19 year old Afrikan male commits suicide- LIVE on webcast!

[Kentake]

A 19 year old African American son, brother and friend is dead. Abraham Biggs Jr. committed suicide on Nov. 19 by taking an overdose of pills during a live streaming webcast before an internet audience of strangers.

While some viewers logged onto the broadcast and encouraged him to take his life, others pleaded with him not to do it. Hours later after witnessing no movement in his body, viewers contacted the web site providers who notified the police that discovered his body, all of which was captured online.

Abraham's sister, Rosalind Biggs blasts the website, Justin.tv which allows people to broadcast themselves online ""They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours."

But Abraham's mother explained that "My son, Abraham Biggs Jr, was well-loved and cared for. However, the mental illness of bipolarity and depression got the better part of him.''

The Growth of Suicide and Mental Illness in Black Communities

Mental illness among African Americans, once kept in the "closet" of black families is gradually being more openly discussed but not quickly enough as alarming statistics reveal.

In the past several decades, the suicide rate among young black men has increased more than 100 percent. The American Association of Suicidology reports that suicide is the third leading cause of death among black youth, after homicides and accidents.

And Mental Health America reports that most African Americans who have bipolar disorder live their lives both undiagnosed and untreated because of an over-reliance on family and religious communities; a mistrust of healthcare professionals; a lack of access to mental healthcare and cultural barriers dealing with the stigmas of mental health.

Further, an American Psychiatric Association fact sheet explains that for some disorders, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders, there is a high probability of misdiagnosis because of differences in how African Americans express symptoms of emotional distress.

Sadly, a survey conducted by the National Mental Health Association found that 63% of African Americans feel that depression is a "personal weakness," compared to the overall survey average of 54%. And only 31% of African Americans said they believed depression is a "health" problem.

[pain]

I heard about this. And more and more I'm hearing stories about people daring suicidal people to commit suicide. I've seen the comments on different boards by people calling him a coward for doing it. And of course the ones who were taunting him said he'd be a coward if he didn't do it.

I'll also say that part of the reason why many of us suffering from depression, bi-polar disorder and other forms of mental illnesses go untreated is because those closest around us will view it as simply a part of our personality. "That's just how he/ she is." So they don't seek to help and they don't seek anyone or anything that can probably help. Furthermore, a lot of the techniques out there won't actually address what the root of the problem is for us as Afrikan people and the drugs certainly won't help overall either.

In this time and under these circumstances, I think we need some Afrikan spiritual specialists for these, fundamentally spiritual, disorders.

[Kentake]

Ase O pain. I have a cousin who was diagnosed "schizophrenic", and they have given her every medication that you can think of, she says that it "helps" her to "act right" but it has not really changed her condition and her behaviour. She is a cigarette chain smoker, loves "junk food" (or rather poison) and is very overweight, the way i see it the medication makes her very docile and totally "relaxed" in her condition. She talks about her jewish therapist as if she is her mother. As you said we really need to have trained Divine Elders/Okomfos/Babalawos/Iyanifa's who are willing and ready to deal with this generational psychosis, head-on. Here in canada, and particularly in this city, almost EVERY Afrikan i know has one or two relatives in their (immediate or distant) family that has been diagnosed "bi-polar", "schizophrenic" or suffers from depression. I do not know one Afrikan in canada that has not been somehow affected by this epidemic. My youngest brother has also been diagnosed with "schizophrenia" and he was institutionalized for sometime b/c he physically attacked a member of our family. First he went from a jail for the "criminally insane" then to a psychiatric institution and now they are talking about a group home for him. He is the only brother that i have left b/c my elder brother was murdered in 2001.


NONE of my family members are looking at the ROOT causes of his condition and what brought him to this stage of his psychosis in the first place. The way i see it if the ROOTS OF THE PROBLEM cannot be addressed then attacking the symptoms will have no effect. I am somewhat aware of what is affecting my brother but since my mother is the QUEEN of denial i do not expect her to go very deep to search for the SOURCE of the problem, b/c then she will have to look at herself. I am doing my own spiritual works on behalf of my brother as a daughtah of Ifa and i will continue to do so until the Nananom sound da Akoben and tell me that i must make more advanced decisions on his behalf...until then, i will be silent in my meditations. I also have another very close sistah friend who is dealing with her verbally violent and abusive sister who has been diagnosed with "bi-polar" and another sistah who has been institutionalized for over 10 years...tust mi, it nuh EASY. Ok, enuff of my ranting....this is a very sensitive topic for me that i usually do not share with anyone but i am comfortable here at ABIBITUMI KASA, and i hope that my story will help other Afrikans to see that this is an issue that CANNOT be ignored. O dabo.

[pain]

I hear what you're saying - especially about parents denying their role in it all. I think this is a pretty solitary path for those suffering from these types of illnesses. Not many want to be bothered with such things for various reasons. Some people can't deal with the sadness because it makes them sad. Some people can't distinguish between the symptoms and the person so they begin to become cold and/ or bitter towards the person. These mental illnesses definitely cause relationship problems. The immobility is seen as a lack of ambition or laziness. The irritability may be seen as just plain ol' meanness. The slow motion movement may be seen as a pathetic inability to perform tasks in a timely manner. The suicide attempts are seen as a ploy to get attention. The isolation & dissociative demeanor may be seen as simply immature. The insomnia may be seen as "oh you just got too much on your mind".

More than likely, the parents will never come around and ayne nobody out there trying to be in an intimate relationship with someone like that. These days aren't like those of yester where Parent-children or man-woman relationships thrived and survived by the creed of sticking together through thick and thin and finding a way to resolve issues/ problems. Relationships of all kinds now have the concept of escapism as a failsafe.

I hear you on the drugs too. The problem is still felt. That it is still there beneath the effect of the drugs is apparent to the sufferers. And how about the concept of anti-depressants making a depressed and suicidal person feel good and upbeat about wanting to kill his/ herself?

More than likely, people, including children, suffering from these forms of mental illness will have to rely on themselves to resolve it. I'm not saying that's ideal or the way that I want it. It's the reality that I see happening.

It's also something that I'd like to be able to affect change against one day, for all of our people, but most especially for children and younger people. I'm not even close right now but I'd like to be able to establish several Afrikan-centered cultural/ living/ psychological centers for homeless and/ or abused(physically, psychologically, sexually or otherwise) children, young people and others of our people as well, again with a more pronounced focus on the younger ones. Abosomfos, Okomfos, Babalawos, Iyanifas, Dibias, Bokonons etc. Would be an integral part of it.

[Asantewa]

This is why repatriation is a MUST! These are Afrikan spiritual problems that need to be dealt with by Afrikan practitioners. Suicide is on the increase at home too due to the mental/spiritual imbalances that have imposed on us by separation from our culture...