Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) are at risk of experiencing trauma due to mental and emotional injury from a variety of causes.

If you have experienced such trauma, you may find that your relationships are impacted. Consider these strategies to protect and manage your closest relationships and all that are important to you.

Recognize triggers

We can be triggered by and experience racism.

The impacts can go beyond our own emotional pain and psychological distress to affect our relationships. When we feel triggered, it’s important to:

• Identify your emotions—Are we feeling surprise, fear, sadness, disgust, anger? It can be helpful to name to our emotions so we can use our knowledge about how to deal with them and seek help if necessary.
• Recognize the validity of your emotions—We are right to feel the way we do, and we don’t need to waste our energy questioning that. It’s important to take the time to understand how we are feeling.
• Manage your emotions—When we know what we are feeling, we are in a better place to be in control of how to approach and react to people and situations. This can have beneficial impacts for our relationships.

Set boundaries

With family members and friends, co-workers and even strangers, we must feel safe to be ourselves and feel respected. Setting and sticking to personal boundaries can help. Here’s how you can do it:

• Prioritize needs—Take the time to think through where you stand, what you can and cannot tolerate, and what makes you feel happy or uncomfortable.
• Anticipate resistance—Expect that others may not easily understand your boundaries, especially if they have different backgrounds or personalities.
• Communicate boundaries—Clearly and directly let others know of your boundaries and reiterate them if you feel they are being overstepped.
• Distance yourself if necessary—If you feel disrespected or have your boundaries crossed repeatedly, it may be time to cut off further interactions to protect your emotional wellbeing.

Practice self-care

We are our own best advocates. It is vitally important that we take time to do the things that make us happy, keep us healthy and give us an outlet from negativity. Not only will our wellbeing improve, but our relationships will also benefit. Try these:

• Try a delicious new recipe—Taking time to enjoy cooking or baking can be relaxing and fruitful when it’s time to eat!
• Enjoy quiet time to rest or nap—Sometimes it can be hard to take a break. Take the opportunities as they arise and enjoy every moment!
• Catch up for a visit or phone call with a loved one—Connecting with others can increase your sense of safety, belonging and security.
• Read a book or start a hobby—Keep your mind active and engaged in activities that bring you joy.
• Volunteer—Giving of yourself to help others can improve your confidence, self-esteem and life satisfaction.
• Get outside for fresh air and exercise—Sunshine and nature have been proven to boost mood.

Additional emotional support resources

For more on BIPOC mental health, visit our website for July BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month, MagellanHealthcare.com/BIPOC-MH, and be sure to check out the BIPOC mental health tip sheets and awareness campaign toolkit.

You can also check out a recording from our webinar, “BIPOC mental health and relationships.”

Have you ever been so happy or upset that it was difficult to function and go about your daily tasks and responsibilities? Or maybe something was bothering you and you didn’t feel quite right, but you couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. Sometimes it’s easy to identify our emotions, especially when they are very strong or overwhelming, like in the case of grief or joy. Other times, it can be more difficult, such as when experiencing shame or even love.

Identifying our emotions is a first step in managing them, and both are important skills in getting through life’s ups and downs and feeling more in control about how we approach and react to people and situations. Of course, we must feel our feelings. We should acknowledge and celebrate happy times, listen to our instincts if we are afraid, and otherwise give ourselves the time we need to fully experience our emotions. In this post, we’ll focus on and provide support for when we are struggling with nagging or intense emotions.

Recognizing your emotions

You might be wondering why recognizing your emotions and feelings is important. Maybe you think it’s obvious what you are feeling at any given moment. In some cases, it is. Even then, it is important to name the emotion or feeling. This allows you to get what you need from it and effectively manage it so it doesn’t become disruptive in your life. It can be difficult to deal with an emotion and move on if you haven’t identified what it is.

