depression as disempowerment & oppression

“Women of Color, aside from dealing with other forms of oppression and dispossession (not just sexism), engage in an internal process of negotiating and discovering which part of their identity has been devalued to decide what coping strategy from our toolbox needs to be used to counter the effects of said prejudicial treatment” (Mejia 2019: 248)

Experiences of depression are intimately tied to intersecting societal identities. One’s mental suffering is often attributed to biological understandings, which are upheld by psychopharmaceutical practices. Chemical imbalances and predetermined genetics are blamed for depression; however, this act pathologizes women’s bodies and minds. Pharmaceutical drug technologies offer temporary corrections while the root cause of an individual’s suffering remains. Mejia’s autoethnography calls for a shift from a biological understanding to an intersectional, social understanding of mental suffering. The oppression and discrimination women of color face strip them of their dignity and self-respect and can manifest themselves in an individual as depression.

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Are (some)bodies or (some)psyches worth more than others? We are often too busy surviving to ask these questions and to learn the reasons why we are not allowed the opportunity to flourish, and we are not seen as deserving of being rescued. But how are we to survive if we can’t count on anybody?” (Mejia 2019: 249) 4