Latest / Black Girl Interrupted Podcast / Mental Mondays with Black Girl Interrupted Podcast
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up? What's up? What's up? Y'all, y'all already know
- 0:02who it is. It's your girl ass. Bring y'all another
- 0:06episode of Black Girl Interrupted podcast. And you know what,
- 0:10I'm gonna do something different. I'm gonna switch it up
- 0:12on y'all now. So, yes, I'm still gonna I'll be back.
- 0:17Y'all just have to give me some time. But for
- 0:20right now, right now, right now, y'all just have to
- 0:27let me get back into this. Y'all have to let
- 0:29me get back into my space. But tonight I sat
- 0:34down with a couple of friends and I said, I
- 0:40want to start doing something different on Mondays. Let's start
- 0:45doing our mental health Mondays. So Mental Mondays. I'm gonna
- 0:50go live every Monday a thirty pm Central time now
- 0:53and thirty Eastern time for mental Mondays. And the reason
- 1:01I selected this is because mental health is at an
- 1:04all time high right now. The unliving rate is at
- 1:10an all time high, particularly in a black community. Yes,
- 1:16this is men's mental health a month. What is mental
- 1:20health for everybody? Not just men, everybody. And I want everybody, everybody,
- 1:26everybody to take care of your mental That's what I
- 1:32want to every want to do. So I want to
- 1:34start doing these weekly check ins. I just want to
- 1:37know how you're doing. I want to know how you're feeling.
- 1:39I want to know how your week has been, how
- 1:40has your day been. And the reason I want to
- 1:44do this is because last week or two weeks ago,
- 1:51I myself was taken into the hospital by the police
- 1:58for attempting to un alive myself. This is my first
- 2:05time ever speaking about it out loud. M y'all bet
- 2:15with me. Everyone that's new to my life, everyone that's
- 2:17new to my chat. I'm very emotional. I'm a very
- 2:22very very emotional person, and I just want people to
- 2:32know that you're not alone. I want people to know
- 2:35that you don't have to sit in this by yourself.
- 2:42So last week before last m H, I had an
- 2:49altercation with my mother and my sister. He sus hey,
- 2:53I love you, don't forget y'all tap the screen, show
- 2:57your girls some love. And I was already in a
- 3:04mental state of being overwhelmed and overstimulated. Just bought a
- 3:19house with my husband back in April. And you would think,
- 3:23you know, you should be happy. I should be in
- 3:25a beautiful state of mind right now. I should be happy.
- 3:28I should be over the moon, but I'm overwhelmed. I
- 3:34work at a company that is not good for my
- 3:36mental I'm on my fourth mental health leaf with my job.
- 3:44Let me back up a little bit. So on May
- 3:49the fifth, May the seventh, I had a nervous breakdown.
- 3:54I work from home. It's overwhelming. A lot of people say, oh,
- 3:59I want to work from home or just working from home.
- 4:01It is beautiful, it's great, but they don't tell you
- 4:05the mental part of it. They don't tell you the
- 4:06mental side. They don't tell you how work never leaves.
- 4:10They don't tell you the things that you experience working
- 4:13from home. Yes, it's beautiful. You don't have to sit
- 4:16in traffic, you don't have to get up and get dressed,
- 4:18you don't have to do all this, that and the third.
- 4:21It's beautiful. But after a while it starts to affect
- 4:24your mental So here I am. I'm having a meltdown.
- 4:31I call my mom and I say, Mom, I need
- 4:33you to get over here now. She says, I can't go.
- 4:35I can't leave right now. I get it. I understand,
- 4:38I respect it. My mother was in the process of
- 4:40having her home remodeled, so I call the employment assistance
- 4:47program that we have through my job. At this point,
- 4:51I tell I say, you know what, I gotta go.
- 4:53I gotta get out of this house. I'm about to
- 4:54tear everything up. I'm about to crash out. I go
- 4:59to the die. My doctor immediately says, I'm pulling you
- 5:05off work effective today. I don't care what anybody says.
- 5:08I'm pulling you off work effective today. I said, Okay,
- 5:17I gotta get my mental in chest. So here we
- 5:21are a few weeks later after this, again this transpired,
- 5:25made the seventh made the fitting. Somewhere around there, I
- 5:30have an altercation with my mother and my sister. Mind you,
- 5:36my mental state is not in I'm not in the
- 5:38best mental state. Let me say that, let me be honest.
- 5:41Has thus I'm not, but I keep going, you understand,
- 5:47I keep going. I just you know, my mom is
- 5:50trying to get in our house. You know, hey, I'm
- 5:51just happy to be around my mom till we have
- 5:54an altercation, not a physical but a verbal verbal altercation.
- 6:00My sister jumps in. It just goes from there. In
- 6:06this moment, I'm like, you know what, I'm done. I
- 6:08can't do this anymore. I'm tired, y'all. I'm tired. Life
- 6:14would be so much better for people if I was
- 6:15not here. That was thought process is if I just ended.
- 6:28I want to be free. I'm tired. I want to
- 6:30be in peace. So I pulled six bottles of pills
- 6:41and I set it on my cabinet. I send my
- 6:45mother a text? Can I tell her? Basically? I told
- 6:52her take care of my kids. I'm tired. I want
- 6:55to be free. I can't do this anymore. I'm tired.
