Regardless of how Black women actually show up, in US workplaces (and other settings) Black women are more often demonized and written off as ‘Angry Black Women’, when compared to others who express the same level of (or more) emotion. This implicit bias has severe adverse implications for the health, careers, and economic potential of Black women. This blog explores the role that depression, namely irritable depression, may play in these dynamics and how irritable depression goes unnoticed and unaddressed in Black women. Hi, I am Dr. Iman Hypolite, a double board certified Johns Hopkins trained psychiatrist with over 20 years of experience, and I help professional women of color THRIVE! I specialize in treating high functioning depression (including irritable depression), high functioning anxiety, and professional burnout in high achieving women of color. Irritable Depression Let’s talk irritability. Irritability is defined as getting easily frustrated, annoyed, and impatient. In physical health, a part of your body that feels irritated is accepted as a sign of pain, not such with mental health though. Let’s explore this. Irritability is one of the defining symptoms of major depressive disorder. It is often clinically referred to as irritable depression. Irritability is also a core and defining symptom of generalized anxiety disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Despite the fact that irritability is a core symptom of depression, anxiety, and PTSD, people and most concerning, clinicians rarely acknowledge it as such. Ignoring irritability has health, relational, and societal implications. Recent studies “validated” what Black and other culturally competent mental health clinicians have known for years, and that is that irritability is a more common manifestation of depression and anxiety in Black women. Because irritability is often not recognized as a mental health symptom, depression, especially irritable depression, is often undiagnosed, under diagnosed, and misdiagnosed in Black women. Irritability as a fight or flight response Irritability in Black women is a remnant and byproduct of 400 years of oppression and systemic racism, where Black women were the most vulnerable due to the following conditions and then some: brutal labor, recreational and institutionalized rape, forced breeding, forced childbearing, forced nursing of other women’s babies, their own babies stolen from them, beatings by men and women, macroaggressions by White women for the negative and undesired “attention” that Black women received by White men, and the list goes on. In the face of this, Black women had to figure out how to fend for themselves, their children, and their entire families. Let’s use our imaginations for a moment. What kind of coping mechanisms do you think Black women slaves had to develop in order to survive this? What do you think the lessons that Black mothers had to share with their daughters looked like back then? How do you think these lessons evolved as they were passed from one generation to the next? What do you imagine the remnants of those very same lessons look like today, in light of the fact that remnants of slavery and oppression exist even now? I challenge you to think about this. What if irritability was understood to be a remnant of intergenerational and perhaps personal trauma? What if irritability was seen as a way that many Black women express overwhelm, fear, helplessness, despair, hopelessness, sadness, stress, and hurt? What if irritability was seen as a mental health symptom rather than a character trait? Remember, no one is born irritable. Irritability is NOT a character trait. It is a symptom of a larger issue. Black women who are walking around irritable and angry are not irritable and angry for no reason. There’s always a reason behind every emotion. Have you ever taken a moment to caringly ask a woman you have deemed to be an “angry Black woman” if and why she may be angry? What if irritability were met with empathy, compassion, and concern? For example, what if a Black woman you perceive as irritable were, in a private one on one setting, caringly approached as such: The trick for this to work is that one actually has to care. If you attempt this and your motive is not sincere concern, this will show…and will not work. Black women need people to actually care about and for them. People outside and even more painfully within the Black community, often critique Black women for being intimidating, angry, masculine and hard. Do you ever wonder why and what is the basis for this? Regardless of how Black women actually show up, in US workplaces (and other settings) Black women are more often demonized and written off as ‘Angry Black Women’, when compared to others who express the same level of (or more) emotion. This implicit bias has severe adverse implications for the health, careers, and economic potential of Black women. In the increasing public discourse (*cough judgment*) about Black women, it is important to recognize that all women who are perceived as angry (or irritable) or not actually angry or irritable. There’s also bias, folks. Psychological Safety for Black Women Psychologically safe spaces need to be created in order for Black women to feel safe enough to be more vulnerable, or in other words, softer or more feminine. Black women need to be shown more grace, humanity, and understanding. Once safe spaces are created, Black women will need people to have patience and know that it will take time for Black women to shed 400 years of oppression and the resulting adaptive defenses that have been necessary to survive being the most vulnerable and lowest rung in America’s deeply embedded and still prevailing caste system. Once these safe spaces are established, Black women will need to embark on a journey and practice of vulnerability, learning to ask for and receive help, and to self-soothe and problem solve in healthy ways in the event help is not given. This is an example of how we can collectively heal and spread love! If you are a Black woman leader in need of support
