Mental health, mental illnesses, hell anything that is not physical pain is not recognized in west African communities. I can’t speak for all of Africa because I am not well versed in all the cultures, I mainly know that which I am a part of. I know so many people who had mental struggles from a young age and were just viewed as belligerent children who needed to be beaten into submission. I think the younger generation is doing a better job of addressing mental health and even attempting to educate our parents, but we need to do more than simply advocating for self care. I want to see awareness on mental health struggles. We need to teach each other that it’s not something you can beat away and it doesn’t make you weak to address. There’s so much work to be done and so much to say I could sit here for days just jumping from topic to topic so imma just leave it at this. We need to keep fighting as we already are, stay aware of our emotions and feelings, make sure they are validated and do the same for others. Teach empathy and understanding, we don’t need to physically see something hurting someone to accept they’re hurting.