INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTEXT RESEARCH FINDINGS

In order to figure out what subtopics I should address within mental illness, I did research on what things correlate—and the level to which they do—with mental illness. Most of my research was about the mental health of African Americans due to the higher prevalence of information for that demographic compared to other races. Based on those findings, I interviewed people with a variety of different self-identifications to determine if there was any correlation with their own personal experience as a person of color.

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After viewing various sources, I discovered these statistics:

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- While African Americans possess slightly lower lifetime prevalence estimates of major depressive disorder than white Americans, the former's depressive episodes are more frequent, more damaging and more resistant to treatment by comparison

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- African Americans possess the highest rate of church attendance out of any ethnic group in the United States, increasing the likelihood that prayer or counseling with a pastor will substitute formal therapy 

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- Despite men being about four times more likely to commit suicide than women, they still use mental health services at a lower rate than women

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