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Transcript

Mental Health Awareness Month · Black Girl Interrupted Podcast

• 0:26
  All right, what's up? What's up? What's up? Y'all, it's
• 0:30
  your girl Ash. Y'all, welcome back to another episode of Black Girl Interrupted.
• 0:38
  Oh, y'all, So it feels good to be back in front of
• 0:42
  the camera. So I tried to go live last week into this episode,
• 0:47
  right, So I tried, but unfortunately Exfinity would not allow me to be
• 0:52
  great. So in the midst of me doing my episode, my Internet completely
• 0:56
  shut down. So I was like, you know what, maybe that was
• 0:59
  God's way, are seeing that I didn't I need to do this episode,
• 1:03
  So that's why I pushed it back. But y'all, as y'all see,
• 1:08
  the color is green, y'all know, it's mental health Awareness Month, and
• 1:12
  I want to address that. I want to bring that to the table.
• 1:15
  Like y'all already know. I don't just discuss it the month of made.
• 1:21
  I discussed mental health every day, every episode. I'm always doing a mental
• 1:26
  health check in. I'm always reaching out to someone. I want to know
• 1:30
  how you're feeling mentally, you know, because as a person that y'all know
• 1:36
  my story, like y'all already know what I've been through. Y'all see my
• 1:38
  highs, y'all, see my lows, y'all see me walk away, y'all
• 1:42
  see me come back, like y'all have seen it all. And that's what
• 1:48
  mental illness is. You know, your highs, your lows, you're good,
• 1:53
  you're bad, the ups, the downs, like you see all of
• 1:57
  that. But I want to continue to bring awareness to this because there are
• 2:02
  so many people out here that are suffering in silence, that are afraid to
• 2:08
  talk about the problems that they're having, you know, whether it's depression,
• 2:14
  whether it's anxiety, whether it's bipolar, whether it's schizophrenic, all of that.
• 2:22
  I just want this space to be safe for everyone to share. So
• 2:27
  if you're going through something, I definitely don't want you to suffer in silence.
• 2:31
  I do want you to know that there is help out there for you
• 2:35
  and you don't have to do it alone. I know that's one of the
• 2:38
  biggest things is people are a free fear, you know, of being open
• 2:46
  and vulnerable and sharing their struggles for fear of being judged. And I can
• 2:52
  only speak from experience, I understand what that's like. You know that was
• 2:54
  like when I started my podcast, I was afraid I didn't want to be
• 2:59
  judged. I didn't want people to say, oh my gosh, she's got
• 3:02
  problems. No, I'm far from crazy. I'm just a person that not
• 3:10
  really able to balance my emotions, I guess you could say, and I
• 3:14
  needed some help. I needed to get to the root of the problem.
• 3:17
  I needed to address my trauma. So hence that's why I create a Black
• 3:23
  Girlna about the podcast. This became my safe spaceis was something for me whenever
• 3:29
  I'm having a moment, whether it's a dark moment, whether it's a midway
• 3:34
  moment, this was a safe space for me to basically vent. This became
• 3:38
  my therapy session. So again, I don't always talk about mental health just
• 3:44
  a month of May. I address it every day, every day, every
• 3:46
  episode because there is a stigma in the black community when it comes to mental
• 3:53
  health. People do not want to talk about it. You know, we've
• 3:57
  been taught. You know, you're pray it away, you're reading is Bible
• 4:00
  script. And I just want people to know that is No, that's not
• 4:04
  me saying I don't believe in God, because baby, I really do.
• 4:08
  God has brought me through a minute storms. But sometimes you need that unbiased
• 4:13
  person. You need that person to give you the tools to help you maneuver
• 4:17
  through those dark spaces in life. So y'all already know what I do before
• 4:21
  I even get started. Y'all already know I play some type of inspirational video,
• 4:26
  something motivational. So here we go, and then we're gonna jump into
• 4:30
  tonight's conversation. If you can take it, you can make it. If
• 4:38
  you can just keep believing when nothing in you is working, when all your
• 4:45
  external forces have given way, if you can just manage to somehow keep hoping,
• 4:55
  you have a chance. You just can't become hopeless. If you can
• 5:00
  just keep hope alive, you can make it. Because if you keep hoping,
• 5:05
  it is really faith. You just gotta transpose it into I hope this
• 5:10
  has happened to I believe this can happen. Life is like a grindstone.
• 5:15
  It can polish you or it can pulverize you, depending on how you position
• 5:21
  yourself. There's one side of pain, that's the suffering and the discomfort side
• 5:27
  of pain. But then there's another side of pain that's called effort. It's
• 5:30
  called glory, it's called of you can find a way to push through pain.
• 5:35
  There's something great on the other side of it. Every time you find
• 5:40
  yourself saying that you can't do something, putting yourself down, being negative about
• 5:46
  you and the possibilities for you, you got to literally catch yourself and you've
• 5:49
  got to affirm to yourself, hey, hey, no, no, no,
• 5:53
  I can make it. There's some way this can happen for me.
• 5:56
  You've got to remind yourself that you've got powers within you, you talents within
• 6:00
  you that you haven't even reached for you. And once you give yourself an
• 6:04
  opportunity to try and to experiment with your life to stretch, you'll find out
• 6:09
  you can do more than you can ever to get your magic. I'm challenging
• 6:12
  you to change the way you talk to you. Cover your head, cover
• 6:17
  your fox, cover your imaginations, cover the words that are coming into your
• 6:21
  mind. Cover what you're saying to yourself. What you are saying to yourself
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  determinments whether you wear to love. What you say to yourself has all the
• 6:32
  world to do with how far you get down now, what you're going through,
• 6:39
  Now, what's happening in your life, not what's going on in your
• 6:42
  home, not what's happening in your financing. The blessing is on you.
• 6:46
  Don't give up all to who you are, become of how things by turning
• 6:50
  out, Because the blessing is all of who you are. You've got to
• 6:55
  say yes, yes to my dreams, Yes to me, Yes I can.
• 7:00
  Doesn't matter how many failures I've made, doesn't matter how many mistakes I
• 7:04
  didn't do. It doesn't matter about what I've done. I can make it.
• 7:09
  There's gonna be blessing. There's gonna be miracles, There's gonna be opportunities.
• 7:14
  Oh yes, there's gonna be some struggles. Here's gonna be some challenges.
• 7:16
  There's gonna be some tests. But even the struggles are an opportunity for
• 7:20
  me to show off the victory if my mind can handle the change. If
• 7:26
  you can get your mind out, you can get your money out, you
• 7:30
  get your family out, you can get your job out, you can get
• 7:32
  your career out, you can get your health out, you can get your
• 7:35
  prosperity out. If you can get your mind out. No devil in hell,
• 7:41
  no weapon form to get you, no intimate that hates you can't stop
• 7:45
  you from being free. Grab your shot by the head and say we're coming
• 7:47
  out of there. I know it is to want the floor, and you
• 7:50
  don't know how you're gonna make it when people no longer believing you, and
• 7:54
  you got to see yourself when you fail again it again, they tell you
• 7:58
  no. Sometimes to tiss y'all, it's possible when life knocks you down.
• 8:01
  Sometimes you have to take two steps backwards to go folk. When life standing
• 8:05
  you the thing that it gets you up on your knees, get your standing
• 8:09
  in the center of rain and keep on fighting this. It's possible. If
• 8:13
  I just stand long enough, I can pull this off. I can't do
• 8:18
  it. I'm putting it out here. I'm not gonna rest until I have
• 8:20
  it. It's necessary. I'm gonna do it. It's on me. No
• 8:24
  one's gonna make it happen for me. I get some help and assistance,
• 8:26
  but I know that it's on me. Well it be easy. No,
• 8:30
  it's gonna be harder. But it doesn't matter what it costs, because whatever
• 8:33
  you have to do, it's worth it because it's your life's purpose. And
• 8:37
  once you know that it is gone. Huh. I just like y'all just
• 8:58
  don't understand, Like I love that videos so much, Like when I because
• 9:03
  what I'm gonna start doing, like every episode, I'm gonna start changing out
• 9:05
  the videos that I play because again, I want to encourage someone that may
• 9:11
  or made, that may be going through something that just may feel like giving
• 9:16
  up. You know, they maybe one drink away, one peel away,
• 9:18
  one bullet away. You just never know what a person is going through.
