Latest / The Breakfast Club / Mental Wealth Expo: DaBaby Talks Therapy, Mental Health In His Community + More
Transcript
- 0:28Speaker 1: And I am Shanty Jos.
- 0:30Speaker 2: I'm moderating this incredible chat that we're about to have.
- 0:34Speaker 2: Next up, we have an extraordinary young man with a
- 0:37Speaker 2: great story who is doing some incredible stuff for the community. Now,
- 0:41Speaker 2: let's give it up for Grammy Nominator Recording Artists.
- 0:43Speaker 1: The Baby.
- 0:48Speaker 3: There, you go, make some noise. Put a seven o's
- 0:50Speaker 3: one head the baby in head.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Yes, and last, but certainly not least, we have mister
- 0:56Speaker 2: Elliott Connie. He is a license psycho therapist.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Give up for Elliott? All right, all right, all ready,
- 1:09Speaker 1: what's up?
- 1:10Speaker 2: So my first question is gonna be you for you
- 1:12Speaker 2: the Baby. Yes, ma'am, thank you for joining us.
- 1:14Speaker 4: I appreciate you having you for being here my beautiful
- 1:17Speaker 4: space to be in. I appreciate y'all welcoming me with
- 1:18Speaker 4: open arms. I appreciate all y'all for being here today too.
- 1:21Speaker 1: That's right.
- 1:22Speaker 2: So can you share with us what inspired you to
- 1:25Speaker 2: start this mental health nonprofit in honor of your loved
- 1:28Speaker 2: one and what specific challenges you aim to address within
- 1:32Speaker 2: the black community regarding mental health and suicide.
- 1:35Speaker 4: First and foremost, what inspired me to embark on my
- 1:38Speaker 4: mental health journey and just creating this initiative and honor
- 1:40Speaker 4: my brother.
- 1:41Speaker 3: Is this being something.
- 1:42Speaker 4: That I need first and foremost, you know what I mean?
- 1:45Speaker 4: And not just me bringing other people and challenging them to,
- 1:48Speaker 4: you know, embark on a mental health journey. But this
- 1:50Speaker 4: is something I need, something my brother's kids need, my nieces,
- 1:54Speaker 4: my nephew. My brother left four kids behind when he
- 1:56Speaker 4: took his life, you know, the suicide back in twenty twenty.
- 1:59Speaker 4: So these resources that I'm creating and these tools that
- 2:03Speaker 4: I'm you know, putting in front of people, these are
- 2:05Speaker 4: tools that I'm using in real time.
- 2:06Speaker 3: I'm not just telling somebody else to go do it.
- 2:08Speaker 4: Like even me being in this room and getting in
- 2:10Speaker 4: front of people like this and getting on panels like this,
- 2:13Speaker 4: every conversation I have it, you know, it takes me
- 2:16Speaker 4: a step along along the way in the journey of
- 2:18Speaker 4: healing myself. So I feel like it's super important not
- 2:20Speaker 4: just for me, but everybody else is just to feel
- 2:23Speaker 4: the healing in real time, and you know, see how
- 2:25Speaker 4: good it feels. It's something that I'm super excited to
- 2:27Speaker 4: just give somebody else the opportunity to do as well.
- 2:29Speaker 1: That's awesome. May I ask you what your brother's name was.
- 2:34Speaker 3: Is Glenn Johnson?
- 2:35Speaker 4: Lynn, Glenn Johnson, Lynn's ma'am.
- 2:37Speaker 2: Glenn, Yes, ma'am, So I honor your brother's name. Let's
- 2:40Speaker 2: all honor his brother right now.
- 2:42Speaker 3: I appreciate that and his memory.
- 2:44Speaker 1: That is so important.
- 2:47Speaker 2: So mental health and suicide are often considered taboo subjects
- 2:51Speaker 2: in the black community. You know, I certainly know from
- 2:53Speaker 2: firsthand experience. My father died by suicide my best friend
- 2:57Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen, and I came really close to taking
- 2:59Speaker 2: my own wife twenty fifteen. So I want to ask you, Connie,
- 3:03Speaker 2: and I'm sorry Elliott, Connie and Charlemagne, what are some
- 3:07Speaker 2: of the key barriers you have identified that prevent open
- 3:11Speaker 2: discussions and access to mental health resources in our community.
- 3:14Speaker 2: I'll start with you, Charlemagne and all that you're doing
- 3:16Speaker 2: with the Mental Wealth Alliance?
- 3:18Speaker 3: Was it? What was the question to what are.