- 6:58I felt more of a burden than I did. It's
- 7:00a blessing. Police come the first time they come, because
- 7:09they came twice. First time they come, I'm like, you
- 7:12know what, get the f out of my house. I'm
- 7:16cussing everything because I don't want to be saved. Let
- 7:22me go. I wanted to die. I just wanted to
- 7:26end it right then and there in that moment. Because again,
- 7:31y'all have to understand, depression and anxiety is real. Some
- 7:36things are easier than others for people. You know, people say, oh,
- 7:39depression is not real. Yet it is. It's absolutely real.
- 7:44I live it every day. Hey baba, I love you.
- 7:51Life would be easier if my kids would be much happier.
- 7:53I wouldn't be a burden to anybody. So the second
- 7:58time the police. The first time police come, I'm like, no, no,
- 8:02I deactivated the alarm, no one could get in my house. Nothing.
- 8:07I just wanted to just leave me. The second time
- 8:11they come back, my son comes, my son comes, and
- 8:21I let my son in, and this time it's t
- 8:24It's two police officers at this point, it's two, not one,
- 8:27just two. So I grabbed my son and I immediately
- 8:32fall into my son's arms because, y'all, I'm hurting. I'm hurting.
- 8:37I'm hurting. I'm hurting, I'm hurting, and I just wanted
- 8:41to pain to stop. So one of the officers, Officer Harris,
- 8:46comes in and he says, talk to me, what's going on,
- 8:51miss Ashey, what's what's going on? What's what's the problem.
- 8:55And I say, I'm tired. I'm tired. I need peace.
- 9:01I'm tired of hurt and I'm tired of the pain.
- 9:02I'm over it. I just can't seem to do anything right.
- 9:09So this police officer says, sit down and just really
- 9:13talk to me. In that moment, I'm like, why are
- 9:18you even here? You know, because in my mind. I'm thinking,
- 9:21just go leave me alone, just let me, just let
- 9:25me unalive myself and be done. And he said, I
- 9:28can't even let you do that. So I said, I
- 9:38don't want to talk. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying
- 9:41right here in my house. This officer tells me, he says,
- 9:46I can't leave you like this. He said, if I
- 9:49leave you and something happens to you, that wouldn't sit
- 9:53right with me. I didn't care in that moment. I'm
- 9:58just I'm being honest with you. I didn't care. I
- 10:01just wanted just let me, just just let me lay there.
- 10:06So he talked to me, and this man prayed over me.
- 10:11This officer prayed over me. And in that moment, I'm
- 10:19holding I'm still holding my son. I'm still hugging my son.
- 10:24And I told my son, I said I need you.
- 10:28I said, I fight because of y'all. I'm still here
- 10:31on this side because of my children. My son says,
- 10:36I need you too. So I had to fight. I
- 10:47had to fight because I figured and realized I'm bigger
- 10:57than my pain. I have a husband, I have six
- 11:04beautiful children, three that are biological, two beautiful grand babies.
- 11:11What would life be would like be like for them
- 11:14if I left. So I go, I go to the hospital.
- 11:23I let them take me. I get there. I'm high
- 11:36as a kite. And this is my first time saying this.
- 11:41I took some of those pips I did, and I
- 11:55just wanted to stay. I just wanted to lay there,
- 12:00just leave me. So I go, I go, and they
- 12:14kept me twenty four hours. I go, I go, and
- 12:29all the way that I pray and I say, God,
- 12:34if you give me out of this, I won't do
- 12:35this again. Please. I prayed all the way and I
- 12:44heard God say, I've never left you. I never left
- 12:49you because if I wasn't here, I wouldn't you wouldn't
- 12:53still be here. I pray, and I can't praying.
- 13:03Speaker 2: Man.
- 13:03Speaker 1: Let me tell you, I don't ever think I prayed
- 13:05that hard in my life until that day. And I
- 13:12asked God, I just need you to remove those intrusive thoughts.
- 13:17I need you to pull me out of the dark,
- 13:19because see, the dark was safe for me. The dark
- 13:23was a place that I wanted to be because see,
- 13:25when I'm in the dark, can't nobody heard me. You
- 13:27can't hear me in the dark. I'm protected in the dark.
- 13:29At least that's the way that I'm feeling that I'm
- 13:32protected in the dark. But how can you be safe
- 13:39in a prison that you created for yourself. When I
- 13:44look back at my life, I look at how hard
- 13:49I was taught to be. I was taught not to
- 13:53depend on anybody. I was taught to be independent. I
- 13:56was taught that. I was taught to be that way.
- 14:02I was taught that you don't tell people what goes
- 14:05on in your house. I was taught you just pray
- 14:07things away. Let me say this, and I'm a firm
- 14:17believing God because baby's seven times that I tried, God
- 14:22kept me every time. Every time God kept me. God
- 14:30didn't leave me nowhere. God kept me saying I've been
- 14:32with you this entire time. So when I reached out
- 14:38to my therapist and told her, she said, you needed
- 14:43this to happen for the shift to come. And I said, okay,
- 14:52God said you needed this shift in order for your
- 14:57life to change. You needed a shift that they happened.
- 15:00Speaker 2: Spirit.
- 15:05Speaker 1: I get on this live today not for sympathy, not
- 15:09a cloud, but I know there's somebody that's going through
- 15:12exactly what I'm going through right now, and I want
- 15:14to encourage you. I want to love on you. Mental
- 15:19health is important, and a lot of people are not
- 15:21taking mental health care. It's a lot of people think, oh, oh,
- 15:24what are you depressed about? You got this and this
- 15:26and this, And just because I have all of that
- 15:30doesn't mean I can't be depressed. And I want other
- 15:32people to understand and know you're not by yourself. You're
- 15:37not on this journey alone. Let's walk together. Let's hold
- 15:41each other's hand. Let's be a safe space for everybody.
