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Making the transition to adulthood can be full of challenges. A new study finds that the effects of discrimination can cause severe mental health damage to the already struggling young adult age group.

The study from researchers at UCLA found that young adults who endure frequent interpersonal discrimination based on race, sex, or physical appearance are at greater risk of mental health issues than those who don’t. The authors analyzed data from a 10-year survey and found that people aged 18 to 28 who experienced consistent short- or long-term discrimination are 25 percent more likely to experience psychological distress, to be diagnosed with a mental illness, or to report excessive drug use.

“It paints a striking picture of how discrimination is very strongly related to mental and behavioral health in young adults. It’s harder to be a young person today than it has been in a long time,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Adam Schickedanz, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “The world is spinning faster. A lot of things are changing constantly, and there are a lot of challenges. If we’re more attuned to that … we can do better by young people.”

While the study focused on people of various backgrounds, racial discrimination has long been considered a significant mental health stressor for Black people, with government leaders increasingly acknowledging that health inequities along racial lines can cause psychological distress. Experiencing racism has been linked to higher levels of anxiety and depression among Black people. An estimated 67 percent of Black adults have said discrimination is a significant source of stress, according to a July 2020 survey from the American Psychological Association.

Simply experiencing racist discrimination isn’t all that affects mental health. The authors found discrimination to be linked to disparities in mental and medical health care, as well. Black mental health advocates have consistently highlighted that the country’s public health systems leave people with few options for culturally competent care.

Read more at NBCNews.com.

I have been working as an actor for many years. But never before in my work — at least not until April 2021, when I was filming the seventh episode of Reservation Dogs — have I had an out-of-body experience or cried out involuntarily. This time, my body took over. I was shaking, adrenaline coursing through my body as all my nightmares of losing loved ones were unearthed to haunt me anew.

The reason for my visceral reaction: never in my career as an actor, or in my experience as a viewer of TV and film, have I experienced a work of popular culture that addresses suicide among Indigenous peoples with the care and directness that Reservation Dogs does.

Suicide has affected every Indigenous community on Turtle Island and countless Native families. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Native American people have the highest rates of suicide of any racial/ethnic group in the United States. And in Canada, First Nations people living on and off-reserve, Métis and Inuit, die by suicide at a higher rate than non-Indigenous people — in some cases, upwards of 33 times higher.

But these statistics are not just numbers to us; they represent our real friends and family members, each one with an entire community struggling alongside them, and grieving for them after they’ve departed. We may hear these numbers in mainstream news reporting, but we rarely encounter the lives of our Indigenous kin who died by suicide. We rarely witness the aftermath, the friends they’ve left behind. And that is exactly what is explored in the heartbreaking and heartwarming seventh episode of Reservation Dogs, a show that I have the privilege to be a part of, playing the character Elora Danan.

Read more at Time.com.

“I never hated sports, but I hated how I was treated by kids and adults who played sports.” That’s how one young LGBTQ person responded to the Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health when asked to describe their attitude toward athletics in school. “The locker room was always a nightmare, the athletic kids at my school hated me, the coaches at my school hated me, and as much as I didn’t care for a lot of mainstream sports in general, I avoided athletic activities out of terror, not disinterest.”

That response is just one selection from the new data released Wednesday by the organization, as it sifts through its 2021 survey of more than 35,000 LGBTQ youth. The Trevor Project is the nation’s leading nonprofit providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention resources to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, queer, and questioning youth. And its focus this time is on LGBTQ young people’s experiences and attitudes about participating in sports.

Among the findings published Wednesday:

• Fewer than one-third of LGBTQ youth—only 32%—reported that they had ever participated in sports for a school or community league or club; More than two-thirds, or 68%, reported they never once took part in any school or community sports.
• Sports helped a number of respondents improve their mental health. According to a trans student who participated in the survey, playing sports “help me cope with gender dysphoria and depression.” Another said, “I find that sports are a good way to distract me from negative thoughts.”
• Among those who did participate in sports, 18% reported they heard a sports leader or coach say negative things about people who are LGBTQ, and 16% reported that they had heard positive things about LGBTQ people from a sports leader or coach.
• Only 4% of out LGBTQ student-athletes reported feeling comfortable turning to a sports leader or coach for help when they were feeling sad, stressed, or depressed.