• 9:22
  So I always want to try to keep someone encouraged. I always want to
• 9:26
  try to empower and uplift anyone that's ever in the midst of a storm,
• 9:31
  Like I want to encourage you because I know what it's like. I know
• 9:35
  exactly what it feels like when you're down. So everyone has tuned in,
• 9:43
  y'all. Like I say, y'all already know every episode. I always do
• 9:46
  my mental health check in, so I want to know how are y'all feeling.
• 9:50
  I know today it's Tuesday, it is what made the fifteenth? How
• 9:56
  are you feeling? Like? What? How have you been these last few
• 10:00
  days? Or is it me the sixteenth? Either way it goes, y'all
• 10:03
  know what day it is, but I want to know how y'all are feeling
• 10:05
  to day. Have you been feeling the last twenty four hours, have you
• 10:09
  been feeling the last few days, the last week, the last month,
• 10:13
  hell, maybe even the last year. You know, drop in the comments,
• 10:16
  let me know how you're feeling. Let me know what I can do,
• 10:20
  what resources I could provide to you to channel you in the right direction
• 10:26
  to get that much needed therapy that's necessary for you to heal mentally. You
• 10:31
  know, because once you are in a a healthy space mentally, everything else
• 10:39
  will fall into place. You'll be in a better space emotionally, you'll be
• 10:43
  in a better space physically. I want to know how you're feeling. Let
• 10:46
  me know, like what's been going on. Like I can genuinely say,
• 10:54
  for me, the last three weeks have been very difficult for me. As
• 11:00
  again, y'all know that I do suffer from lupus. So I've had two
• 11:05
  flare ups literally in the last three weeks, and it's really starting to take
• 11:11
  a toll on me emotionally. Mentally, it's starting to take a toll on
• 11:16
  me because it's like, every time I go to the doctors, you're always
• 11:20
  giving me some bad news. You're always telling me something is wrong, like
• 11:24
  something is bad. But I try not to allow that to disturb my peace,
• 11:31
  because at the end of the day, God has the final says.
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  It's just it's been rough for me, you know, I get up every
• 11:43
  day and I pushed through. I try to make it through the day.
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  I try to forget that I even have lupus, you know, because I've
• 11:52
  seen the downside to having lupas. You know, it affects your organs.
• 11:58
  I did see what a couple a few weeks ago, Tony Braxton, who
• 12:01
  actually suffers from lucas, had to have emergency open heart surgery. So I
• 12:07
  worry about a lot of those things. I worry about staying and living long
• 12:13
  enough to see my children grow and have children of their own. You know.
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  I want my children to be able to stand on their own two feet
• 12:22
  once I leave this earth. So it's really taking a toll on me mentally
• 12:30
  and physically. But I really I fight every day. Every day I get
• 12:35
  up and I say, you know what, I'm gonna push through this pain
• 12:37
  to day. I'm gonna push through this pain the day. So for the
• 12:41
  last few days, I say, like the last three four days, my
• 12:45
  legs haven't hurt as much, Like my body doesn't hurt as much. My
• 12:50
  neck somewhat a little bit still hurts, But for the most part, I
• 12:54
  don't hurt as much as I did the last few weeks. Because oh my
• 12:58
  god, the last few weeks was so horrible for me. But um,
• 13:03
  that's why I'm at mentally. You know, I just stay strong, I
• 13:07
  stay encouraged, I stay motivated. I've started reading my affirmations when I'm at
• 13:15
  work, just to make it through the date. You know, like I
• 13:18
  said, dealing with Lupas's it's rough. You know. I was diagnosed with
• 13:22
  lupas what a year after losing my dad, So it was just like it
• 13:28
  was just a barage of things, Like God, how much more are you
• 13:31
  gonna keep taking me through? Like why why do you keep doing this to
• 13:35
  me? Like what have I done? You know? Are you punishing me
• 13:37
  for something? But I've learned that I'm just gonna work with the cards that
• 13:45
  life has dealt me. You know, I'm not going to continue to be
• 13:48
  myself down about it. But you know what can I do? No?
• 13:52
  I don't. I don't take the medication that was prescribed to me for my
• 13:56
  lupas because I'm tired of taking bills try to taking medication, so I just
• 14:00
  refused to take it. I am looking for holistic ways to cope with lupus
• 14:07
  because I do not want to take no medication like, I don't want to
• 14:09
  take no pills. I really don't. I'm tired. I'll take a medication.
• 14:13
  I mean, I take medication for my diabetes, and they just switched
• 14:16
  me to the monja role to help control my blood sugar. Like it's it's
• 14:20
  just been a mirage of things. But I'm here, I'm still standing,
• 14:26
  and I know I'm bigger than lupus. I'm bigger than everything you know.
• 14:31
  So I'm not allowing this to wear down on my mental So that's where I'm
• 14:37
  at right now. Mentally, I'm better than what I was, Like I
• 14:43
  said, I'm better than what I was a few weeks ago. I'm like
• 14:46
  I said, the last three or four days, I haven't been in as
• 14:48
  much pain as I've been in. They did prescribe me some narcotics for the
• 14:56
  pain. So if y'all haven't wherever I mean, big bag, i'd be
• 15:01
  under them baby, let me tell you, I'll be so far up under
• 15:05
  them covers. It's a rap. Once I take them metas them pills,
• 15:09
  it's a rap. I'm done. I'm good. I don't wake up to
• 15:11
  damn there. It's time for me to go to work. But um,
• 15:15
  like I say, mentally, I'm I'm in a better space. Um.
• 15:18
  I did go to the cemetery a few weeks ago. Um, that wasn't
• 15:24
  good. So we'll be going into the cemetery for Father's Day. Let me
• 15:28
  just say that. Let me just say that because I know mentally I'm not
• 15:31
  there just yet. But I know each time I go it may get a
• 15:37
  little easier. So let's see. Let's see what what happens. But enough
• 15:41
  about me. You know, like I say, I'm doing my mental health
• 15:45
  check in. As y'all can see the green hints. Um, this is
• 15:48
  mental health awareness mark. And I don't want anyone to suffer in silence because
• 15:58
  I know what that feels like. I know it feels like you don't have
• 16:04
  anybody, you don't have anybody to talk to, and it's it's it's hard.
• 16:11
  Once you get into that dark, dark, dark space, it's hard
• 16:15
  to come out of. UM. So again, I don't just discuss it,
• 16:26
  because it's the month that made y'all know why you address mental health.
• 16:29
  Every episode, I always do my mental health check ins. I'm always playing
• 16:33
  something encouraging. I'm always um something empowering, something uplifting, because again,
• 16:40
  I don't know what anyone is going through in life. Um, But I
• 16:44
  do want to tell you, and I'm trying to say this without getting emotional.
• 16:48
  Um, it does get easier. Give yourself the grace. Y'all know
• 16:57
  I get emotional when it comes to mental health. Y'all know this. Y'all
• 17:00
  know this is like a sensitive topic for me, a sensitive conversation. But
• 17:07
  I have to keep this conversation going because the suicide rate is increasing, especially
• 17:12
  in black men. Um, and we have to talk about it. We
• 17:18
  have to have these uncomfortable conversations. We have to remove the stigma when it
• 17:22
  comes to therapy. Um. So Britnan says, new glasses. No,
• 17:26
  it's they're the same, they just look different. She say, clear skin
• 17:30
  and this glow girl, No, babads, this skin is it's it's it's
• 17:37
  coming. She says. So glad to see you back in front of the
• 17:42
  camera and so good to hear your voice. I'm here for this episode.
• 17:48
  She says. You are bigger, stronger, and greater than all you have
• 17:51
  been through your our blessing and such a joy to have. And every time
• 17:56
  you go, I am here to go with you. And I appreciate that
• 18:00
  to know. Like I said, when it comes to mental health, a
• 18:03
  lot of people feel like they're alone. A lot of people feel like I
• 18:06
  don't have anybody, I can't talk to anybody for fear of judgment. And
• 18:11
  that's and that's one of the reasons why people suffer alone, is because people
• 18:15
  are always judging. Let me say this, you have to stop judging people.