- 15:44Because people are scared to tell their business. I'm not
- 15:48scared to be vulnerable and transparent with you, guys. I'm
- 15:52not afraid of that.
- 15:53Speaker 2: No more.
- 15:54Speaker 1: You understand I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. My husband
- 15:57told me, he said, they you just yes so much
- 16:00of your life, I said, because my experience could help somebody.
- 16:06So I'm supposed to get up here and I'm supposed
- 16:08to share it. I'm supposed to let people know what
- 16:10goes on so I can help somebody. Depression is real.
- 16:16My traumas are real. My traumas are to the point
- 16:20where I bled on my children. You understand I bled
- 16:23on my children. I failed my children in the beginning,
- 16:28I hurt my children. In the beginning, I wasn't the
- 16:31best person to people because I was told to be hard.
- 16:36I never got to a place in my life where
- 16:37I could just be soft. And being hard, y'all, it
- 16:42got me arrested. I've been in jail before. I've been arrested.
- 16:45I used to kick holes in my BOM's wall because
- 16:48my temper, because I wanted to be hard all the time.
- 16:55Now I can be soft. Now I'm finally a place
- 17:00in my mind that I could be safe. I laid
- 17:06there in that room, y'all, with my husband sitting next
- 17:12to me, and I prayed and I cried. Then I asked, God,
- 17:19soften my heart, but don't change it. I don't want
- 17:23to be angry anymore. I don't want to be bitter
- 17:25with people anymore. I don't want to be that weak.
- 17:32What I'm grieving now is I've had to go no
- 17:36contact with my mother, the one woman. I love everything
- 17:45about this woman, but she's dangerous to my mental How
- 17:58do you deal with it? How do you learn to
- 18:04distance yourself from the very same person that you love
- 18:07but they're a tricker to you? How do you do that?
- 18:12How do you cope with that. Did I want to
- 18:18go that way with my mom? No? I didn't. But
- 18:23I needed it for me. I needed it for my peace.
- 18:27I needed it for my sanity, because if I'm in
- 18:30chaos over here, and I'm in chaos over there, where
- 18:33is it safe for me? Where is it safe? I
- 18:40don't want to be angry anymore, y'all. I don't want
- 18:42to fight. I don't want to argue with people anymore.
- 18:44I don't want to do this anymore. I want to
- 18:51one day be able to sit down and cohesively have
- 18:54a beautiful conversation with my mother and my sister without
- 18:59the emotions, the trauma that I've carried. I'm ready to
- 19:06let it go. I don't think people understand how trauma
- 19:14and what it does to you physically, what it does
- 19:17to you mentally, what it does to you emotionally. I
- 19:22was so emotionally detached from people I'm married to a
- 19:29man that I was afraid to let leave me. I
- 19:37was afraid. If you ask me today how I feel
- 19:53one day at a time. Today, I'm in a good space. Mentally,
- 20:01I'm in a good space today. I'm back on my meds.
- 20:11But I'm afraid all at the same time. And I'm
- 20:20afraid because I don't know what peace looks like. I
- 20:25don't know what that looks like. I've never had that.
- 20:29I've never had a sense of peace. I've never had
- 20:32a space where I can relax, where I could take
- 20:36a load off, where I could just sit down and say,
- 20:38you know what.
- 20:39Speaker 2: I.
- 20:43Speaker 1: But today I am. I got up today. I thank God.
- 20:54I gave God all the glory today when I woke up,
- 20:57because I could not have woke up today. God could
- 21:00have took me two weeks ago. God could have said,
- 21:03how your time is up, let's go. But God left
- 21:07me here. God told me, he said, you have to
- 21:12understand and realize the things that you have. I say,
- 21:21but God, make me explain it to me. Show me.
- 21:25God says, you have a house, you got a roof over.
- 21:27Yet he said, there's somebody out there that doesn't. You
- 21:34got food on your table. You got somebody out there
- 21:38that doesn't even know where their next meal is coming from.
- 21:43God says, you have a job. I say, but he said,
- 21:47but there's no but you're employed. There's somebody that's getting
- 21:51a pink slip today. There's somebody that got walked out
- 21:54of their job yesterday, says, you have a purpose here.
- 22:05He's saying, you know what your purpose is? I say,
- 22:10for God? He said, there's no butt. You have purpose. Period.
- 22:16I kept you here for a reason. Period. He didn't
- 22:20even stop and explain to us. But why me? He says,
- 22:25why not you? If I tell y'all, there are some
- 22:36days that I don't even understand why God keeps blessing
- 22:38me the way that he does. There are some days
- 22:56and I asked God, what is my purpose? He says,
- 23:02you know what it is? And I've told you and
- 23:03I've showed you. He say, as big as your mouth is,
- 23:08use it. Talk to people, he said, because baby, you
- 23:15know how to get them. He said, your energy.
- 23:16Speaker 3: You just.
- 23:19Speaker 1: And I say, but God, He say, there's no butt. God,
- 23:23you know what your purpose is. You stand in your
- 23:28own way. I say, but God, but I don't. He said,
- 23:36you know what your purpose is? You dim your own life.
- 23:41He says. You get out there and you advocate for people.
- 23:43You tell them your story, talk to them about your
- 23:49mental health, let them know that it's okay to not
- 23:53be okay some days. So I'm letting y'all know it's
- 23:58okay to not be okay, So it's okay to self
- 24:02isolate for a moment. See me, when I self isolate,
- 24:07I do it, and I do it for weeks at
- 24:09a time, and there are a lot of people that
- 24:15didn't understand that. And I didn't realize that self isolating
- 24:24was doing more bad than it was good for me.