For example—You’re sitting at your desk at work and not feeling like yourself. You’re anxious about the work you must complete. You could sit there and continue trying to push through with the nagging feeling. Or you could take a moment to identify and name the emotion so you can take the appropriate steps to move on from feeling less than your normal self. This could be as easy as saying to yourself, “I am overwhelmed.” Now that you’ve identified the emotion and given a name to it, you can use your knowledge about how to deal with feeling overwhelmed and seek additional help if necessary.

A great resource for helping to identify your emotions is an emotion wheel. Magellan provides a tool you can use here. Print it or keep it open in your web browser so it’s handy when you need to name an emotion that may be distracting you or getting you down.

Accepting your emotions

You’ve recognized and named the emotion you’re feeling. Now what? What do you do to get to a better place of focus and contentment? You can start with accepting what you’re feeling is legitimate and worthy of your attention. And while you may not be happy about the situation that is causing your emotional response, we know that situations will arise that are out of our control. For instance, we may experience negative emotions due to a breakup with a partner, seeing a child make a poor decision, or watching a friend go on the vacation we so badly want. No matter the situation, fighting our emotions only serves to give them more fuel to thrive, which may not be exactly welcomed.

A tool to help you accept your reality and let go of resentments is called radical acceptance. Find more on this technique along with a short video and helpful exercise worksheets linked on our website for Mental Health Month.

Managing your emotions

When we know what we’re feeling, have accepted it, and are giving ourselves grace to deal with it, we’re in a better place to act and feel better. One technique that can help you do this is looking at your thoughts from a different perspective. For example, if you’re feeling lonely, think about the supports that are available to you—some may be just a phone call away. When you flip that lonely feeling and remember there are people who are there for you, your thoughts become more rooted in reality. You can then take action to feel less lonely by calling upon family or friends or searching online for ways to meet new people.

Throughout the often-challenging process of dealing with emotions, it’s important to be kind to yourself and practice self-care. Take time to do the things you enjoy. While you’re doing them, you can revel in the positive emotions you feel in the moment.

Support is also available in the form of mood tracking apps, which can help us understand the stressors and triggers that cause negative emotions. Find a clinically-reviewed list of these apps linked on our website for Mental Health Month.

Finally, when emotions are overwhelming and causing distress in your life, like causing changes in your personality, eating or sleeping habits, it’s important to seek the support of a therapist or other mental health or medical professional. You don’t need to suffer. There is help available that can make a difference.

Additional emotional support resources

For more on recognizing, accepting and managing emotions, visit our website for May Mental Health Month, MagellanHealthcare.com/Mental-Health-Month, and be sure to check out the Mental Health Awareness Campaign Toolkit.

Today, Centene Corporation announced that it has completed the acquisition of Magellan Health, Inc. Through this transaction, we are establishing a leading behavioral health platform during a critical time through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Magellan will expand Centene’s reach to provide increased access to behavioral healthcare for our members at a time when so many Americans are struggling with mental or behavioral health issues,” said Michael Neidorff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Centene. “This transaction establishes a strong foundation from which we will innovate and reimagine behavioral and specialty health to provide comprehensive and integrated healthcare to our members, while generating value for our state partners and shareholders.”

And the need for holistic, comprehensive health management only continues to grow as the pandemic continues.

In December 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated in a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report more than four out of 10 adults, 43 percent, suffered from anxiety or depression. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2021 study said 13 percent of adults responding to their survey admitted “having started or increased substance use to cope with stress or emotions related to COVID-19.”

As the nation’s largest managed health care organization, Centene is well-positioned to continue its focus on member-centered care – especially during this time of such great need and demand. The Magellan acquisition enables Centene to provide whole-health, integrated healthcare solutions to deliver better health outcomes at lower costs for complex, high-cost populations.

Centene remains focused on our commitment to shaping a better world of healthcare for our members, providers, state partners, employees, and the communities we serve as we lead the world to a healthier future. Magellan Health will operate independently under Centene’s Health Care Enterprises umbrella. Additional details regarding this transaction are available in this press release.