• 18:22
  You'll get what I'm saying because when you point one finger out a person,
• 18:26
  you have four more that a point and back at you. So I'm
• 18:29
  gonna definitely put that out there because I had to learn that. It's to
• 18:34
  stop pre judging people because again, you don't know a person's story, you
• 18:38
  don't know their history, you don't know what they're going through daily, and
• 18:41
  people don't talk about it because they don't want you going in and you're utilizing
• 18:47
  that and you use that against them what they've told you so personal. And
• 18:51
  again I'm speaking from experience because I was that person. So I say all
• 18:59
  of that to say, be kind, be kind to people, because you
• 19:03
  don't know what a person is going through. You do not know if this
• 19:07
  person is a drink away, a pilloway, a bullet away, hell,
• 19:11
  maybe even a drive away from ending their life. So I say this,
• 19:15
  and I'm gonna keep saying this. Be kind to people, be gentle with
• 19:18
  people, be patient with people, Okay, And I only say that from
• 19:22
  experience because I've had people that have been rough with me, that have not
• 19:26
  been gentle with me when it came to my mental health. So I had
• 19:33
  to learn to set up boundaries. And we're gonna get into that later on
• 19:36
  into the show. But set boundaries. Put you first. It's okay to
• 19:41
  walk away from people with no explanation. You don't owe anybody anything when you
• 19:45
  have to take care of you. So y'all already, Like I said,
• 19:48
  y'all know this is this is sensitive for me. And I say all of
• 19:53
  that because again, I've been in those shoes. I've been in those spaces
• 19:57
  where it's been darker, I felt like I had nobody to turn to,
• 20:00
  and the people that I felt like would be there for me left, So
• 20:06
  I can only speak from experience. So be kind to people, be gentle
• 20:11
  with people, love on the people that love on you. Set those boundaries,
• 20:18
  and always put you first, because you don't owe anyone of explanation why
• 20:22
  you decided to walk away, and take care of you if you decide to
• 20:25
  fall off the face of the earth for six months and you bounce back like
• 20:27
  nothing happened. That's fine, There's nothing wrong with that. And I tell
• 20:33
  people that all the time. Everyone that I talk to, I stress,
• 20:36
  and I tell you take care of you because there's only one you. You
• 20:41
  are only allotted one life and you have to live with the best that you
• 20:45
  know how to live it. Oh, y'all know mental health. Y'all already
• 20:52
  know it is so sensitive for me. Y'all know that, y'all know this
• 20:56
  is it's triggering, it's but it's a much needed conversation. You get what
• 21:02
  I'm saying, because this is my space is safe. This is a space
• 21:06
  for you to come in for YouTube to decompress. This is my space for
• 21:10
  you to come in and you feel safe. You get what I'm saying.
• 21:12
  This is what black Girl Interrupted is for. If you are going through anything,
• 21:17
  please know that you do not have to suffer in silence. You are
• 21:21
  not by yourself, I promise you not. If you need to laugh,
• 21:23
  if you need to cry, if you need the screen, that's what we're
• 21:27
  gonna do. This is what we are gonna do, and this is what
• 21:30
  we have to do as a community. This is what we have to do
• 21:33
  as a people. We have to remove the stigma, the stigma when it
• 21:37
  comes to mental health, because it's so stigmatized in the black community, because
• 21:42
  Black people are afraid to go to therapy because they feel like, oh,
• 21:47
  nothing's wrong with me. Yeah it is. You need to address it.
• 21:51
  You need to heal from that, because in order to be a better person,
• 21:53
  you have to first address the traumas and the things that are holding your
• 21:56
  doubt. So, y'all, I'm so sorry, y'all. I don't need
• 22:02
  to be screaming and all of that, but I want people to know that
• 22:10
  going to therapy, it's okay, it's not a problem, it's no issue.
• 22:14
  It doesn't make you crazy, it doesn't make you outcasts, whatever the
• 22:21
  words that they utilize. But there are resources available. If you feel like
• 22:26
  you need it, go get it. Go get it. I'm a witness.
• 22:30
  I can attest to it. Does it work absolutely? Does it help
• 22:34
  you to give It provides you the tools to be able to maneuver and how
• 22:38
  to channel those emotions, how to give yourself the greece, to give yourself
• 22:49
  the courage to keep going. To know that it does get easier yes,
• 22:55
  I know. We have those moments where we're ready to throw on a tower,
• 22:57
  where we're ready to give up, where we're ready to say, you
• 23:00
  know what I'm done. I'm ready to end it all. You can keep
• 23:04
  going, you can't. It's one foot in front of the other. Give
• 23:11
  yourself to feel, give yourself the great stuff. Feel, let me say
• 23:14
  that, let me back up, give you yourself the grace. Brittany says,
• 23:18
  I will never leave. I am always here for you, and I'm
• 23:19
  greatly appreciative of that that. I love your wholeheartedly for that. Oh there's
• 23:27
  my brother. My brother says, you know we're always here for you.
• 23:33
  My sister absolutely, y'all shout out to my brother. Big Low Country Sports,
• 23:37
  y'all know support is free. Shout out so free. But anyone that
• 23:41
  sent to sports, football, basketball, baseball, y'all go subscribe to Big
• 23:47
  Low Country Sports. When I tell y'all, he's like, so freaking amazing.
• 23:51
  He does beautiful shows. I've caught a couple of them. I don't
• 23:55
  know what's going on with YouTube. All my notifications are on, but for
• 23:59
  some reason they don't come through. I don't know, but I can't wait
• 24:02
  to see y'all football season. Who that who that who that brother? Who
• 24:07
  that brother? There's my love. Hey babe, I love you. I
• 24:11
  hope you're having a good night at work and you know I'll talk to you
• 24:14
  later when you get off. Britney says, no, do it. You
• 24:18
  can do it. You are passionate and I feel all of this absolutely.
• 24:22
  I push for this. I advocate for mental health because I see all these
• 24:30
  people in our community, men, women, boys and girls. Were Suicide
• 24:34
  is at all time high, y'all, especially black men. So I want
• 24:41
  to say this. I want to do this. I love you too,
• 24:44
  brother, and tell Culturoni. I say, hey, Sissy, and I
• 24:47
  miss her so much, Big Low. Let's see. I will say this,
• 24:53
  I'm better than what I was two months ago. I will say that
• 24:56
  maybe three months ago. I'm better than what I was maybe two three months
• 25:00
  to go. I'm not one hundred percent, but I'm almost there. Let
• 25:06
  me say that I'm almost there. I say maybe at seventy five, but
• 25:11
  I know I'll be at a hundred soon. I know that. So so
• 25:15
  let me say this again. The suicide rate, y'all, is increasing in
• 25:22
  the black community, especially when it comes to black men, and I want
• 25:26
  to take a moment because I want to acknowledge my brothers. I want to
• 25:32
  acknowledge the black men in my circle, the black men that are outside of
• 25:37
  my circle, my Facebook friends. I want to say this to you,
• 25:41
  black man and let me let me, let me take a deep breath,
• 25:45
  because y'all know I get sensitive when it comes to my black men, because
• 25:49
  I want to love on y'all for just a moment. When the world says
• 25:55
  y'all are not enough, I feel like y'all are everything to me. I
• 26:00
  know you black men don't feel that we as black women love on you the
• 26:03
  way we're supposed to. But I love you. I care about your mental
• 26:08
  I care about your well being, I care about your physical, I care
• 26:14
  about your emotional. And I stress and I push this because black men don't
• 26:22
  hear it enough. We as black women. We always say, old black
• 26:26
  men, black men, you don't protect Black women, But do we protect
• 26:30
  black men. So I want to be the first to say to my brothers,
• 26:33
  my black men, my black boys, that I love you, I
• 26:38
  care about you, and I want you to heal and I'm here for the
• 26:45
  journey. I'm here to walk with you down that complicated role because I know
• 26:49
  it's black men. Y'all are told to be strong. I know y'all are
• 26:52
  told to not cry because if men cry, that makes you weak. No
• 27:00
  doesn't, so to you bitter moms and you bitter dads that have tort your
• 27:06
  sons not to show emotion. I'm gonna pray for y'all because when you destroy
• 27:14
  that black man and you tear his mental down, we're left to deal with
• 27:18
  that. We're left to pick up the pieces. We're left to heal what
• 27:22
  you broke. So get you some help. You toxic black women, you
• 27:30
  toxic black men, you toxic grandmothers, Auntie's uncle's cousins, all of y'all
• 27:36
  seek therapy because we have to deal with the remnants of this broken black man.