- 24:27But I thought it was okay. But the most dangerous
- 24:34place to be is in your thoughts. Those intrusive thoughts
- 24:42look safe to me. The dark looks safe to me.
- 24:44I wanted to be there. I didn't want y'all in
- 24:47my space because I didn't feel like you understood. I
- 24:52didn't feel like you even understood what I had going
- 24:54on until I made that post the other day. And
- 25:02I contemplated on even posting that because when people look
- 25:06at me, they're like, oh, Ashley, but you look so happy,
- 25:10but I'm drowning. My therapist told me, she said, Ashley,
- 25:17you have high function you are a What does she say?
- 25:21I have high functioning depression, which means I walk around
- 25:25and act like everything is okay, and I'm drowning on
- 25:28the inside. And I don't tell people because I don't
- 25:30want to be a burden of people. I don't want
- 25:31to bother people because you know why, because y'all have
- 25:34your own issues, not realizing that when you tell people
- 25:42what you have going on, you're not walking by yourself.
- 25:51And I felt alone. That's why I took That's why
- 25:57I grabbed those pills because it's the easiest thing for
- 26:00me to do. Let me put myself out of my misery.
- 26:10If you're struggling, man, talk to somebody. Please reach out
- 26:13to somebody. Don't sit by yourself. Don't sit in the dark.
- 26:16Don't sit alone, because we see you. We love you.
- 26:23Speaker 3: Man.
- 26:24Speaker 1: You're needed, You're wanted. Y'all drop in the comments. Today
- 26:33is Monday. We're doing our mental mondays. Let me know
- 26:36how you're feeling. How are you doing today, what happened today?
- 26:43What can we do to get you over the hip,
- 26:45over the hum What do we need to do? Do
- 26:48you need us to just love you? Do you need
- 26:50us to just be an ear? Do you need us
- 26:52to just be a shoulder? What do you need for
- 26:54us to do? What do you need us to do
- 26:57for you? What we need for you is we need you,
- 27:07We need you here, We need you here. You're wanted,
- 27:11You're needed, your loved baby, don't never feel like you're
- 27:17not Never feel like you're not appreciated. Stop fighting with
- 27:23people to be appreciated and acknowledged, because I'm tired of
- 27:30fighting to be in spaces that I don't even fit in.
- 27:34You understand because God created you in his likeness. God
- 27:37created you to be different. God didn't want you to
- 27:43fit in everywhere. You understand because not every space is
- 27:46meant for you. But I was fighting for that. I
- 27:50wanted to be in those spaces. I wanted to be loved.
- 27:52I wanted people to accept me. I wanted people to
- 27:54just acknowledge me. So I was doing things for people
- 27:57to see me, for people to acknowledge me, for people
- 27:59to say, oh, my god, there's Ashley right there. Oh
- 28:02she's just I strived for that validation. I begged for
- 28:08the validation because I didn't feel like I was getting
- 28:10it at home. I didn't hear my mother tell me
- 28:17she loved me. A lot of times. All I heard
- 28:25was you remember this, you remember this, you remember this.
- 28:29Stop taking me back to an address that I no
- 28:31longer resided. Give me the grace. No, I was not perfect, people,
- 28:37Let me, let me, let me, let me tell y'all.
- 28:42I was a horrible mother in the beginning. I was
- 28:45a horrible person in the beginning. I didn't know how
- 28:47to be a friend. I didn't know how to be
- 28:48a girlfriend. I didn't know how to be a mother.
- 28:50I didn't know how to do any of that because
- 28:52I was so I was so jaded. I was so broken,
- 28:55you know what. Let me let me rephrase that. I
- 28:57was craped because he broken. You can't be replaced, you understand.
- 29:01So I was cracked. So I didn't know how to
- 29:08love people. The first man that was supposed to ever
- 29:12loved me was my father beat me and I ended
- 29:20up in hospital. The man that was supposed to love
- 29:25me try to underlie my mother because my mother.
- 29:28Speaker 2: Left him, and.
- 29:31Speaker 1: She left him because he did some things to my
- 29:34sister that were inappropriate. I'm not ashamed to share my story.
- 29:43I'm not ashamed to tell y'all that, because see, these
- 29:46are things that go on in our household that we
- 29:48don't talk about. We don't discuss these things because people
- 29:53are afraid. But this is my healing, this is my healing.
- 30:09So I carried that I'm a domestic abuse survivor. I
- 30:18started looking for love with men because I didn't get
- 30:24that love from my father, but I still loved him.
- 30:27Though I still loved my dad despite everything he did,
- 30:32I still fought for a relationship with my brother, I
- 30:35mean my father. I wanted to be in the streets.
- 31:02I wanted to party, I wanted to go out. I
- 31:04want the club. So I didn't love my children properly.
- 31:14The reason I I I couldn't, And you know what,
- 31:18let me back up, the reason I accepted the bare
- 31:21minimum from people is cause I wanted to be loved
- 31:25so bad and it didn't matter where the love came from.
- 31:32So I would in these abusive relationships. I'm a domestic
- 31:35abuse survivors three children, three different men. My mother raised
- 31:47my children.
- 31:51Speaker 2: She did.
- 31:53Speaker 1: See. There are a lot of people out here that
- 31:56won't even talk about that. There are a lot of
- 31:58people out here that won't even address that. But this
- 32:01is my healing, This is our healing, This is our time.
