Misdiagnosed and Misunderstood: What the System Gets Wrong About Black Emotion

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By: Jamila Gomez

You sit across from someone who’s supposed to help. You try to explain the weight you carry—the irritability, the sadness that won’t leave, the constant fear of being too much or not enough. But instead of asking what happened to you, they start jotting down what’s wrong with you.

And just like that, your rage is aggression. Your grief becomes a diagnosis. Your survival instincts are now symptoms.

This is what happens when Black people’s pain gets filtered through a lens that was never meant to see us clearly.

The System Was Never Neutral

Let’s be honest: the mental health system is not as neutral, objective, or inclusive as it wants to believe. Most of what we’ve come to accept as psychological “norms” were built around white, Western ideals of expression, behavior, and functionality. So when we show up with a completely different cultural blueprint—one rooted in resilience, resistance, and generational trauma—we’re often misunderstood.

Studies have shown that Black people are more likely to be diagnosed with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, while white patients presenting the same symptoms often get milder mood disorder labels like depression or anxiety. Black children are more likely to be labeled “oppositional” than “traumatized.” Black women are told they’re too guarded, too angry, too loud, too resistant.

Too everything.

What You Call a Disorder, I Call a Defense Mechanism

What happens when you grow up in environments where being too emotional wasn’t safe? When silence and strength were expected just to survive? When no one ever said “I see you,” so you stopped expecting to be seen?

You develop defenses. You shut down. You get sharp-tongued. You armor up.

And then, when you finally sit down in front of someone with a clipboard and an acronym behind their name, they name the behavior—but not the why. Suddenly you’re “avoidant.” “Hypervigilant.” “Disregulated.”

No one ever stops to ask: What would it look like to treat the context, not just the symptoms?

Labels Without Language

When you’ve spent your whole life navigating racism, family trauma, economic stress, and cultural silence, your emotions don’t always show up politely. Some of us dissociate in church pews. Some of us stay booked and busy because the stillness is triggering. Some of us laugh too loud, too long, because we’ve never been allowed to cry in peace.

But these are not disorders. These are strategies. They were our ancestors’ armor—and now they’re our inheritance.

And yet, if you walk into the wrong office with the right pain, you might leave with a label that cages more than it frees.

The Cost of Misdiagnosis

It’s not just about hurt feelings—it’s about missed healing.

When our anger gets labeled as aggression, no one investigates what we lost.

When our numbness gets labeled as detachment, no one asks what we’re still trying to survive.

When our silence is labeled as non-compliance, no one considers that maybe we’re just exhausted from not being believed.

Mislabeled pain doesn’t get healed. It gets managed, medicated, monitored. But it doesn’t get met with compassion or curiosity.

And that’s the real danger—when the system treats our trauma like a character flaw, our healing becomes harder to reach.

So What Do We Do?

We name it. We question it. We stop blindly accepting frameworks that were never built with us in mind.

We seek therapists who see us fully—not just as a bundle of symptoms, but as whole human beings with rich cultural lives and layered histories. We explore alternative healing modalities that speak to the soul, not just the psyche—ancestral healing, somatic work, storytelling, ritual, reclamation.

And most importantly, we remember this:

Not every emotion needs to be fixed.

Not every reaction is dysfunctional.

Not everything needs to be diagnosed.

Sometimes it’s just being Black… and tired.

To anyone who has ever felt misread, mislabeled, or mishandled in a space that was supposed to help you—you are not imagining it. The system isn’t broken. It was built this way.

But so were we. Built to endure, built to adapt, built to remember ourselves whole.

And now? We get to heal on our terms.

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Identifying and Healing from Intergenerational Trauma

Photo Credit: monkeybusinessimages via iStockPhoto.com

By: Jamila Gomez

Intergenerational trauma refers to the passing down of traumatic experiences and their psychological impacts from one generation to the next. Often unconscious, this type of trauma can influence individuals’ thoughts, behaviors, relationships, and overall mental health, even if they haven’t personally experienced the trauma that originated these patterns. Recognizing intergenerational trauma is a powerful step toward breaking cycles of pain and fostering resilience, as healing allows future generations to thrive without carrying unaddressed burdens.

Identifying Intergenerational Trauma

Identifying intergenerational trauma begins with self-reflection and observation. Signs can appear in various ways, including emotional patterns such as unexplainable feelings of guilt, shame, or worthlessness. These emotions often arise from the unresolved traumas of ancestors who endured hardships such as war, oppression, poverty, or abuse. Behavioral patterns may also offer clues: struggles with trust, tendencies toward self-sabotage, or repeated patterns of unhealthy relationships might indicate inherited trauma. Family dynamics, particularly around communication styles and expressions of love, can also reveal intergenerational trauma. Some families may avoid difficult conversations altogether, while others may replicate past pain through critical or abusive behavior, all patterns that reflect a history of unresolved trauma.

Cultural context plays a role, too. For example, communities impacted by colonization, genocide, or forced migration often have widespread intergenerational trauma. Recognizing these cultural traumas can help individuals better understand the roots of specific behaviors, fears, and even physical symptoms that may appear across family lines.

Healing from Intergenerational Trauma

Healing from intergenerational trauma is an ongoing journey that often begins with acknowledging the trauma and understanding its origins. Therapy, particularly trauma-informed therapies like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and somatic therapy, can be effective in releasing trauma stored in the body. These therapies help individuals process trauma on a cellular level, addressing symptoms that might be resistant to traditional talk therapy.

Practices like mindfulness, meditation, and journaling also support healing by fostering self-awareness and emotional release. Storytelling within families can be healing as well. Sharing family histories allows individuals to openly discuss past struggles, fostering empathy and understanding. Additionally, reconnecting with cultural traditions and ancestral practices can be a source of strength, offering a sense of continuity and pride that counteracts feelings of disconnection and pain.

Ultimately, healing from intergenerational trauma not only liberates the individual but also creates a ripple effect, enabling future generations to inherit resilience rather than trauma. Through patience, self-compassion, and a commitment to breaking cycles, individuals can transform legacies of suffering into stories of healing and growth.

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