• 27:45
  So we as mothers and fathers, relative sisters, for whatever, we
• 27:49
  gotta do better. We have to do better as a people. So to
• 27:53
  my black men, I love y'all, and you don't have to suffer in
• 27:57
  silence. You're not alone. You're not alone. I'm gonna post some resources
• 28:03
  at the end of the show for you if you seek and you want to
• 28:10
  get therapy, you want help. Uh, oh my goodness, y'all,
• 28:18
  let me pull it together for a moment. Let me let me just let
• 28:22
  me get my mentally check, because y'all, like I say, y'all know
• 28:26
  this is sensitive for me. It's very sensitive because people straight away from these
• 28:33
  conversations, no one wants to have these conversations because we've been conditioned to think
• 28:42
  that way. We've been conditioned to think therapists cannot help us. They feel
• 28:49
  like, how can a person that doesn't know my life tell me what to
• 28:53
  do or help me through my struggles. You'll be surprised. You'll be surprised
• 29:00
  at the tools that these therapists provide to you to help maneuver, to help
• 29:06
  you to maneuver through your emotions, to help you maneuver through those dark spaces,
• 29:11
  to pull you closer to the light towards the light. You'll be surprised.
• 29:18
  Doesn't make you crazy because you want to go see a therapist to help
• 29:22
  with what everyone else says. You feel like you want to go see a
• 29:25
  therapist, Go see it, Go see them, help her, whatever works
• 29:30
  for you, whatever's going to help to get your mental in check. You
• 29:33
  do what's best for you. To the naysayers, let me go ahead and
• 29:37
  say that, and I stand on that. I stand tintos down and I
• 29:42
  say that with my chest. There's nothing wrong going to therapy. You feel
• 29:48
  like you need to help, go get it. It's resources out there.
• 29:53
  Treat these therapists like a job. Inter you find the one that fits you,
• 29:59
  that ac I'm anadate you, the one that you mesh with, the
• 30:03
  one you vibe with, the one you feel can help you along your journey.
• 30:08
  But also realize that you gotta put in the work. They give you
• 30:15
  the tools, but you got to put in the work and you have to
• 30:19
  learn and you have to understand that healing doesn't come overnight. It's a process.
• 30:30
  It's it's like a routine. You have to it's a it's a learned
• 30:33
  behavior that you have to unlearn. And that's not something that happens overnight.
• 30:37
  And I want to put that out there that healing doesn't come overnight. You're
• 30:44
  gonna have those up days, You're gonna have those down days, You're gonna
• 30:47
  have those in between days. You're gonna have those days where you just ready
• 30:49
  to say fuck it, I'm tired, I'm done. But at that time
• 30:56
  when you feel that, when you are in those moments, you have to
• 31:00
  give yourself the grace. You have to know that it's okay to feel those
• 31:04
  emotions. If you're saying cry, if you're angry, be angry, if
• 31:07
  you feel like you need the scream, scream. You're human. Those are
• 31:12
  your emotions and you're entitled to feel that way. And don't let anyone tell
• 31:15
  you that you can't feel that way. And I'm seeing that to my men
• 31:22
  because I've heard it. I've heard mothers tell their sons, you bet not
• 31:27
  cry, why not? And then you wonder why we're left to deal with
• 31:34
  these emotionally detached men. Then you wonder why you see men with seven eight
• 31:41
  kids, with eight baby moms. The trauma generational. So get that healing,
• 31:52
  baby, get that healing. I can't stress it enough. I cannot.
• 32:00
  So I want to shoot this video to y'all. It's only like two
• 32:06
  minutes with breaking the stigma, breaking the mental health stigma. So here we
• 32:12
  go, and we're going to jump back into the conversation. Well, May
• 32:16
  is mental health Awareness month. It's a topic that remains taboo for many,
• 32:21
  particularly in the black community. I sat down with three women trailblazing the field
• 32:25
  of mental health to discuss how racial and social issues intersect with mental health,
• 32:30
  and we discussed the myth of the strong Black woman trope and shared how we
• 32:34
  can develop healthy practices to maintain a stable mental wellbeing in our ever changing society.
• 32:42
  What has it been like for you in your practice in the last two
• 32:45
  years. One of the things that I found in the last two years is
• 32:50
  that everyone, for a few minutes bit of time, was in denial.
• 32:57
  The pandemic hasn't affected me, it hasn't changed my life. But as we
• 33:02
  got deeper and deeper into the pandemic, everything that was bothersome, everything that
• 33:09
  was a problem for them, whether it be work or family relationships, all
• 33:17
  began to feel the effects of the pandemic your health and chip away at what
• 33:23
  they thought were strong foundations behind this pandemic. We have found that there are
• 33:30
  things that we thought were really strong foundations, things that I call things that
• 33:34
  I absolutely know for sure. I'm married, my spouse loves me, my
• 33:39
  children are doing well, I'm healthy, I have a home, I have
• 33:44
  a job. All of those things were up for being impacted by the pandemic,
• 33:50
  and so people who are coming to me now are trying to get back
• 33:54
  to who they were and the one question that was common amongst most of all
• 34:00
  of my new clients were tell me when I'm going to feel like myself again?
• 34:06
  Probably many of you have asked that question. During this conversation, these
• 34:09
  women brought up things like the power of our imagination and shifting the narrative of
• 34:15
  the grind culture over working to find a place of self care and rest and
• 34:19
  embracing and being satisfied with who we are right now. You can catch more
• 34:22
  of a GMA Digital conversation breaking the mental health stigma for Black women on GMA
• 34:28
  Digital Nightline, ABC News Live, and Hulu starting this week. And guys,
• 34:32
  we have all talked a lot about mental health. This was a really
• 34:37
  powerful and humbling way to bring it to the forefront. And what you said
• 34:42
  about denial you resonates across the board and our instinct to just try to tough
• 34:45
  it out and grind throw but there are resources available. It's a great conversation.
• 34:51
  Thank you. Well, Hey there, GMA fans, Robin Roberts here,
• 34:54
  Thanks for checking out our YouTube channel. Lots of great stuff here,
• 34:59
  so go on click the subscribe button right over right over here to get more
• 35:02
  of awesome videos and content from GMA every day anytime, we thank you for
• 35:08
  watching, and we'll see you in the morning on GMA. Oh that that
• 35:19
  right there. So I was able to actually go in and watch, um,
• 35:23
  the whole sit down with these with these black women as they discussed mental
• 35:29
  health and the pandemic did take a toll on a lot of people. Um
• 35:34
  and I will say because people lost jobs, people lost family members. I
• 35:45
  myself, of course, y'all know, I lost my father. Um,
• 35:50
  and that started to take a toll on people mentally because and and and I
• 35:55
  let me say this, because parents were forced to raise their children. And
• 36:01
  that's gonna be a whole other conversation. So I don't want to run too
• 36:05
  far down that rabbit hole. But we're always trying to make it through,
• 36:15
  always trying, We're always trying to We're just gonna push through. Let's not
• 36:17
  just deal with this. Let's just you know, uh, let's just deal
• 36:22
  with this as it is. I'm not gonna worry about it. This this
• 36:27
  is but really, like he stated, we were a lot of us were
• 36:30
  in denial. A lot of us were in denial when it came to discussing
• 36:36
  how does pandemic affected us mentally? Because it again it took a toll on
• 36:42
  our finances. You know, a lot of people lost jobs, a lot
• 36:45
  of people lost their homes. People were trying to figure out, how are
• 36:49
  we gonna put food on the table. A lot of the amenities that we
• 36:53
  utilize for entertainment we had to cut back on. You know, a lot
• 36:58
  of people had to condense able and you know, you're trying to figure out
• 37:04
  where am I, Where is this money going to come from? How am
• 37:06
  I gonna pay this? How am I gonna pay that? And it again,
• 37:07
  it started to take a toll on your mental So it's lead which leads
• 37:13
  me to why it isn't important? Why is it important to take care of
• 37:16
  your mental health? For me, I can say it's imperative because I have
• 37:27
  three children that I have to be here for. And if I'm not in
• 37:32
  a good mental space, how am I going to be productive? Not only
• 37:37
  to me, but to my children? How am I going to be productive
• 37:40
  to the people around me, to the people that love me? You know,
• 37:45
  how am I going to be productive at work If I don't take care
• 37:47
  of my mental health, If I don't address the issues with regards to my
• 37:53
  depression and to my anxiety, how am I going to be able to press
• 37:58
  off? I say that because we have to stop living, we have to
• 38:06
  stop being in denial. It's okay. Let me tell you something. Depression,
• 38:14
  anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenic PTSD doesn't make you crazy. And I hear
• 38:21
  a lot of that when people say, oh, yes, she's crazy,
• 38:24
  Oh yeah, she's bipolar, you know, like they're making jokes out of
• 38:28
  it. No, it's not a joke. You have people that deal that.