- 32:04This is our moment where we released, where we let
- 32:08the trauma go. You understand this is our moment. This
- 32:11is not my moment. This is our moment. I created
- 32:14this space for us to be able to release. So
- 32:25I left went to Atlanta after Katrina, left my children
- 32:32with my mother, got arrested. I didn't trying to hustle,
- 32:52got caught up, went to jail now once but twice,
- 33:02started drinking real heavy. There were the days I'd wake
- 33:07up was drunk before twelve noon, but I would still
- 33:13get up and go to work. I was facing twenty
- 33:18years in prison. This was my first attempt. I just
- 33:29couldn't do right. I just couldn't get it together. Six
- 33:36months after that, I attempted again. One way or another,
- 33:43I'm gonna get out of here. I can't do this
- 33:53that since the ten years probation, I come back to Texas.
- 34:01I have my third baby. By this time, y'all have
- 34:03two children. To come back. I had my third baby
- 34:09and oh nine. In two thousand and nine, I went
- 34:12back to school. I'm doing everything right. I don't have
- 34:18no call. Still living in home with my mom with
- 34:21my three children. Depression sets in again. I remember these
- 34:29days like they were yesterday, y'all, like they were yesterday.
- 34:36That was my third attempt. After I had my baby.
- 34:44I did. I did because in my mind, y'all, I
- 34:54again I felt more of a burden than I did
- 34:56a blessing. Ere I had my mother's raising my children.
- 35:00I'm working at Jack in the box, I'm going to school.
- 35:03I don't have no card, nothing, So what was my purpose?
- 35:11What was my purpose? So my third atten was in
- 35:16twenty ten. I got okay after that, and my mother
- 35:26get into it again. At this time. You know, me
- 35:28and my mother were like cats and dogs. Hey, pool,
- 35:35I leave this time. I say, you know what, I
- 35:38can't come back here. I go back to Atlanta. This
- 35:43is twenty fifteen. At this point, doing good. I got
- 35:52a roommate, things not going well with her. Here comes
- 35:58attempt number four. I'm asking God, why do you keep
- 36:03taking me through this? Man?
- 36:04Speaker 2: I'm tired.
- 36:05Speaker 1: Well, my body just can't take no more. I I
- 36:07just can't keep doing this. This is twenty fifteen. By
- 36:10fourth or tenth, I move out. At this point, I'm
- 36:22going from pillar to post in Atlanta. I lose my job.
- 36:33There's this cycle all over again. My last attempt was
- 36:40in twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen. That was a
- 36:45temp number five. Maybe God really does need me here,
- 36:53maybe he really wants me here. I leave Atlanta. I
- 36:57moved to Mississippi with a guy. My children still in Houston.
- 37:04I try to come back to Houston, get an apartment
- 37:08down here. My Mom's like, I No, I know what
- 37:16I gotta do now, I get a hustle more. I
- 37:24gotta get back to you. So I gotta get back
- 37:25to text. I gotta be back on my babies, man,
- 37:27my kids, or why I'm still here. I get back
- 37:31to Houston twenty eighteen. I'm good.
- 37:33Speaker 2: You know.
- 37:33Speaker 1: I'm in my own place. Got a car now, nice job.
- 37:36I'm good till twenty twenty one. My niece Go's missing February.
- 37:59February twenty twenty one. My niece Gool's missing March for
- 38:08twenty twenty one, I lose my dad. I didn't even
- 38:22get a chance to say so. I'm dealing with that.
- 38:32I'm dealing with the loss of my father. I'm dealing
- 38:34with we don't know what my niece is until July.
- 38:51They find my niece's body along with another young lady
- 38:59bury behind the shop is Plaza in Georgia. I'm devastating
- 39:09because I'm still grieving the loss.
- 39:10Speaker 2: Of my dad.
- 39:14Speaker 1: I'm still trying to fight, y'all. I'm still trying to
- 39:16push through. I lose two more people in twenty twenty one.
- 39:32I'm like, God, I can't do this.
- 39:34Speaker 2: I'm tired.
- 39:41Speaker 1: March tenth of twenty twenty two, I lose my godmother.
- 39:49I say, God, I'm tired. I end up having it
- 39:56is directed me in twenty twenty two health issues. There's
- 40:05my dreams of having another baby. They don't tell you
- 40:13how your emotions are after you have a hysterectomy. I
- 40:22broke down one day. I broke down. I call my
- 40:32k my children at like two o'clock in the morning,
- 40:34one o'clock in the morning. This was a tip number six.
- 40:43This was a tip number six till finally I tell
- 40:49my doctor, I say, you know what, I just can't
- 40:51do this anymore. I need something. My depression is getting
- 40:56the best of me. My anxiety is all over the place.
- 41:00I've got blackout shades throughout my whole apartment. I no
- 41:07longer wanted to be in the light anymore. Twenty three
- 41:17rolls around. It's a fan of good Year until a
- 41:25couple of weeks ago, when I had a complete nervous breakdown,
- 41:36and those pills look wonderful to me. They did. I
- 41:46wanted it. I wanted every pill that was in the bottle.
- 41:54I wanted every pill.
- 41:57Speaker 2: I did.
- 42:04Speaker 1: So when I send my mother that text, I told her,
- 42:07my Mo'm tired, take care of my children, you know.
- 42:13I told her, remember me, and here I am today.
- 42:26I'm here today. Yo. We gotta keep fighting. We gotta
- 42:36keep fighting, y'all. We gotta let the world see us.
