The alarming study found that young men of color were far less likely to admit a problem, and even less likely to try to treat it.
A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that about 10 percent of American men suffer from depression or anxiety, but less than half of those men seek treatment, and the differences are extremely pronounced along racial lines.
The study found that young blacks and Hispanics are much less likely than whites to admit a problem, and then to try to get help afterward, based on a survey of 21,000 men by the CDC as reported by HealthDay News.
The findings show that there is still a lot of stigma in minority communities when it comes to mental illnesses, leading young men to deny their feelings or at least fail to seek help over fears that it could be seen as weak or not masculine. Stephen Blumberg, the lead author of the study and an associate director for science with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), said that there has been a lot of progress in the area of mental health awareness, but the findings show how much more work is left to be done to remove those stigmas.
The survey collected data between 2010 and 2013, and it found that 9 percent of men suffer on a daily basis from depression or anxiety. Just 41 percent of those men ended up seeking treatment for their problems.
Interestingly, the survey found that differences only showed up in younger men. In men ages 45 and older, there isn’t much of a racial divide. But in men younger than 45, just 26 percent of Hispanic or black men sought treatment for anxiety or depression, versus 45 percent for young white males.
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