• 38:34
  Let me tell you something. You have people that are battling depression and
• 38:37
  anxiety that are hanging by a thread. So to be told, oh yeah,
• 38:44
  girl, you need to check, are you crazy? Why would you
• 38:47
  tell somebody there? Again, we have to learn to be kind to people.
• 38:53
  We have to learn to give people grace because again, you don't know
• 38:58
  what a person is going through. A person is smiling on the outside,
• 39:02
  but on the inside our moments away from from wanting to end their life.
• 39:10
  So I say all of that to say it's imperative to take care of your
• 39:15
  mental health. There are people out here that depend on you. You depend
• 39:22
  on yourself, and that's what we have to do. We have to take
• 39:28
  care of us. We have to put our mental health first work. Let
• 39:34
  me say this, and I tell everybody is I even tell my manager this.
• 39:37
  You gotta take the mental health days because if something happened to you,
• 39:44
  you're replaceable. You may die today and I can guarantee they'll have someone sitting
• 39:52
  in your seat tomorrow. If you don't take care of you, then who
• 39:55
  will. It's important to take care of your mental health. You have to.
• 40:05
  It's your mental health affects you physically, it affects you emotionally, it
• 40:10
  affects you spiritually because when you're stressed, it takes a toll on your body.
• 40:19
  Stress raises your blood pressure, could cause you to have a heart attack,
• 40:22
  could cause you to have a stroke, could cause you to have multiple
• 40:25
  health issues. You're mental and your physical go together. You don't always have
• 40:32
  to look like what you're going through. That's why it stress the importance of
• 40:39
  taking care of your mental health. It's okay to take a step back.
• 40:43
  It's okay to take a social media break. It's okay to take a break
• 40:46
  from life's period. It's cool to say, you know what, let me
• 40:52
  take time for me because I've got to get my mental together. I've got
• 40:58
  to save myself. I'm falling off the ledge. That's why I say it's
• 41:04
  imperative. Speaking for me, I can tell you how my mental has taken
• 41:14
  a toll on me, my blood. I'm on blood pressure medication now because
• 41:20
  I allowed my depression to control my life. My depression took me away from
• 41:24
  the things that I loved, particularly my podcast. This was something that I
• 41:32
  created because I needed a way to vent. I needed a way to decompress.
• 41:42
  I needed a way to get away from everyday life and have a space
• 41:46
  just for me, dedicated to me that I created, that I owned that
• 41:51
  I can say this is mine. I could do what I want to do
• 41:55
  in my space. You can't tell me what to do in my space.
• 42:00
  And there came the boundaries. I had to stop pouring into people that aren't
• 42:06
  pouring into me. The reciprocity is imperative. Baby. You've got to stop
• 42:10
  giving to people that aren't giving to you. You have to learn to be
• 42:20
  about you, all about you. You have to learn to be selfish with
• 42:25
  yourself. You have to protect your mental at all times. Baby. You
• 42:30
  got to protect your energy. It's cool to separate yourself from things that are
• 42:35
  not conducive to your energy. To protect your mental I'm gonna say this,
• 42:40
  and I'm gonna say it again. You don't owe anyone and explanation when you
• 42:47
  decide to take a mental break. You don't owe anybody shit. The only
• 42:53
  person you owe it's yourself, because see why you're down and you're depressed.
• 43:00
  Everyone's out living their best life, not worried about you. So be selfish
• 43:06
  with yourself being because let me tell you, I'm gonna always be selfish.
• 43:07
  I'm gonna always choose me over everybody except for my children. I'm gonna always
• 43:14
  pick me. I'm gonna always put me first because in order to be healthy
• 43:22
  to my children, I have to be healthy for me, and that starts
• 43:28
  with my mental If I'm not in a good mental space, I can't be
• 43:31
  I can't give positive energy to my children. I can't give that to them.
• 43:37
  If I'm not in a good space, I can't give that to anybody.
• 43:42
  I can't be productive with my podcast, I can't be productive with my
• 43:45
  job, I can't be productive in life if my mental is not in check.
• 43:52
  So that's why it's imperative to take care of your mental health. A
• 44:00
  lot of companies now, while I'm starting to see have the employee the EAP
• 44:05
  the Employee Access Plan, I believe it's what it's called, but it's the
• 44:09
  EAP that allows you, depending on your insurance, you know, may give
• 44:15
  you five or ten free sessions with a therapist. Take advantage of the take
• 44:21
  advantage of some of the free things that these companies are not offering with regards
• 44:25
  to mental health or volunteer. Pull somebody close to you and say hey,
• 44:36
  I'm here if you need me, and really show up, because I would
• 44:42
  need so many hands feet tolls to count the number of times that I've heard
• 44:47
  people say, Ashley, I'm here if you need me, and then when
• 44:51
  I call you, you want to give me advice. That's not what I
• 44:53
  called you for. I just need to release. I just need you to
• 45:00
  listen to me, because if I wanted advice, I could call my therapist
• 45:05
  for them. And that's a let me. Let me say this. That's
• 45:09
  one of the things that I've had to learn too, is when a person
• 45:14
  is calling to vent, just listen because that's really all they They just want
• 45:19
  to hear, they just want to shoulder, They just want to feel heard
• 45:22
  for a moment. They don't want you to give them all advice and all
• 45:29
  a girl of faithful. If it was me, I would do, but
• 45:31
  you're not them, So what works for you may not work for that person.
• 45:38
  So I say all of that to stay stopped giving unsolicited advice. Okay,
• 45:45
  because not everything works for everybody. I could sit and tell you all
• 45:50
  they right. Write how you feel. If you're going through something, write
• 45:53
  it down. Writing may not work for you. You may be like me
• 45:59
  to a point where you're anxiety doesn't allow you to write where your mind is
• 46:02
  going a thousand miles a minute because it's so many things going on that you
• 46:07
  can't put down in paper. You can't put down on paper. That's why
• 46:13
  I have to do my podcast because it's easier for me to talk to you
• 46:16
  than it is for me to write and tell you how I'm feeling today.
• 46:22
  So that's why it's important to take care of your mental health. Because it'll
• 46:28
  take a toll on your baby, to wear your body down. You'll make
• 46:32
  yourself sick, you run, your blood pressure, your calls, all types
• 46:38
  of health issues. Because you're not addressing then you're not taking care of your
• 46:44
  mental Stop pouring from an empty cup. Stop pouring into people if they're not
• 46:50
  pouring back into you stop being a people pleaser. I'm let me. I'm
• 46:55
  not. I'm not here to please people anymore. I'm here to make sure
• 47:00
  that I take care of Ashley. I'm here to make sure that I please
• 47:05
  Ashley, that I'm in a good space, that I'm taking care of myself.
• 47:12
  That's what I'm here for. And to also encourage and empower anyone that's
• 47:16
  in the midst of the storm that feels like they're ready to give up.
• 47:21
  That's what I'm here to do. But I'm gonna always take care of me.
• 47:25
  I'm gonna always put me first. I'm gonna always make sure my mental
• 47:30
  is in check, because if I'm not in a good mental space, I
• 47:36
  can't help you. I can't encourage you because my energy is low. So
• 47:44
  therefore you're gonna feel the energy. So therefore, how can I encourage you.
• 47:50
  Even though I found ways to do it, I was still draining myself
• 47:55
  because I'm encouraging someone, but I was not getting that in return, and
• 48:00
  that's a hurtful feeling. So that's why I say it's important. It's imperative
• 48:06
  to take care of your mental health. Utilize those days at work, take
• 48:10
  you a day of month, take you a weekend trip just you alone to
• 48:17
  get your mental together. You're allowed that, you earned that, you deserve
• 48:22
  that. But also see therapy if you're needed. It's nothing wrong with it.
• 48:30
  Doesn't make you crazy because you decide you want to go sit down and
• 48:34
  you want to talk to somebody doesn't make you crazy. And I wish society
• 48:38
  would stop projecting it and making it seem like therapy is a bad thing,
• 48:45
  because I've heard people say, I ain't want to know therapist. How they're
• 48:49
  gonna tell me how to fix my life. They don't even know how my
• 48:52
  life was. But they could give you the proper tools to utilize to help
• 49:00
  you maneuver through those traumas or that heartbreak, to help get your mental back
• 49:07
  in check, to help you deal with your depression, to help you deal
• 49:13
  with that anxiety, to help you deal with being a bipolar person, to
• 49:16
  help you deal with being a schizophrenic, to help you with your PTSD.