- 42:44I know it's easier said than the I know it is,
- 42:53but we gotta stop. And we gotta think about who
- 42:55we would leave we will be leaving behind. We're needed
- 43:02in this world. We're needed. Some of y'all may not
- 43:06feel like you are, but I need you. Some of
- 43:13y'all don't feel like you love. I love you. I
- 43:17want you to win. I want y'all to win. I
- 43:23want everybody to win. I wish I could just take
- 43:29the pain away from everybody. I wish I could. But
- 43:35please don't give up. Please don't sit by yourself. Everybody
- 43:43has a strong friend. Check on that strong friend. Y'all.
- 43:45Let me tell you something. We take all the time
- 43:49out of our days to share foolishness on social media.
- 43:56We take our time out of our days to get
- 43:58on these social media platform forms and we talk about
- 44:02how black men ain't this and black women ain't that
- 44:06we always talk about politics and things, but we never
- 44:10stop to think about our mental We don't never stop
- 44:13to talk about our mental We don't never stop to
- 44:16create safe spaces to talk about our mental We don't
- 44:20do that. And then when you hear about someone that
- 44:27you know that's battling depression or depression has defeated them,
- 44:33Oh my gosh, I should have reached out. Now is
- 44:36the time reach out to that strong friend. You don't
- 44:44understand what a text to do to a person's day.
- 44:48You don't know what that hug would do to a
- 44:51person's life. You just don't even understand to seek just
- 44:54to have somebody say, you know, Ashley, I'm proud of you,
- 44:58or just to text me and say, hey, you know what,
- 45:00since I love you, I'm just checking on you. Everything good.
- 45:03We gotta start doing that before it's too late, before
- 45:08we get into spaces like this. Because I could be
- 45:12gone right now, but God told me I got a
- 45:16bigger purpose here. God says I have something greater for you.
- 45:23You can't see it because you're letting the devil cloud
- 45:28your mind and your judgment and your thoughts. You're letting
- 45:32the devil do this and that to you and you
- 45:36not even listening to me. I'm telling you, any storm
- 45:42I bring here too don't mean I'm not gonna bring
- 45:44you through what you understand God has told me. Just
- 45:50because I bring you to a storm, don't mean you
- 45:52gotta get wet every time it rains. We gotta start
- 45:58fighting to be in spaces that we don't even belong.
- 46:00And you understand. We gotta stop looking for acceptance for
- 46:04people that do nothing to our lives. But we're all
- 46:08guilty of it. So I get on this platform today
- 46:11and tell y'all, today is Monday. This is mental Monday.
- 46:15Protect your mental take a break, detach yourself from things, refocus.
- 46:24You gotta relax, relate and release. You understand. I'm up
- 46:29here to day. This is my release for me. Right now,
- 46:33I'm sharing, and I'm telling y'all I've been in a
- 46:36dark space for the last month. I attempted to take
- 46:41to unlive myself. I did that. So my door is open,
- 46:52my line is open, my inbox is open. If we
- 46:55need to talk, if I need to get you over
- 46:58a hump, or you need to get let's make safe
- 47:01spaces like that for each and ever last one of us.
- 47:05We don't do that, y'all like, and it upsets me
- 47:08because we don't do this. We talk about everything that's
- 47:13not of importance instead of focusing on what's really important.
- 47:18Do y'all understand the unlive and rate and Black men
- 47:22is thirty I believe it's thirty six or thirty seven
- 47:25percent higher than white's, Asians and Latinos. Between the ages
- 47:31of twenty five and thirty six, black men black women
- 47:37were struggling because we trying to carry the weight of
- 47:40the world on our shoulders, because we're trying to be
- 47:42mim we trying to be the working woman, were trying
- 47:45to be entrepreneurs. When are we gonna stop and take
- 47:49time for ourselves? When are we gonna stop and say,
- 47:51you know what, I gotta take care of me right now.
- 47:55I just told my sister earlier today. You gotta start
- 47:59telling people no, it doesn't matter if they get upset
- 48:02with you. You have to protect your piece and your mental
- 48:05at all times. Baby. You have to stop trying to
- 48:09reach out to people that ain't reaching back for you.
- 48:16So I shared to I got on here today and
- 48:19I wanted y'all to know what I had going on
- 48:23because I love y'all you understand what I'm saying, Like
- 48:27I don't think y'all really truly understand that my circle
- 48:32of people I love y'all, Like y'all are so good
- 48:36for my mental right now, Like y'all are so good
- 48:38for my peace right now. The energy is what I
- 48:41needed right now. I needed to get out. I needed
- 48:44to get up here today, and I needed to tell y'all, man,
- 48:46I've been struggling, and I've tried seven times, y'all seven
- 48:51You understand I've attempted seven times to take my life,
- 48:57seven with the most recent being two weeks to go.
- 49:02I'm not shamed to share my story like that with nobody.
- 49:09I'm not ashamed. I'm not I'm not afraid to tell
- 49:11nobody that I'm struggling now, I'm drowning. Y'all help me,
- 49:17but I want to. I want to reach out before
- 49:19I even get to the point, before it gets too
- 49:22dark for me. You understand right now, I'm in a light.
- 49:25It's bright. I woke up today. I woke up refreshed,
- 49:28you know, in a in a beautiful space. I woke
- 49:32up today differently. I gave God, like I said, my
- 49:37praise and worship at the end of the night, when
- 49:41this is over, I'm gonna thank God for the day,
- 49:44put my music on and reflect on what what did
- 49:47I do productive today? And that's getting up here and
- 49:52loving on y'all. So anybody that's watching, dropping the comments,
- 49:57let me know how are you feeling today? Today? Is Monday?
