I Wonder How Much Shorter My Life Will Be From Chronic Stress?
What too dramatic? Good, it should be.
Damn, I’m tired of writing about heavy topics that oppress my community.
I just wanna write about tiny puzzles, Black cozy mystery books, and my love of junk food from other countries.
But today ain’t that day.
Let’s talk about Black stress!
What, is the graphic too dramatic? Good.
Because for Black women, it’s that’s serious.
I learned a new word today: Weathering
I despise it, thanks.
Weathering is defined as repeated exposure to socioeconomic adversity, political marginalization, racism, and perpetual discrimination which can harm health.
According to Dr. Ijeoma Opara “Black women have the highest levels of what public health researchers call allostatic load—the cumulative burden of bodily “wear and tear” from chronic stress and adverse life events, compared with other groups in the workplace. Allostatic load is linked to cognitive and physical decline, breast cancer in Black women, heart disease, diabetes, and even death.”
I’ll drop two articles in the comments.
Yesterday was hot garbage.
I had to pay my storage by the close of business or I knew I’d be on the path to having my belongings auctioned one mo’ time.
Thanks to community care and kindness, I paid it right under the wire.
Even the woman at the storage place was like “I was rooting for you. It’s hard for people to recover from past due payments and late fees.”
Yeah babe, I know. Been there.
As soon as I made the payment I should have felt relieved. However, I didn’t. I was grateful but I was also stressed as hell.
I was walking Nico and I had to sit on the ground because I felt lightheaded and my body went into a collapsed state.
This is the type of stress I experience every single day.
As soon as I kinda recovered, my mind raced to the next financial fire I had to put out.
Poverty takes no days off.
Trust me, I can’t stand having to ask for support over and over again. I already feel like a loser and this doesn’t help. I want to be self sufficient so damn badly but I suck at capitalism so here we are.
Please know that under resourced folks are never only putting out ONE fire. Instead, we’re weighing out which one needs our attention most. The one that can cause us the most harm moves to the front.
All that to say, I wonder how many days, weeks, months or even years of my life I’ve lost as a result of chronic financial stress?
My Mother died at 49.
She wasn’t sick. She was chronically stressed.
I’m about to turn 48.
Throw in four decades of racism and I’m honestly surprised that I’m still here.
All that to say, poverty sucks.
This place hates poor folks but it loves our labor.