• 49:22
  And I'm not against the medication. I used to be, but some people
• 49:29
  need the medication. I'm not against it. How I advocate for I was
• 49:36
  thinking anti the persons to help push through the data, to help just make
• 49:39
  it through thirty minutes and I feel like I've done great. I haven't been
• 49:46
  on them in a month, I haven't taken them in a month, and
• 49:49
  I feel like I'm better than I've ever been. I just needed the balance.
• 49:55
  I just needed to clear my mind. I needed to be able to
• 50:01
  sort through my emotions and figure out my triggers. What is triggering my depression,
• 50:08
  what's triggering the anxiety. I needed that so now I know. Now
• 50:15
  I've sat down and I figured out, Okay, this is what the problem
• 50:20
  is. I haven't fully healed from losing my day, haven't. I haven't
• 50:32
  completely healed from the trauma that I inflicted on my children. But I've accepted
• 50:42
  who I was then in loving who I am, not who I'm becoming.
• 50:46
  Do I still have some tweaks. Absolutely, I'm a work in progress.
• 50:51
  Every day I strive to be better than what I was the day before.
• 50:55
  But I know I had to take care of my mental first, and in
• 51:00
  order to do that, after first get out of denial and stop saying there's
• 51:05
  nothing wrong with me when I know it really is. I haven't completely recovered
• 51:10
  from the loss of my dad when my godmother passed away. I haven't recovered
• 51:15
  from the death of her, when my niece was murdered. I haven't recovered
• 51:19
  from that, you know, only to be you know, when I thought
• 51:22
  I was healed, only to be triggered again, and it sent me back
• 51:27
  into that dark space. Here I am in my mind reliving these dramatic events.
• 51:37
  That's how I know. I'm not totally healed that much. I do
• 51:42
  know. So that's why I stress and I and I push and I say
• 51:47
  it's important to take care of your mental health. I asked each and every
• 51:52
  person take care of you. Put you first, address those issues because there
• 52:05
  are a lot of people in this world that depend on you. There are
• 52:07
  a lot of things that mental health will hold you back from. So it's
• 52:15
  okay, you're not crazy. You just needed an unbiased person to provide you
• 52:22
  with the tools on how to maneuver your emotions from day to day, that's
• 52:28
  all. And then the fact that you have to address them, you have
• 52:31
  to acknowledge. Yeah, I really may need to go talk to somebody.
• 52:38
  So I got another video, y'all. This one here, y'all, let's
• 52:45
  see this one here. I want to play this one as this one here
• 52:57
  again is another one breaking the stigma with regards to mental health and then don't
• 53:01
  want to jump back into the conversation. And you were hurt by someone you
• 53:07
  trusted, Yeah, like the family member who abused you, Yeah, which
• 53:19
  made you feel powerless again. It's cool she released this. H Wow.
• 53:43
  When I saw that scene from Atlanta, I knew I had to talk about
• 53:45
  it on this week's Cross Connection because it's really not something we see on TV
• 53:50
  every day. And that's black men in therapy. And of course you may
• 53:52
  remember Kendrick Lamar's album was dropped a summer that also explores this very timely topic.
• 53:57
  Now, according to researcher as, black men are half as likely to
• 54:00
  pursue counseling as their white counterparts when experiencing anxiety or depression. Well, the
• 54:07
  first step in breaking that stigma is to talk about it. And so here
• 54:08
  with me is doctor Michael A. Lindsay. He's dean of the NYU Sover
• 54:13
  School of Social Work. And back with us is doctor Jason Johnson. Mike,
• 54:17
  I want to start with you, doctor Mike, my morehouseman on set
• 54:21
  with me. Great to have you here with me on set. Seriously,
• 54:23
  and I just you know, I've noticed that this conversation around therapy and black
• 54:28
  men is becoming normalized, but maybe not normalized to the extent which it needs
• 54:31
  to be. Why do you think that's happening now? Well, I think
• 54:35
  the pandemic has certainly had an impact on how people are being in touch with
• 54:40
  their emotions and their psychology, if you will. People are being encouraged to
• 54:45
  talk about how the pandemic has impacted them, And I think it's a great
• 54:50
  thing because for so long there's been so much stigma related to talking about these
• 54:54
  issues, and so you know that the time is really perfect for us to
• 54:59
  be having these conversations because so many people are hurting as a result of what
• 55:02
  has transpired in the pandemic. Yeah, it's nice to see Jason. I'm
• 55:07
  putting you on the spot a little bit, getting in you're all up in
• 55:09
  your mids. But seriously, have you gone to therapy before? I have?
• 55:15
  And I actually really debated this is where I was going to answer this
• 55:17
  question, because I because it's not so much a fear of threatened masculiney.
• 55:22
  I just never wanted to really talk about it. But yes, I actually
• 55:25
  had a therapist. I was uncomfortable, yeah, frankly, and I felt
• 55:29
  like the world doesn't need to know, but you realize that having conversations with
• 55:34
  the other brothers of my life about their therapy journeys have been helpful. I
• 55:37
  was in therapy when I was in school because I thought, oh, maybe
• 55:40
  I'm graduate school when I was getting my doctorate, because I thought, oh,
• 55:45
  maybe I'm just stressed. I was like, oh no, this is
• 55:46
  this is anxiety. I'm not sleeping, I'm not eating well. And it
• 55:50
  was a critical part of me moving forward. And I had the rare experience,
• 55:52
  and I'd love to hear what doctor Lindsay thinks about this. I actually
• 55:55
  had a very good experience with a white therapist. Since then, I've never
• 56:00
  interacted with a white therapist, but I had had a white male therapist who
• 56:04
  the first thing he said to me is are you comfortable with talking to a
• 56:07
  white guy about this? Because I understand if you're not. So that's what
• 56:09
  built a really good relationship. That makes it a really good point, though,
• 56:12
  because there does seem to be a necessity for cultural competency when talking too.
• 56:16
  So when we talk about black men in therapy, there's also a delta
• 56:21
  when it comes to black men therapists. So how can that be addressed.
• 56:25
  So what we know is that only about four percent of the mental health workforce
• 56:30
  are actually black. Wow. And so as a dean of a school of
• 56:32
  social work, the Silver School of Social Work, Yeah, it's really important
• 56:36
  for me to bridge that divide by bringing more people of color, people from
• 56:40
  historically marginalized populations into the profession, showing them that you know, you can
• 56:46
  do well if you come into the behavioral health workforce. And so, you
• 56:51
  know, to Jason's point, I think that so many people struggle with I
• 56:55
  want to see a black therapist. I want to see someone that looks like
• 56:59
  me. And I often tell folks the most important thing is to see someone
• 57:02
  right and then work it out. Just like we have to go to various
• 57:07
  beauticians or barber's until we found the right fit, you know, sometimes we
• 57:10
  have to go through that process until we get the right one. But to
• 57:14
  go through someone that's really really critical. I had to play that for my
• 57:46
  black men because and and and let me back up, I had I had
• 57:55
  to play that for my black man because again, as I stated earlier,
• 58:01
  we don't love on your black men enough. We look at you as y'all
• 58:07
  are supposed to be strong or nothing's wrong with you. But as you can
• 58:10
  see, there are men out there that look just like you, brothers that
• 58:15
  are suffering with depression anxiety. Yes, it does. Like like I told
• 58:20
  you, your mental is imperative. It's important that you take care of it
• 58:22
  because it will take a toll on your body. Like he said, you're
• 58:27
  not eating, you're not sleeping, And I can speak from experience. There
• 58:30
  were days that I would go and i would sleep three four hours a date
• 58:36
  and I'm up twenty four thirty hours a date. Because that's just how much
• 58:42
  I had allowed my depression to control my light. I had allowed it to
• 58:49
  consume my whole life. I used to sit in the dark. There were
• 58:52
  days that I would just walk around my house, no TV on, maybe
• 58:55
  some music. There were days where I fight to get out of the bed,
• 59:02
  and that started to take a toll on my mental not know, I'm
• 59:07
  so sorry that started to take a toll on my physical. I'm losing weight
• 59:14
  because I'm not eating, my hair falling out because I'm stressed, because I'm
• 59:19
  anxious, because I'm depressed, I'm this, I'm that everything. And going
• 59:28
  back to what they said in the video, Yes, we do want to
• 59:30
  see people that look like us. We do because we feel like they'll have
• 59:35
  a better understanding of the struggle. But I'm just gonna pick it back off
• 59:40
  of what he said. It's just imparacter that you see someone get the help,
• 59:47
  utilize the resources that are available out there for you to take care of
• 59:53
  your mental I push for this show. I advocate for this because we're losing
• 1:00:01
  black men not only to police brutality, but we're losing them to suicide.
