Pwoblèm Mantal Noun (Haitian creole) :
Mental problems
Note: It's a negative term used by many older Haitians to describe mental health problems.
May 4th, 2013.
The day I officially gave my life to Christ. Getting baptized is supposed to be one of the most important and happiest moments in a Christian's life. I was surrounded by my friends, family, and community. Everything in my life at that moment was at an extreme high, but mentally I was at an ultimate low. I couldn't understand what was wrong with me, why I felt so down. I thought that by getting baptized, it would put me in a better place mentally but after emerging from the baptism waters, the heaviness in my heart was still there.
"Everything in my life at that moment was at an extreme high, but mentally I was at an ultimate low."
As years went by, the feelings of depression and anxiety only increased, no matter how much I threw myself into church and school. When I tried to talk to my family about my issues, I was mostly met with ridicule and skepticism. People thought I was either losing my mind or being possessed by an unknown spirit. It wasn't until I left for college that I summoned the courage to go visit the school therapist, where I learned the reason for my problems: anxiety and depression.
Through my visits with her, I learned about mental health and how to manage it. When I went home and started talking to other members of my youth group, I was shocked to discover that many of them went through similar experiences dealing with mental health and that most of them had never talked about it until now. As I explored the subject further, I learned that many Haitian-American youths around the country had similar experiences as well.