- 3:19Speaker 2: Some of the key barriers that you've seen that prevent
- 3:23Speaker 2: open discussions around suicide in our community?
- 3:26Speaker 5: Man, people don't want to be perceived as crazy. That's
- 3:29Speaker 5: what I always say. In order to eradicate the stigma
- 3:31Speaker 5: around mental health, people cannot be afraid to tell their story.
- 3:35Speaker 5: And I think a lot of times you know, the
- 3:37Speaker 5: in the black community, we don't do ourselves no favors
- 3:40Speaker 5: by keeping secrets. You know, I've been dealing with anxiety
- 3:43Speaker 5: and you know, bout the depression my whole life. But
- 3:46Speaker 5: it wasn't until I started, you know, having these conversations
- 3:49Speaker 5: about it and telling my own story that I realized
- 3:51Speaker 5: there were so many people that was dealing with the
- 3:53Speaker 5: same thing, in particular my father, right, And I tell
- 3:56Speaker 5: this story all the time, But it was twenty eighteen.
- 3:59Speaker 5: I'm home in Monkscow, South Carolina. It was the week
- 4:01Speaker 5: of Thanksgiving. My cousin, who was twenty five at the time,
- 4:04Speaker 5: he had just completed suicide. I got that term from
- 4:07Speaker 5: Shanty by the way, completed suicide. He had just completed
- 4:09Speaker 5: suicide at twenty five years old. And he used to
- 4:11Speaker 5: do it like a lot of work with my father
- 4:13Speaker 5: in the neighborhood and my father's into construction. And my
- 4:16Speaker 5: father called me and he had just read my second book,
- 4:18Speaker 5: Shook One Anxiety playing tricks on me, and my cousin
- 4:21Speaker 5: completed suicide. And that was the first time my father
- 4:23Speaker 5: revealed to me that he had been going to therapy
- 4:26Speaker 5: two and three times a week and that he tried
- 4:28Speaker 5: to commit suicide.
- 4:29Speaker 3: You know, thirty plus years ago.
- 4:31Speaker 5: You know that he had been on ten to twelve
- 4:33Speaker 5: different medications in South Carolina for his mental health.
- 4:37Speaker 3: And so I remember asking my mom.
- 4:39Speaker 5: I said to my mom and said, Joe, you know
- 4:40Speaker 5: Pop was dealing with all this, And she said, I
- 4:41Speaker 5: thought he was playing.
- 4:42Speaker 3: Crazy to get a check.
- 4:44Speaker 5: So it's like, those are the type of things that
- 4:46Speaker 5: people be wanting to have conversations about, but they just
- 4:48Speaker 5: don't because they think people are going to think you
- 4:50Speaker 5: just playing crazy to get a check.
- 4:52Speaker 3: So we just all got to, you know, tell our stories.
- 4:54Speaker 2: Absolutely, you gotta be more open and vulnerable. Elliott, would
- 4:58Speaker 2: you like to after that? I mean, what else do you?
- 5:00Speaker 2: I think we can do more to open up discussions
- 5:02Speaker 2: and access to mental health resources in our community.
- 5:05Speaker 6: I think, I mean, I agree with everything Charlemagne said.
- 5:09Speaker 6: I think another barrier to mental health issues is pride.
- 5:14Speaker 6: And I think we're proud of the wrong things, and
- 5:18Speaker 6: sometimes pride makes us afraid of judgment. But the truth
- 5:23Speaker 6: is we need to learn how to be proud of
- 5:26Speaker 6: the whole journey and the whole story, like someone like
- 5:30Speaker 6: Charlemagne and the God. He's an incredible person that's accomplished
- 5:33Speaker 6: incredible things, but when you learn that he struggled with
- 5:36Speaker 6: anxiety and depression, that provides context to his accomplishments.
- 5:41Speaker 3: So we need to learn.
- 5:42Speaker 6: To be proud of the entire picture instead of just
- 5:45Speaker 6: being proud of the positive picture. And when we can
- 5:47Speaker 6: do that, then we have the opportunity for true healing.
- 5:49Speaker 6: So to answer that question like how do we open
- 5:52Speaker 6: up more dialogue and more access to mental health, we
- 5:54Speaker 6: have to be learned to be proud of our entire selves.
- 5:57Speaker 3: And when we can do that, then that.
- 5:59Speaker 6: Opens up everything and you have the possibility to heal
- 6:01Speaker 6: from anything.
- 6:03Speaker 1: Yeah, give it up for that.