- 49:59Is mental Monday? Yes, I know June is Men's Mental
- 50:03Health Awareness Month, but every day is mental health awareness
- 50:07every day, every day, not just June, not just May,
- 50:12every day every day. So I need everybody, everybody that's watching,
- 50:19let me know in the comments, how are you feeling today?
- 50:23What happened yesterday? Did you wake up today and today
- 50:28just wasn't so good? Do you need me to pray
- 50:32with you? What do you need me to do. I
- 50:35want to be a safe space for somebody, because you
- 50:37know what, we didn't have these safe spaces back then.
- 50:43Don't be afraid and ashamed and embarrassed because you're struggling.
- 50:50My sister K three mother, she says, today was rough,
- 50:53but I'm pushing to make it. Let me tell you something.
- 50:58You have a beautiful business that I need you to
- 51:01really walk into your purpose. This lady here, let me
- 51:04tell you something everybody does comment and everybody is in
- 51:06the follow Everybody reach out to somebody. My sister Ka
- 51:13three mother does nails beautiful, but she's afraid encourage her.
- 51:20I need someone to encourage her. My brother trap crystals.
- 51:24My brother does jewels.
- 51:27Speaker 3: You know.
- 51:30Speaker 1: My brother. I'm reading a comment. Shaw, I'm still here,
- 51:36I promise, Okay, Bubba. My sister Babe says, today has
- 51:45been a headache. These last two weeks have been a headache,
- 51:47but I'm pushing through. They gonna My sister Kim, Hey Kim,
- 51:52that's my girl. Let me tell you something, my sister says.
- 51:59She say that the devil was visited day. She said,
- 52:01I'll be trying to let everything go, but it's hard.
- 52:03Let me tell you something. Let me tell you what
- 52:04my therapist told me. My therapist told me. If you're
- 52:07gonna be upset or be mad, be mad about it
- 52:09right then and there. If you're gonna be angry, be
- 52:12angry about it then and there. Because whatever happened yesterday,
- 52:19you can't change what happened yesterday. Because today is Monday.
- 52:22So whatever happened on Sunday, you can't change what happened
- 52:24on Sunday. You gotta focus on the day. My sister
- 52:28Nikki says, I've been in dark places and felt the same,
- 52:31but snapped out of it. God has a purpose for me.
- 52:33God absolutely has a purpose for you. He absolutely does.
- 52:40And a lot of us stand in our own way,
- 52:41a lot of a step on our own tools. I
- 52:45need everybody that's in the comments, please tap in with
- 52:49my girl, Kimberly Latis. She is a coach. She's a
- 52:53life coach. So if anybody that is struggling, she is
- 52:57a life coach. She is licensed. Tap in with my
- 53:00sister Kimberly Latis LLC. She's in the comments. Y'all tap
- 53:05in with her. When I tell you, thank you, Miss Mairah.
- 53:11Peace to you, baby, Peace to you. Let me tell
- 53:14y'all something you don't know who can help you. You
- 53:23don't know who can help you. You don't know who's path.
- 53:32Uh ohh, my lives stopped, y'all. Let me go back.
- 53:48Speaker 2: Oh I know it.
- 54:02Speaker 1: I see Wow, So they took my live. I can't
- 54:10go live until tomorrow. Let me see. Yeah, I can't
- 54:21go back live until tomorrow. That's crazy. But they get
- 54:29on here y'all very much. So this is crazy.
- 54:37Speaker 2: Y'all.
- 54:42Speaker 1: But they get on these platforms, y'all, and they talk
- 54:45about all types of stuff. Kim, come over to Facebook,
- 54:49let me tell her, y'all. Let me get back over here, y'all.
- 55:00Hold on, why I tell you, Oh yeah, I definitely
- 55:23want to hold on, y'all. I'm still here with y'all.
- 55:53Let me go back, all right. Why I tell you,
- 56:00this is crazy, baby, these folks hell and then who y'all,
- 56:08let's let's get back to this.
- 56:20Speaker 2: All right.
- 56:21Speaker 1: I'm not gonna even worry about that because see, and
- 56:24that's the problem with these platforms. This is what upsets
- 56:27me with these platforms. Let me hold on, y'all. I'm
- 56:37still here with y'all. This is this is the type.
- 56:41This is what I'm talking about when I see conversations
- 56:46like this definitely need to be had. Conversations like this
- 56:51need to be had, and for y'all to clip conversations
- 56:55like this, this is why people suffer in silence. This
- 56:59right here is exact why people suffering silence is because
- 57:03y'all clip and y'all monitor conversations like this. This is
- 57:08absolutely disgusting to me. I think I think this is
- 57:13absolutely disgusting to me. Let me let me. This is
- 57:23what I don't understand is that y'all clip these lives
- 57:30when we need to have conversations like this, and then
- 57:33y'all wonder why people suffer in silence is because when
- 57:36people try to create safe spaces, the devil comes in
- 57:39and tries to attack, kill, and destroyed this right here.
- 57:44I'm gonna keep talking. I'm gonna keep holding spaces like
- 57:48this because what you're not gonna do. You're not gonna
- 57:50silence me. You're not gonna stop me from advocating for
- 57:55people in their mental health. That's not what y'all are
- 57:57gonna do. And I think this is crazy. Y'all put
- 58:00these y'all put these these resources out here, but then
- 58:03when we get up here to have these conversations, y'all
- 58:06want to clip us. This is mad, crazy, and I
- 58:09don't like it. This is why we need to create
- 58:12our own platforms. We're gonna figure out a way around this.