Read more at Forbes.com.

Carlos Galindo Elvira, the Director of Engagement and Community Partnerships for Chicanos Por La Causa, wrote about the suicide rate amongst Latinx/Hispanics and the lack of mental health resources for them. Elvira about his own suicidal ideation and his search for help in Sunday’s Arizona Republic. He discussed why Latinos/Hispanics are reluctant to discuss this issue and how to find help.

Elvira attributes the hesitancy to talk about mental health due to a cultural problem saying it’s meant to be private, in particular for Hispanic males.

“Those expectations lead to a reluctance to seek help and to get help,” Elvira says.

Factors leading to the reluctance include legal status that could lead to barriers to expressing any mental health issues with someone they trust.

Elvira had a friend that listened and gave him advice when he was open about his mental health struggles. He got the help he needed and now wants to use the knowledge he gained to help others avoid going through the same things he did.

“I want to be a spark through my guest column for people to seek out that help, especially during a crisis,” Elvira said.

Elvira pointed out that it’s oftentimes the person you least expect while also referencing that it could be anyone that’s struggling. He also spoke about the struggle for Hispanics to get the help they actually need.

Read more at AZPBS.org.

In the same way that iridescent colors shift in the light, “Iridescence” is shimmering with meaning.

The student-made short film, which is currently in postproduction, follows the life of an 18-year-old budding artist named Christian (Patrick Zhang) as he experiences his first panic attack amid the stress of college applications. Zhang, a fourth-year communication student, said that throughout the course of the film, Christian has to confront his inadvertently narrow-minded view of the world and his family in order to properly articulate his love for his family members.

“(The film is) essentially about this kid who is applying to colleges, but at the same time, he experiences a lot of tension coming from within his family,” Zhang said. “He’s trying to figure out who he is as a person and as an artist.”

When audiences watch “Iridescence,” director, writer, and fourth-year psychology student Jeremy Hsing said he wants viewers to feel like they are not alone in their mental health experiences. Christian’s turmoil is a natural response to the pivotal, transitional stage of growth that his whole generation is currently experiencing, Hsing said, which is delivered in part by the title of “Iridescence.”

“(The word) ‘iridescence’ is about how something’s color changes just when you view it from another angle,” Hsing said. “This is such an amazing metaphor for life because so many people stay in a box and perceive others as stereotypes, but once you step out of this box and get to know humans outside of these preconceived notions within our culture, that’s when bigotry ends.”

Read more DailyBruin.com.

We all know life has taken a toll on Americans in the last 20 months. But there is a group experts say is really going through it — young, Black boys. The latest studies show there’s been an uptick in suicides in that demographic, and now, advocates are hoping we can ban together and put an end to the suffering in silence.

“There’s something going on in our African-American communities and we are not talking about it,” Angelina Hudson said.

Hudson works day and night to help families impacted by mental illness, and the signs and symptoms associated with them. As interim executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Health Greater Houston (or NAMI), she has seen a lot.

“Our young African-American boys, ages 5-12, the uptick in suicide is really grotesque,” she continued.

According to the latest data, Black children ages 5 to 12 are two times more likely to attempt suicide than their white counterparts. NAMI, the CDC, and other mental health agencies said there are a number of factors contributing to hopelessness nowadays. Bullying, grief over losing a loved one, losing the lifestyle they were used to pre-pandemic, and social media pressures all play a part.

“I got to meet this standard. I got to meet that standard. This person is doing x, y, z, so I have to do that,” Ebony Scott explained about the way his children have felt.

Scotts is very hands-on with his three kids and has noticed when they’ve struggled. His advice to other Black parents? Walk the walk.

“Are we willing to go get the counseling we’re encouraging our children, or we should be encouraging our children to go and get it? So it starts with us as parents, as adults, by leading by example, but then also taking our children to go through the counseling or the therapy they may need to get through what they’re going through,” he said.

Read more at ABC13.com.