- 6:05Speaker 2: I remember when my dad got by suicide when we
- 6:07Speaker 2: were a baby. We tried everything, We said everything rather
- 6:10Speaker 2: that he died from other than suicide, because we didn't
- 6:13Speaker 2: want to tell the whole story to your point, And
- 6:15Speaker 2: so only until I was an adult was I able
- 6:18Speaker 2: to say what had happened and be okay with it
- 6:20Speaker 2: and not be ashamed and embarrassed.
- 6:22Speaker 1: And so I want to go back to you the baby.
- 6:24Speaker 2: You know, the Mental Wealth Alliance and Charlemagne and doctor
- 6:27Speaker 2: Alfie aim to shed light on all these critical issues.
- 6:30Speaker 2: Are there anything else you want to Is there anything
- 6:32Speaker 2: else whether you want to tell us about some of
- 6:33Speaker 2: the initiatives and programs that you're going to be doing
- 6:36Speaker 2: with the Baby Care of the Baby Cares to break
- 6:39Speaker 2: stigma and provide support to.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Those in need.
- 6:41Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am. So we just launched the Baby Cares about
- 6:43Speaker 4: two days ago. I went to speak at West Charlotte
- 6:45Speaker 4: High School High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we're
- 6:49Speaker 4: partnering with the Mental Health America. We actually brought a
- 6:52Speaker 4: chapter of it to the Carolina So that's something I'm
- 6:55Speaker 4: extremely proud of and you know, just having an opportunity
- 6:57Speaker 4: to do.
- 6:57Speaker 3: But with that, we launched.
- 6:59Speaker 4: The Glenn Johnson for Mental Health Initiative and with that
- 7:02Speaker 4: will just be providing resources into its necessary and they
- 7:06Speaker 4: look and real. We're creating programs you know, right now
- 7:09Speaker 4: as we speak. And like I said, this is a
- 7:11Speaker 4: journey that I'm just now embarking on and I'm just
- 7:13Speaker 4: super excited to be learning as I go and as
- 7:15Speaker 4: I learned, teach you know what I mean, and just
- 7:17Speaker 4: pass the information right along.
- 7:18Speaker 2: Yes, I love that. And I run a mental health organization.
- 7:22Speaker 2: Sounds for shame, So we're definitely gonna be in touch
- 7:24Speaker 2: and hopefully.
- 7:25Speaker 3: Absolutely you all.
- 7:26Speaker 1: I want to go back to you, Elliott.
- 7:30Speaker 2: You know I've seen the suicide We've seen rather suicide rates,
- 7:33Speaker 2: especially for black men, from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one, increase,
- 7:38Speaker 2: y'all by thirty percent.
- 7:40Speaker 1: That's alarming, and that's a problem.
- 7:42Speaker 2: What would you say, particularly just to the black community,
- 7:45Speaker 2: especially our black men in the audience today, what do
- 7:47Speaker 2: we need to do truly to be able to open up?
- 7:50Speaker 2: I know, suicidal ideation, sometimes it could be you know,
- 7:53Speaker 2: hereditary depression could run in your family, but sometimes it's situational.
- 7:57Speaker 2: So give me a good message for our black men today.
- 8:01Speaker 6: So the first part of your question is what can
- 8:03Speaker 6: we do go to therapy?
- 8:07Speaker 3: Period?
- 8:10Speaker 6: The second part of your question like, what's a message
- 8:13Speaker 6: we can give to them? I seriously do not forget
- 8:16Speaker 6: what I'm about to say. You are only as sick
- 8:18Speaker 6: as your secrets.
- 8:21Speaker 1: So y'all write that down.
- 8:24Speaker 6: You're only as sick as your secrets. So whatever it
- 8:27Speaker 6: is that is tormenting you, you got to share that.
- 8:30Speaker 3: You got to let that out.
- 8:32Speaker 6: And when you let it out, two incredible things happen.
- 8:35Speaker 6: And for real, y'all, don't forget this. The first thing
- 8:36Speaker 6: that happens is you release it. You're no longer bound
- 8:39Speaker 6: by it. The second thing that happens, and Charlamagne just
- 8:43Speaker 6: spoke to it. When you speak to it, someone's gonna
- 8:46Speaker 6: say me too, and you no longer feel like you're
- 8:49Speaker 6: alone in that journey. And I've been a practicing psychotherapist
- 8:52Speaker 6: for almost twenty years. I've never seen a single client
- 8:56Speaker 6: that was struggling with suicidal ideation or depression that did
- 8:59Speaker 6: not feel alone. So once we release that stuff and
- 9:04Speaker 6: we share it and we no longer feel we no
- 9:06Speaker 6: longer feel alone. Our resilience goes up when we get partnered.