• 1:00:08
  Again, a conversation no one wants to have because of the stigma. It's
• 1:00:15
  been so stigmatized in the black community. Sickening to me. It's sad that
• 1:00:23
  I see so many people that look like me that suffer insightence because they're free
• 1:00:35
  to be open and vulnerable and transparent, because they don't want to be judged.
• 1:00:39
  They don't want to be the topic of the next conversation. Because I've
• 1:00:43
  heard people I'm not gonna call y out by name, but I've heard you
• 1:00:49
  talk about people in their business and this is why people don't talk. This
• 1:00:58
  is why people don't tell you what's going on in their life, because you're
• 1:01:01
  only gonna turn around and use it against them when you get angry. With
• 1:01:05
  them. You gotta stop there. You have to learn and you got to
• 1:01:10
  give people brace, baby, because you just don't know, baby, how
• 1:01:15
  them tables will turn. Their situation could absolutely become your situation. How about
• 1:01:23
  that? So you're be kind to people again. You don't know a person's
• 1:01:30
  situation. You don't know what calls the person's depression. You don't know what
• 1:01:35
  calls the person's anxiety. You don't know that. Check on your strong friends,
• 1:01:43
  Check on the ones that are always there for everybody, because those are
• 1:01:46
  ones that are hurting the most. Check on it. Just send a text,
• 1:01:52
  Hey, good morning, just thinking about you today. Love you have
• 1:01:58
  a beautiful day. If a person reaches out to you and says, hey,
• 1:02:02
  I just need to talk, let just listen. We're not asking you
• 1:02:07
  for your unsolicited advice. We're not asking for that. All we're asking is
• 1:02:13
  I just need to talk to you for a man. I just need an
• 1:02:15
  ear, I just need a shoulder to cry on. I just need to
• 1:02:20
  get this out. I've been holding this in and I need to release it
• 1:02:23
  before I do something crazy. Be kind, Be careful with people's emotions,
• 1:02:37
  but also set those boundaries, baby, Take care of your mental remove yourself
• 1:02:43
  from anything that's not conducive to your energy. Baby, remove yourself from from
• 1:02:46
  spaces that are positive for you. You know, I talk about this all
• 1:02:54
  the time, and I say, I'm not dealing with it. Anything or
• 1:03:00
  any body that's not conducive to my energy, that's not sending positive vibes my
• 1:03:06
  way, I'm not dealing with I'm not. So if you're negative, if
• 1:03:13
  you're bitter, if you haven't addressed your traumas, stay away from me,
• 1:03:19
  because I'm working on a place, a piece that I'm not going to allow
• 1:03:21
  negativity to disrupt because I'm gonna protect my mental at all false because I know
• 1:03:25
  what it's like to be on the ledge. I know what it's like to
• 1:03:31
  plan your funeral out in your mind. I know what it's like. I've
• 1:03:35
  been there. I know what it's like to have those dreams of your children
• 1:03:38
  standing over your casket looking at you and they're crying. I'm the face of
• 1:03:45
  mental illness. I'm the face of depression. I'm the face of anxiety.
• 1:03:51
  I'm the face of postpartum PTSD postpartum depression. Also, I'm the face of
• 1:03:58
  that. There's been many days that I've smiled, but I'm dying on the
• 1:04:03
  inside. Excuse me, I'm the face. And then I hear people say,
• 1:04:14
  but actually, you don't. You don't look like yeah, but I
• 1:04:17
  feel like I feel like But I want to be happy, genuinely happy.
• 1:04:30
  I want the people around me to be happy. I want the people around
• 1:04:33
  me to heal. I want the people around me to take care of their
• 1:04:39
  mental health. I want that for you. I want to see you when.
• 1:04:43
  I want to see you feel I want to see you be the best
• 1:04:46
  you. I want to see that, genuinely. I know y'all hear people
• 1:04:54
  say, oh, yeah, I want to see you when when really they
• 1:04:57
  could be preying on your downfall. No, I want to see everyone in
• 1:05:03
  healthy mental spaces. I wish mental illness didn't even exist, and I'm gonna
• 1:05:11
  be honest with you, I really do. I wish it never existed.
• 1:05:14
  I wish that we could all be had. I wish that everything we ask
• 1:05:19
  for we could get. I genuinely wish that for peace. But I also
• 1:05:30
  wish and pray for peace over the broken hearted, over the depressed, over
• 1:05:38
  the week, over the weary. I pray that you'll see that you're bigger
• 1:05:45
  than your depression, that You're bigger than anxiety that You're bigger than post post
• 1:06:00
  traumatic stress syndrome, bipolar. We're bigger than that. I just wish you
• 1:06:11
  could see what I see. You know, and as to anybody that I've
• 1:06:15
  come in contact with us, anyone that I interact with, that's anyone that's
• 1:06:20
  watching the shoulder night, I see more in you than you may see.
• 1:06:27
  I pray that you find I pray that you heal from whatever's been troubling you.
• 1:06:33
  I pray for that for you. So I know what it's like to
• 1:06:40
  sit in those dark spaces. I know what that feels like. And it's
• 1:06:44
  uncomfortable, it hurts, it's exhausted. You want to give up, you
• 1:06:51
  want to throw on the towel. You want to say, I can't do
• 1:06:54
  this anymore, But you can't. I want you to know you can keep
• 1:07:01
  going. I want you to know you're not gonna always hurt. I want
• 1:07:17
  you to know that it doesn't rain all the time. I want you to
• 1:07:26
  know that you can. That's the light at the end of the tunnel exists.
• 1:07:36
  I want you to see that. And this is coming from a person
• 1:07:42
  that is set in the dark. This is coming from a person that has
• 1:07:48
  attempted to take their life. So I'm only telling you my experience, and
• 1:07:55
  I can only tell you what I want for you. But it gets easy,
• 1:08:04
  it does. You have to know just one foot in front of the
• 1:08:08
  other. You have to give yourself the grace, and I can't trust that
• 1:08:12
  enough. Grace is everything. You have to know that you're gonna make it.
• 1:08:19
  You're gonna reach that, like, Yeah, I know it may seem
• 1:08:23
  like it's a long way away, but you're gonna get there. I want
• 1:08:28
  you to know that. I want everyone to know that. I want everyone
• 1:08:30
  to feel that. I want everyone to appreciate that. Maybe appreciate it's not
• 1:08:36
  the word, maybe, but I I want y'all to know it gets easy.
• 1:08:48
  The pain does subside, those thoughts do eventually go away, and I
• 1:08:58
  can only speak from it spirit. I can only speak from me. I
• 1:09:03
  can only tell you what my rule has been like. I can only tell
• 1:09:06
  you what my journey has looked like and what I'm doing to take care of
• 1:09:14
  my mentor you know, I've removed myself from conversations or situations that aren't conducive
• 1:09:23
  to my energy, and I have no regrets. I've removed people from my
• 1:09:28
  life that meant me no good, and I'm and I sleep very well.
• 1:09:34
  God is still blessing. I just had to sit down and I just had
• 1:09:39
  to wait my turn. But just know it does get me. It don't
• 1:09:45
  last always, I promise it does. I know it hurts right now,
• 1:09:54
  but the pain does subside it all. When you are able to stand in
• 1:10:02
  that mirror and genuinely smile, you know you're healing. Because I get up
• 1:10:12
  everything and I stand in front of that mirror and I thank God everything for
• 1:10:17
  every storm, for every dark day, for every troubled role that I've gone
• 1:10:25
  on, for every unstable journey. I thank God for that because I wouldn't
• 1:10:29
  be here and able to talk to you and tell you that it does get
• 1:10:35
  easy. So I thank God for that everything. Every day that m feet
• 1:10:44
  touched the ground, I say thank you every day that I make it and
• 1:10:49
  I don't break down. I mean healing now. Don't get me wrong.
• 1:10:56
  I do still have my moments, you know, for healing. It's not
• 1:11:00
  easy. No one said it would be easy. No one said you wouldn't
• 1:11:09
  fall down. It's just now. When I fall down, I get back
• 1:11:14
  up and I keep going and I push and I push, but I don't
• 1:11:20
  beat myself up because I didn't do what I needed to do for the day.