- 58:15TikTok may not want us over here over that, but
- 58:18guess what we're gonna We were gonna. We're gonna stay
- 58:20over here with Facebook. Let me find my suster, kim,
- 58:23let me see everybody say baby, let me tell you.
- 58:32I love y'all. I love y'all. I love y'all. I
- 58:35love y'all I do. I love y'all so much. I
- 58:39love you everybody. I do. But this is crazy. And
- 58:43then you wonder why people suffer. But it's imperative that
- 58:49we have conversations like this. You want to know why,
- 58:53because this conversation could save somebody's life, This conversation could
- 58:57take care and hear one person. But for y'all to
- 59:01clear me like that, TikTok. Say let's say less, baby,
- 59:06say less, absolutely say less. We good over here, We
- 59:11good over here, We good over here, we good over here.
- 59:15We gonna make it do what it do. You understand,
- 59:17we gonna make it do what it do. We gonna
- 59:20make it do what it do. That's what we gonna do.
- 59:23This is r This is crazy. I promise this is crazy.
- 59:28But anyway, back to our conversation, back to what I
- 59:32was saying, But your mental health is imperative. And I
- 59:37want people to know that I love y'all. I want
- 59:40y'all to know that I'm thinking about y'all. I want
- 59:42y'all to know that I'm gonna forever be praying for you,
- 59:45and I want you all to pray for me. Pray
- 59:49did I come out of this this season that I'm
- 59:52in right now, because it's rough. It's been hard for
- 59:55me in this season. It's been very rough for me.
- 1:00:02And I shared that video because I know somebody's going
- 1:00:09through it. I know somebody's going through it right now.
- 1:00:16I know, right now somebody's in a space where they
- 1:00:18don't know if they want to sink or swim. I
- 1:00:22know it's somebody right now in a space that's dark.
- 1:00:32I know somebody right now is in a space that
- 1:00:34looks them for them. But don't sit in the dark.
- 1:00:42Come sit over here with me on the bench. Come on,
- 1:00:45sit over here with me, and let's ride this ride together.
- 1:00:52Let me love on you real quick. Let me tell
- 1:00:59you all that it does get easier. Do some days?
- 1:01:05Look them, they do a lot of days. But I
- 1:01:13gotta free myself from that. I gotta free myself from
- 1:01:17this prison. I gotta let this trauma go.
- 1:01:23Speaker 2: I I have to.
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: Let it go. But I wanted y'all to know I
- 1:01:33appreciate y'all that I love y'all. I appreciate y'all reaching
- 1:01:44out to me. I appreciate y'all allowing me to be
- 1:01:49the most vulnerable that I've ever been with no judgment.
- 1:01:56That's what I love about y'all. It's regardless if I'm
- 1:02:02up or down, if i'm higher lower, if I'm good
- 1:02:04or bad, y'all love me anyway. Y'all help me on
- 1:02:11those dark days. And I don't say it enough, but
- 1:02:14I appreciate y'all. I thank y'all for helping me make
- 1:02:20my way out of the dark on those dark rough days.
- 1:02:26I appreciate the prayers. I appreciate the messages. I want
- 1:02:31y'all to know I see.
- 1:02:32Speaker 3: Them, I see them, I see them.
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: I feel them.
- 1:02:43Speaker 2: You know.
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: I want y'all to know that I may not say
- 1:02:50it enough, but I do. I appreciate it. And I
- 1:02:52love y'all so much. And we got this. Whatever's going on,
- 1:03:04let it go, whatever's going on, let it go. Know
- 1:03:18that your pain it'll subside. I love your tool, baby.
- 1:03:31I want you all to know that all days won't
- 1:03:40be dark. I want you to know that even on
- 1:03:47those dark days, God is still there with you. God
- 1:04:00kept me, God will keep you too. But I want
- 1:04:13y'all to know that I love y'all. I appreciate y'all.
- 1:04:18I see y'all, I feel y'all. I hear you. I
- 1:04:24hear y'all, and I'm forever grateful. But it's beautiful circle
- 1:04:32of people that I have. I'm grateful for that. I'm
- 1:04:38grateful for my three beautiful children. I'm grateful for my
- 1:04:45amazing husband. But I'm even more grateful for myself that
- 1:04:56God kept me here today. I'll forever be grateful for that.
- 1:05:02I'm grateful for every day that that man gives me
- 1:05:05above the ground. But I do ask that y'all pray
- 1:05:11for me, keep me close to y'all. I need it,
- 1:05:20I do. But I love y'all. Black Girl Interrupted will
- 1:05:27be back. Give me some great shall I'll be back.
- 1:05:35I just needed a moment to regroup. I needed a
- 1:05:39moment to reset. I needed a moment to recenter myself
- 1:05:49to realign. I'll be back though, and we're gonna stap
- 1:05:57big this time. But I love y'all. I love love, love, love,
- 1:06:04love love love y'all so much. When Black Girl Interrupted
- 1:06:09will be back, I don't know, but I'll be back.
- 1:06:17I love y'all. Happy Monday. I hope everyone has had
- 1:06:23a beautiful week a weekend. I'm sorry. Happy Father's Day
- 1:06:31till they amazing fathers. I celebrate y'all every day. Take
- 1:06:38care of your mental y'all. Protect your peace at all costs.
- 1:06:45Disassociate yourself from those that trigger you. Disassociate yourself from
- 1:06:49the ones that you feel are no good for you.
- 1:06:54It's okay to start telling people know. I know I do,
- 1:07:00but I love your happy Monday and I'll see yo. Soul,
- 1:07:06God bless you.