- 9:10Speaker 6: Our resilience goes up when someone's walking the journey with us.
- 9:13Speaker 6: So go to therapy and never forget. You were only
- 9:16Speaker 6: as sick as your secrets, So anything you stop keeping
- 9:20Speaker 6: secret will no longer keep you sick.
- 9:22Speaker 2: Whoo, thank you, Elliott, And I tell people you know,
- 9:27Speaker 2: we got a superstar Rapper on the panel today.
- 9:29Speaker 1: You got to wrap through your problems. What does that mean?
- 9:32Speaker 2: The R is recognizing those unfamiliar thoughts and feelings. The
- 9:36Speaker 2: A and RAP is acknowledging it and then accepting it
- 9:39Speaker 2: because a lot of times we do stuff, but we
- 9:40Speaker 2: act like it didn't happen. So you recognize that, you
- 9:43Speaker 2: acknowledge it, and you accept it, and then you what's
- 9:45Speaker 2: the p you process through those challenges and problems with
- 9:50Speaker 2: a professional like Elliott. So recognize, acknowledge, accept and process.
- 9:55Speaker 2: All right, Maya, Well, we got about six minutes left,
- 9:58Speaker 2: So I do want to ask the baby, what message
- 10:00Speaker 2: would you like to convey to those struggling in silence
- 10:04Speaker 2: and even some of your reverend in the entertainment industry.
- 10:07Speaker 4: Like would I would go back to a couple of
- 10:10Speaker 4: things he just spoke on just going to therapy and
- 10:12Speaker 4: with you with the acronym that you just broke down,
- 10:15Speaker 4: like the order that you put it in recognizing and accepting,
- 10:18Speaker 4: and then the third one being processing, Like that's where
- 10:21Speaker 4: I'm at, Like to this, it started with me. It
- 10:23Speaker 4: took me so long to just recognizing and accept it,
- 10:25Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I probably recognized it early on,
- 10:27Speaker 4: but accepting it, that's something that's the stage I just
- 10:30Speaker 4: got to, you know what I mean, and processing it.
- 10:32Speaker 4: And you know, now I'm in the room with professionals,
- 10:35Speaker 4: with several professionals, I've learned a lot of information just
- 10:37Speaker 4: being on this stage with these great people for the
- 10:40Speaker 4: ten minutes we've been up here, you know what I mean.
- 10:42Speaker 4: So things that I would encourage other artists to do
- 10:45Speaker 4: is to just you know, speak up, you know, seek help,
- 10:47Speaker 4: have the conversations with people that make you uncomfortable, you
- 10:50Speaker 4: know what I mean. And just like you say, you know,
- 10:52Speaker 4: you're only as sick as your secrets. Like a lot
- 10:54Speaker 4: of the things that I go through, I've just been
- 10:56Speaker 4: conditioned just as a black man period. And I'm sure
- 10:58Speaker 4: plenty of people out here like you as black men
- 11:01Speaker 4: and women. Let's not just act like you know what
- 11:03Speaker 4: I mean, black men are up against the eyes or
- 11:05Speaker 4: you know what I mean, go through things, but we're
- 11:06Speaker 4: conditioning to just sweep things under the rug and you
- 11:09Speaker 4: know what I mean, and just navigate through them however
- 11:11Speaker 4: we can. And it's almost like, you know, we live
- 11:13Speaker 4: every day, day in and day out, like in survival mode,
- 11:16Speaker 4: you know, and that's something it's not healthy, but you know,
- 11:19Speaker 4: we're strong enough to survive. So with the strength that
- 11:21Speaker 4: we'll have if we're having these conversations and speaking with
- 11:24Speaker 4: professionals and sitting down and going to therapy, you know,
- 11:27Speaker 4: I would encourage other artists to do that. And you know,
- 11:30Speaker 4: just take the first step, you know what I mean,
- 11:32Speaker 4: the first step in the right direction, and I'm on
- 11:35Speaker 4: like my third or fourth step in it already. You know,
- 11:37Speaker 4: it just feels amazing, feels amazing.
- 11:39Speaker 2: Oh and I just I just want to give you your flowers,
- 11:42Speaker 2: because the entertainment industry can be tough, social media can
- 11:46Speaker 2: be tough.
- 11:46Speaker 1: Everybody got opinions, and I just met you. I don't
- 11:49Speaker 1: know you. All I know is the accolades you've.
