According to Kumea Shorter-Gooden, a clinical psychologist and author, a lot of woman particularly the Blacks in America, are emotional overeater’s who try to mask their depression with food. Shorter-Gooden said African-American women generally do not seek treatment for their depression, either because their friends, religious community and family members don't recognize depression as a legitimate health issue, or because acknowledging a mental illness is a sign of weakness. So they hide their feelings by eating. The research showed this to be particularly true in case of the African-American women.
Stating that occasional such periods aren’t much of a worry, feelings that persist for longer periods of time should be diagnosed and treated. He felt that people overeat, overwork and try to hide their feelings but hesitate to get professional help. She felt that the average black women have extraordinary strength. But that same positive becomes a negative as they feel they are letting others down or that they are weak in their religious faith if they acknowledge their illness.She claims that the black women mask the signs of depression by becoming stoic overachievers. She claims she has never known a group that sleeps less than black women. Others she feels tend to get too involved wit their job, feeling that involvement can mask their depressed feelings, or others simply go for “Binge eating” to hide their feelings.
Giving her research a thought the average black woman feel a need now to express themselves. That if they feel empty, tired, lost, restless, hopeless, and joyless and other such feelings, they have to seek professional help, to get on with their lives quickly. There is a upward trend she states in woman acknowledging their feelings now a days but, the majority are yet to break. The survey shows that about 66 percent of black, Hispanic and Asian women who thought they should seek the help of a mental health professional last year did not do so. As compared with 35 percent of white women who did not seek help.
