was.
If you are worried about someone in your life and unsure of how to help, use one of the free resources.
The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
The Crisis Text Line is available.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention works to prevent suicides.
The USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism has a fellowship for health journalism.
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Strategies to help young children open up.
The New York Times has an interactive about children's mental-health.
