Editor’s Note
This article discusses suicide. If you or someone you love is struggling with thoughts of suicide, help is available. Speak with someone today at the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day through call or text in English and Spanish at 988.
“I have fought against depression for a long time, but it’s won this time around.” That was part of a text message April Simpkins received from her daughter, Cheslie Kryst, in 2022.
She didn’t know it would be the last.
Like many people who experience suicidal ideation, Kryst had made a previous attempt, in 2016. Because of this, Simpkins assumed her daughter would be okay.
“We’ll get through this, and I’ll be there for her again,” Simpkins thought to herself as she reached out to the police department to send medics to Kryst’s apartment in New York City.
On January 30, 2022, at 30 years old, Kryst died by suicide after what her parents described as a long battle with “persistent depression.”
Kryst is one of many Black women who have ended their lives in recent years, signaling a silent but steady increase among the community.
Between 1999 and 2020, the suicide rate among Black women ages 15 to 84 rose from 2 deaths per 100,000 people to 3.4 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Achievement, pressure and mental health
When Kryst was young, she relocated with her family from Michigan to Charlotte. The family later moved to Rock Hill, S.C., where she attended Northwestern High School.
After high school, Kryst enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where she was in the Honors College. Later, she attended Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, N.C., where she earned a law degree.
In 2019, Kryst competed in the Miss U.S.A. pageant and won.
For years, she experienced bouts of depression and anxiety, some of which she detailed in a memoir published in April 2024.
In the book “By the Time You Read This: The Space Between Cheslie’s Smile and Mental Illness,” co-authored by Simpkins, Kryst wrote of the pressure she felt being both a woman and a Black person and how those experiences affected her.
“It’s difficult being in rooms and sitting on leadership boards where you are the only Black person, the only woman and the only young individual,” Kryst wrote. “Times like that used to feed my imposter syndrome, making me think I had to be perfect…”
Despite being a well-loved public figure, Kryst still experienced loneliness and feelings of isolation. She described these in her January 2022 message to her mother.
“I no longer feel like I have any purpose in life. I don’t know if I ever really did…I don’t want to leave, but I genuinely feel like I have to if I want to escape my loneliness that feels like it has no end.” Kryst wrote to her mom on January 30, 2022.“I have fought against depression for a long time, but it’s won this time around.”
But experts say that neither achievement nor wealth lowers the risk of suicide amongst Black women.
“Regardless of education, regardless of income,” Dr. Iman Hypolite, a licensed psychiatrist at Aspira Health and Wellness, told QCity Metro, “Black women still have the highest risk of suicide — regardless of socioeconomics.”
Removing stigmas
Revella Nesbit, the board president for Charlotte’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said one of the reasons for the increase in suicide among Black women could be related to intersectionality, which is the overlapping of social identities and related systems of oppression or discrimination.
Nesbit told QCity Metro that between environmental and institutional racism — compounded with sexism — Black women are often facing double the load of other demographics.
She also said that microaggressions can also play a role in the mental health and self-esteem of Black women and girls.
“Oftentimes, there are stereotypes that may exist around Black girls and Black women,” Nesbit said. “There is thought around inferiority in how Black girls and Black women are being perceived.”
According to Nesbit, one way this can manifest is that Black women are often expected to take on a “superwoman” role, in which they take on multiple responsibilities and are seen as having greater tolerance for stress than other demographics.
“[Black women] are seen as strong and don’t always feel as if they can be vulnerable,” Nesbit said. “The simple fact that women cannot express themselves without some judgment can be a problem.”
Simpkins, who has become an advocate for mental health since her daughter’s death, told QCity Metro she sees Black women struggle with “superwoman syndrome” because of societal pressures.
“This need to present yourself as strong because that’s what’s expected of us…We live in a society that tries so hard to label [Black women.],” she said.
Nesbit says the expectation to “perform,” or produce, can make it harder for Black women to request support when struggling with their mental health, which increases the risk for suicide.
Warning signs
Nesbit says the warning signs that someone may be struggling with their mental health can present differently in Black women — who are sometimes taught to mask or ignore the symptoms.
“Black women may put on the biggest smile,” Nesbit said. “[Black women] go into the world, do what they need to do, and come home and not get out of the bed, and only those who are closest to them see that part of what it is that they may be experiencing.”
Some general warning signs of suicidal ideation include increased depression or anxiety, a loss of interest in life or the future, a high level of fatigue and feelings of hopelessness, Nesbit said.
However, Hypolite said that increased awareness and training for mental health professionals are needed to better understand the signs of mental illness in Black women.
She also told QCity Metro that, on average, women have at least 30 suicide attempts before completing suicide.
“What that means is that there’s some wiggle room before someone completes suicide; there might have been other suicide attempts, and there definitely were suicidal thoughts,” Hypolite said.
Seeking support
Nesbit says building healthy coping skills, such as reaching out to organizations, therapists, and support groups, is important for managing mental health.
She also said that sharing space with someone, listening to how they feel, and reinforcing that they are not alone can be helpful.
Furthermore, while taboo in many Black communities, mental health professionals encourage anyone struggling with their mental health to consider going into therapy.
“We need to normalize therapy before it gets to crisis,” Hypolite said.
Simpkins believes that specifically finding a Black woman therapist is essential for having a solid support system for Black women.
Hypolite says that ending stigma in the Black community around mental health services is a good place to start preventing suicide.
“It’s important that we take it upon ourselves to reach out for help earlier and to hold ourselves accountable about fighting that stigma of needing help,” Hypolite said. “Asking for help is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of our humanity.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Revella Nesbit as Revella Nesdit.
Destiniee:
Thank you for the mental health story.
Much appreciated. Need more stories around the subject, but especially focusing on stigma.
Glenn Proctor
Mental Health Educator/Suicide Prevention Instructor