Quilombolas in Alagoas suffer from anxiety and depression – 06/23/2023 – Daily life

Leaving the center of the city of Poço das Trincheiras, it takes about fifty minutes by car on a dirt road, full of holes, to reach the Jacú and Mocó communities, a rural area of ​​the interior municipality of Alagoas.

Quilombos are located in a high area, which allows for a panoramic view of the region. Around, trees and mountains. Few closely spaced houses can be seen. The streets are also dirt roads. Masonry houses are being built, but a good part of them are still made of mud.

In this scenario of certain isolation and little access to public policies, a situation that is difficult to detect even in cities with more infrastructure has grown: problems related to mental health.

The cases include reports of anxiety, depression and schizophrenia and began at least a decade ago. However, the quilombolas only got specialized medical care two years ago. Even so, the psychiatrist only visits the community once a month.

“Anxiety and nervous problems. I didn’t sleep at night. I thought so much. I thought about my brothers. My mother died”, says Neusa da Conceição Ribeiro, 38.

She has been undergoing treatment for two years, with medication. The quilombola does not know how to give an opinion on why the problem has affected the community.

“Here there are a lot of people taking medicine. My father takes it. He has depression. I have a 14-year-old boy who is also taking medicine. He has nerve problems, anxiety. He takes three types of medicine”.

Neusa says that before receiving care in the community itself, the quilombolas needed to go to the central region of Poço das Trincheiras to get an appointment with a psychiatrist — when they could get an appointment.

The community is small and is home to around 150 families, considering the two towns Jacú and Mocó. In all, at least 20 people have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression and are receiving medication for treatment.

In addition, the residents’ association estimates that more than 300 people have taken medicine and stopped or reported suffering from similar symptoms in recent months.

The report contacted the City Hall of Poço das Trincheiras and the government of Alagoas, but none of them responded until the publication of this text.

The struggle to get doctors to the health post near Jacú and Mocó started with quilombo leader and law student Aline dos Santos Ferreira, 25.

“I was quite worried because people with depression, anxiety, these mental problems had been coming for a long time. This is not new,” she says.

“About four years ago, it got worse. But we’ve always had it in the community. I even got scared and took the case to the health secretary. I’m quite worried because there are many cases. There are houses where out of five people, four are sleeping based on medicine”, he says.

“We have people thinking about suicide. We’ve had suicide here. Young people every now and then say they want to die,” he says. “But I see Jacú with more problems [de saúde mental] than other quilombola communities”.

Aline argues that it is necessary to pay attention to the quilombolas, with programs that can meet the specificities of these communities, such as, for example, taking into account the most remote locations where some of them are located, which makes access to public policies such as health and transportation difficult.

She attributes a good portion of the blame for the mental health problems that occur in the community to the prejudice suffered by the quilombolas. “We suffer a lot of prejudice, a lot of racism and many young people are not prepared for this”.

According to Alessandro de Oliveira dos Santos, professor at the Institute of Psychology at USP, assessing the harmful effects that racism can have on quilombola communities or black people in general is complex and would require including other sciences for a complete analysis of the various layers surrounding the theme.

“Since my point of view is that of psychology, I focus more on the person’s behavior, the relationships he establishes with other people and the effects that this produces on him”, he says.

Despite this, he elaborates on some of the possible impacts that black people can have when dealing with prejudice on a daily basis.

“Imagine the emotional wear and tear of being in a state of constant alert every time you’re driving and you’re faced with a police checkpoint or facing some other day-to-day situations that have to do with access and form of treatment”, he says. .

“A white-skinned person doesn’t have this emotional distress and doesn’t need to be under a constant alert of: ‘will it be that now in this situation I’m going to suffer prejudice, now I’m going to be discriminated against because of negative stereotypes?’. psychological effect”, he analyzes.

For him, people who are the target of prejudice and ethnic-racial discrimination have their behavior more under control for fear of being discriminated against at any time.

This makes them have to expend a much greater emotional energy that has physical repercussions. “It increases blood pressure, increases sweating in the body.”

Additionally, this stress can raise your heart rate and impact your immune system. Health damage ranges from gastrointestinal disorders to schizophrenic symptoms.

According to Alessandro, if a black quilombola person feels that he is going to be mistreated in the public service, before seeking the service he will first try other ways of dealing with the issue, such as herbs and teas, advice from neighbors and friends who had the same problem, prayers, healers.

“To the extent that the quilombola community feels discriminated against in the health service, seeking that service will be one of its last options to deal with the health problem that has affected it”.

---

WHERE TO FIND HELP

People who are going through some kind of emotional suffering can call 188, the Centro de Valorização da Vida telephone number, available 24 hours a day by telephone.

The service is also available via chat at the following times: Sundays, from 5 pm to 1 am on Mondays; Monday to Thursday, from 9 am to 1 am; Fridays from 3 pm to 11 pm and Saturdays from 4 pm to 1 am on Sundays.