- 11:52Speaker 2: Received, and you know, different things you've done in your past.
- 11:55Speaker 2: But you know, loving yourself, being able to process through
- 12:00Speaker 2: your brother's suicide. Nobody knows what that journey has been
- 12:04Speaker 2: like for you. And so for you to be doing
- 12:07Speaker 2: what you're doing now, not only are you helping yourself
- 12:09Speaker 2: and your family, you're helping so many other people out here.
- 12:11Speaker 2: We talked about it earlier on a panel. A lot
- 12:13Speaker 2: of times people going through stuff they projected on others.
- 12:17Speaker 1: So I just want you, young man.
- 12:18Speaker 2: I'm just say to you, keep doing what you're doing,
- 12:21Speaker 2: focus on you and your family and all that the
- 12:23Speaker 2: Baby Cares is going to do for our community.
- 12:25Speaker 1: That's all that matters.
- 12:26Speaker 2: But let's give him his flowers, y'all for what he's
- 12:30Speaker 2: doing with this important initiative to save lives.
- 12:33Speaker 3: Can I explain it on something, please, Auntie?
- 12:35Speaker 5: I want to ask Elliot because Elliott says, you know
- 12:37Speaker 5: you're only as your secrets, which I agree with, But
- 12:40Speaker 5: what about when you know you have to live certain
- 12:42Speaker 5: traumas out loud, like you know, when when things happen
- 12:46Speaker 5: where a family member commits to suicide and that is
- 12:48Speaker 5: a traumatic experience, But then you still have obligations, right
- 12:52Speaker 5: you still and they say, they say staying busy as
- 12:54Speaker 5: a response to trauma. What advice would you you give
- 12:57Speaker 5: the people who have to have to deal with their
- 12:58Speaker 5: traumas out loud in the pub to.
- 13:00Speaker 6: Be fully, fully transparent. He was using words like acceptance,
- 13:04Speaker 6: but I want to add a word to that, and
- 13:07Speaker 6: you have to practice radical acceptance. What I mean by
- 13:11Speaker 6: that is like when you go through something, you got
- 13:14Speaker 6: to deal with it publicly. That's just where you are
- 13:18Speaker 6: at that moment. You have to literally just accept like
- 13:20Speaker 6: this is where I am in that moment and process
- 13:23Speaker 6: through it. However, you need to process through it when
- 13:26Speaker 6: you bury it and keep it a secret because I
- 13:28Speaker 6: have a public job, or because people see me or
- 13:30Speaker 6: because I'm in public, You're just gonna make yourself sicker.
- 13:33Speaker 3: Like you really have to just accept. And here's the thing, Like.
- 13:37Speaker 6: We are conditioned, like as a black culture, we're conditioned
- 13:41Speaker 6: to think, if you knew my pain, you would perceive
- 13:44Speaker 6: me as weak. So thus I have to hide that
- 13:46Speaker 6: pain so you perceive me as strong. But I'm telling y'all,
- 13:50Speaker 6: the strongest thing you.
- 13:51Speaker 3: Could ever do is be you. Period.
- 13:55Speaker 6: So if on that day me is processing a trauma,
- 13:58Speaker 6: then damn it, you're gonna have to just see me
- 14:00Speaker 6: processing a trust. That's just how it works. So it's
- 14:05Speaker 6: unfortunate sometimes that we have to process see things in public,
- 14:07Speaker 6: and it's unfortunate that social media does what it does.
- 14:10Speaker 6: But I don't give a damn. This is me and
- 14:12Speaker 6: on this day, this is how I have to show up.
- 14:15Speaker 6: And when you can show up as you every single day,
- 14:17Speaker 6: that is true strength.
- 14:20Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for adding that question. That was a
- 14:22Speaker 1: great question.
- 14:23Speaker 2: You you can turn on ig on any get a
- 14:25Speaker 2: moment and see me in an ugly cris I don't care.
- 14:27Speaker 1: You're gonna get who I am in that moment.
- 14:29Speaker 2: Thank you, Elliott for that, Charlotmayne, what message of hope
- 14:32Speaker 2: would you like to leave everyone who's struggling in silence?
- 14:36Speaker 3: Man, The message of hope is that you're not alone.
- 14:38Speaker 5: And you don't realize that until you start sharing your story,
- 14:42Speaker 5: like I said earlier, until you start realizing that you know,
- 14:44Speaker 5: you're only a sick as your secrets. Like Elliot Connie said,
- 14:47Speaker 5: that's why it's so important for us to have spaces
- 14:49Speaker 5: like this. Man, this is community, right, And I thought
- 14:55Speaker 5: it was unique, the stuff that I was dealing with.
