Experiencing racism or discrimination — whether it's a single upsetting incident, a pattern of everyday slights, or the ongoing weight of systemic inequality — can affect your mental and physical health in real, measurable ways. This is sometimes called racial trauma or race-based traumatic stress. If you're feeling exhausted, on edge, or worn down by these experiences, that reaction makes sense, and you deserve support.
How Racism and Discrimination Affect Wellbeing
Research consistently links experiences of racism and discrimination — from overt hostility to subtler everyday slights sometimes called microaggressions — to higher rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and physical health problems like high blood pressure and chronic inflammation. This can happen even without one dramatic event: the cumulative weight of repeated smaller incidents, plus the ongoing vigilance of anticipating them, takes a real toll over time. Witnessing discrimination against your community, or encountering distressing news and social media content about it, can also produce genuine trauma responses even if you weren't directly targeted yourself.
Signs You Might Recognize
- Feeling constantly on guard or scanning for signs of bias in new situations, places, or relationships.
- Exhaustion from code-switching, masking, or managing other people's reactions to your identity.
- Intrusive thoughts, anger, grief, numbness, or hopelessness connected to specific incidents or ongoing patterns.
- Physical symptoms like headaches, muscle tension, high blood pressure, or trouble sleeping.
- Difficulty trusting institutions — workplaces, healthcare, schools, law enforcement — that have felt unsafe or unfair.
- Withdrawing from situations or opportunities to avoid the risk of another painful experience.
A Few Things You Can Try Today
- Ground yourself when a memory or new incident brings up strong feelings. Our Grounding & Breathing tool has quick exercises you can use anywhere.
- Give yourself permission to feel angry, sad, or exhausted. These are appropriate responses to real harm, not overreactions. Our Self-Compassion Break tool can help you meet those feelings with kindness instead of judgment.
- Set aside dedicated time to process difficult thoughts, rather than letting them take over your whole day. Our Worry Time tool can help you contain and revisit them on your own terms.
- Get clearer on what matters most to you, so you can choose where to spend your energy. Our Values Clarification tool can help.
- Reconnect with people who share your identity or experience. Being understood without having to explain yourself can be a real relief.
Finding Community and Support
Connecting with others who understand your specific experience — through affinity groups, cultural or faith communities, or organizations built by and for your community — can ease the isolation that racial trauma often brings, and remind you that your reactions are shared and valid, not unusual. If loneliness is part of what you're carrying, our Lonely or Isolated page has more ideas for building connection.
When to Seek Professional Help
If racial trauma is affecting your sleep, relationships, work, or sense of safety for weeks or months, a therapist can help — ideally one with genuine training in racial trauma or cultural competence, so you don't have to spend sessions explaining or justifying your experience. Many therapist directories now let you filter specifically for therapists of color or those with expertise in racial trauma. Our Affordable Therapy page has ideas for finding support at a lower cost.
Where to Go for More
- APA: Racism, Bias, and Discrimination - Research-backed overview of how racism and discrimination affect mental and physical health.
- Mental Health America: Racial Trauma - A practical toolkit for understanding and coping with race-based traumatic stress.
- NAMI: Black/African American Mental Health - Culturally specific mental health information and support-finding guidance.
- Verywell Mind: Racial Trauma - An accessible explainer on symptoms, causes, and coping strategies for racial trauma.
- The Steve Fund - Mental health and emotional wellbeing resources focused on young people of color.
These are general starting points, not a diagnosis or a complete treatment plan.