- 14:57Speaker 5: That's why I would keep it to myself. But then
- 14:59Speaker 5: when I started sharing it and realizing, like, no, there's
- 15:01Speaker 5: other people out there dealing with anxieties, other people out
- 15:03Speaker 5: there dealing with depression, there's other people out there dealing
- 15:05Speaker 5: with PTSD. This out there people out there dealing with
- 15:07Speaker 5: things that you know, I couldn't even comprehend. Like when
- 15:10Speaker 5: you just start sharing that story, man, you just form
- 15:12Speaker 5: this this village, and we got to get back to that.
- 15:16Speaker 5: We got to get back to being a village. We
- 15:17Speaker 5: got to get back to you know, lifting each other up.
- 15:19Speaker 3: You know, I love that.
- 15:21Speaker 5: I love that meme of that basketball player when he
- 15:23Speaker 5: had his head down and the brother just came and
- 15:25Speaker 5: helped them lift it up, like little simple things like that.
- 15:27Speaker 3: So the hope is.
- 15:29Speaker 5: That you're not alone. So just share your story and
- 15:31Speaker 5: you'll realize you're not alone.
- 15:33Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, I want to give our final words
- 15:37Speaker 2: to the baby.
- 15:38Speaker 1: Anything else you'd like to share, all the things.
- 15:42Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I'm mean to cut you off. I'm just
- 15:44Speaker 4: I'm excited, you know what I'm saying right now. I'm
- 15:46Speaker 4: just excited because all the information that these three great
- 15:49Speaker 4: people on the stage are sharing. This is this is
- 15:51Speaker 4: my life and real time, you know what I mean, Like,
- 15:54Speaker 4: this is really my life in real time. About a
- 15:57Speaker 4: week ago, I felt completely alone in my.
- 15:59Speaker 3: Struggle and what I've been through.
- 16:01Speaker 4: When I go sit down with him at Breakfast Club
- 16:03Speaker 4: last week, when I come sit down right here, I
- 16:04Speaker 4: met about a dozen people backstage before coming out here
- 16:08Speaker 4: as well as the what this is about two thousand
- 16:11Speaker 4: people in here, closely two thousand people in here, like
- 16:14Speaker 4: you know, to see everybody in here have similar interests
- 16:16Speaker 4: and you know, be seeking this information and have this
- 16:18Speaker 4: information impact everybody out here, and you know, get you
- 16:21Speaker 4: guys to just nod your head and agree. I'm up
- 16:23Speaker 4: here beside these guys, Like like, I feel like he's
- 16:26Speaker 4: talking to me. Everything you say, I feel like you're
- 16:28Speaker 4: talking to me. Everything they've set up here, I feel
- 16:29Speaker 4: like they're talking directly to me. So I'm just super
- 16:32Speaker 4: excited to just embark on this journey and start therapy
- 16:35Speaker 4: myself and I have, you know, as many conversations as
- 16:38Speaker 4: I can, Like I'm actually upset that I didn't bring
- 16:40Speaker 4: my nieces, my brother's kids with me, and my mom
- 16:43Speaker 4: with me, so you know, like, I'm just excited to
- 16:45Speaker 4: just you know, to leave here today and just to
- 16:47Speaker 4: go tell everybody, you know, all the great information that
- 16:49Speaker 4: I gained here today, and to just bring my family
- 16:51Speaker 4: along with me and others that I need along with
- 16:53Speaker 4: me on this.
- 16:53Speaker 3: Journey of Hilla.
- 16:55Speaker 1: I love that. Yes, give it up.
- 16:58Speaker 2: So we're out of time now, but we got three
- 17:00Speaker 2: strong black men, and I just want to say to
- 17:03Speaker 2: each one of you black men, I'm always corning acronyms,
- 17:06Speaker 2: man manifesting a need, manifesting a need to be vulnerable,
- 17:10Speaker 2: to be transparent, to be okay with who you are being,
- 17:14Speaker 2: taking care of yourself and knowing that self care is
- 17:16Speaker 2: not selfish, right, and pouring back into your community. Y'all
- 17:20Speaker 2: give it up for these black men poor, helping to
- 17:22Speaker 2: erase stigma and shame around suicide in the black community.
- 17:26Speaker 1: Thank y'all so much, and let's give it up for them.
- 17:29Speaker 3: Thank you.