• 1:11:27
  I just said, Okay, you know what I got. I got
• 1:11:28
  another chance to do it tomorrow. Miss Alanda says hey, she says,
• 1:11:35
  love you, Ashley Pitts. Thank you for being braved and talking about the
• 1:11:40
  things that others want us to bury. I'm always here for you, always
• 1:11:44
  be you. I miss you so so so much, like I like mische
• 1:11:48
  Landa. You just don't know like I miss you so much. Like we
• 1:11:51
  definitely have to get on the phone and talk because I want to catch up.
• 1:11:55
  I want to know how how's the job coming along for you? Oh?
• 1:11:59
  I miss you tremendously. Um. But that's why I say I do.
• 1:12:08
  I absolutely miss you. You just don't know like you are like so
• 1:12:13
  freaking awesome. Oh God, I do. I miss you. Um,
• 1:12:20
  But that's you know, this is why I'm stress and I tell people,
• 1:12:24
  you know, you gotta take care of your month. It's important. It's
• 1:12:28
  imperative that you take care of your men. We have to remove the stigma
• 1:12:32
  in the black community when they say therapy can't help you. It can't.
• 1:12:43
  But again, like I said, you have to you have to be willing
• 1:12:45
  to put in the work. You have to be willing to say, you
• 1:12:47
  know what, I'm ready. I no longer want to be depressed. I
• 1:12:51
  no longer want to be this. I no longer want to be that because
• 1:12:57
  the therapist can't do it all for you. Again. They can build,
• 1:13:00
  help you build your foundation and give you the two, but you have to
• 1:13:08
  do the rest of the work. You have to You have to say,
• 1:13:12
  you know what, I'm gonna do this. I want to heal. I
• 1:13:15
  want to be better because I want it to be better, because you don't
• 1:13:23
  understand how mental illness takes a toll on you. Physical Again, I'm on
• 1:13:30
  blood pressure, man, they just increase my dose. A couple of weeks
• 1:13:38
  ago, I had a lupus flare up, two of them in three weeks.
• 1:13:45
  Stressing I'm feeling myself for nagling between the light and the dark. Yeah,
• 1:13:55
  I'm stressing that word, like, oh my god, am I doing
• 1:13:58
  this right? Am I messing something up? But now I'm just like,
• 1:14:03
  you know what it is, what it is. At the end of the
• 1:14:05
  day, if I mess up, I mess up. It's I have to
• 1:14:13
  relax. I have to take care of my mental and again, I'm gonna
• 1:14:15
  stress this to you. Take care of your mental take those mental health days
• 1:14:20
  at work. Don't apologize for that, because there's only one you. If
• 1:14:30
  you need to separate yourself from people again, and I'm gonna say this and
• 1:14:33
  say this, and say this and say this. If you feel like you
• 1:14:36
  need to separate yourself from people that mean you no good, you do what
• 1:14:41
  you have to do to protect your mental because people will drain and suck the
• 1:14:47
  energy from you and go on while you're left depleted, while you're left sad
• 1:14:55
  and broken. Set those boundaries. So I'm telling people know. I don't
• 1:15:03
  have a problem with telling people know. If you don't want to answer your
• 1:15:06
  phone when somebody called, don't answer it. You deserve that. If you
• 1:15:13
  need to take a weekend where you just cut where you're disconnecting from the world
• 1:15:16
  because you're trying to get your mental in check, you don't owe anybody in
• 1:15:20
  explanation. You don't. You don't owe anybody an explanation if you decide you
• 1:15:31
  want to fall off again, like and I'm gonna say this again. I
• 1:15:34
  know this sounds repetitive, but if you feel like you want to fall out
• 1:15:38
  the face of the earth for thirty days, fall out the face of the
• 1:15:41
  earth for thirty days. If that's what it's gonna take for you to take
• 1:15:45
  care of your mental you do what you have to do for you to hell
• 1:15:48
  with everybody else. And I'm gonna keep saying that you'll take care of you,
• 1:15:56
  but also find productive ways to take care of your men. Let me
• 1:16:02
  let me say that drinking, smoking drugs to numb, No, no,
• 1:16:15
  that's not good for your mental because you know what, because when you're sober
• 1:16:19
  up, the problem is still there. Find healthy weights to take care of
• 1:16:30
  your mental Find what you like to do. If you like the scene,
• 1:16:35
  put your music up and sing to the top of your lungs. If you
• 1:16:40
  like to swim, where right now it's a little too cool to swim.
• 1:16:44
  If you like to swim, go swimming. If taking a walk, we'll
• 1:16:49
  take a walk, exercise it. Do something positive for your mental health.
• 1:16:58
  If you need to write right If you just want to, like I say,
• 1:17:03
  get away, get away, but just make sure you're doing something positive
• 1:17:11
  but your mental health. Just make sure that because you don't want to escalate
• 1:17:15
  the problem, you don't want to create a bigger issue. And then you're
• 1:17:19
  right back at square one. Everyone can progress. Everyone can progress. I'm
• 1:17:29
  telling you everybody, it's gonna make it. Everyone's gonna be able to reach
• 1:17:34
  that light that they can see. Everyone's gonna be able to reach it.
• 1:17:43
  I believe that. I know that. I know it hurts. I know
• 1:17:53
  you wake up some days and you feel like I can't go on, I
• 1:17:56
  can't do this. You can one day at a time. Mister Alanda says,
• 1:18:05
  Amen. If you don't take care of yourself, then who will for
• 1:18:09
  giving yourself and being content with who you are? Absolutely, and I think
• 1:18:13
  that's one of the biggest things that we do is we're so hard on our
• 1:18:17
  we are our worst enemy. We are our own worst enemy. It's because
• 1:18:24
  we put too many expectations on ourselves, and when we don't hit those expectations
• 1:18:30
  or hit those limits that we've set, we feel like we fail. And
• 1:18:35
  you're not a failed Okay, you didn't do it right this time, that's
• 1:18:41
  okay. You learn from your mistakes. You take whatever you didn't learn from
• 1:18:45
  this, and you implement it. When you try it again, you say,
• 1:18:48
  okay, you know what, let me, let me, let me
• 1:18:49
  try something different. You'll be surprised because battling with my depression. I thought
• 1:19:00
  maybe if I just seclude myself, Maybe I just shut myself away from the
• 1:19:04
  world and didn't realize that my own environment was killing me, was making me
• 1:19:13
  even more depressed because I was sitting in the dark. I would lay in
• 1:19:17
  the bed all day because that's what was easy for me to do. It
• 1:19:23
  was easy for me to climb back into that dark space. Excuse me,
• 1:19:27
  climb back into that hole because it was familiar to me. But I had
• 1:19:31
  to get unfamiliar with that familiar space, if that makes sense, because again
• 1:19:38
  I had to do what was good for my mental health, and me sitting
• 1:19:42
  and not talking was not good for my mentor. And my doctor could tell
• 1:19:48
  you that. My doctor could see it. Asha was wrong. Oh you
• 1:19:57
  don't look to Yeah, So I started to look like everything that I was
• 1:20:01
  going through started to look like that. So I say, take care of
• 1:20:11
  you. That's why it's important to take care of your mental health. You've
• 1:20:19
  got people around you that love you, baby, that that that want to
• 1:20:23
  love on you. But because you're you're soul in this space, you don't
• 1:20:30
  want to let anybody in. Someone that wants to come in and pull you
• 1:20:32
  to the light. That's what depression does to you. That's what anxiety does
• 1:20:39
  do. Anxiety keeps you up all night. Depression you don't eat. Yeah,
• 1:20:50
  that's what it does. I can attest to that, but I do
• 1:21:02
  want to say, you gotta put you first. You gotta put yourself first.
• 1:21:12
  I'm gonna say this again. You got them, You got them PTO
• 1:21:15
  days at work. Take them damn days. That job will still be there
• 1:21:20
  when you come back. People act like they don't want to take time off
• 1:21:27
  and work. Wait till my PTO time. I'm kicking. I'm gonna take
• 1:21:31
  a day yere, I'm gonna take a day there. Oh yeah, I'm
• 1:21:33
  gonna take my mental health days because I'm I've gotta keep my mental health and
• 1:21:40
  chat because i know I'm still fragile. So I'm gonna take those days and
• 1:21:47
  I'm gonna take that day for me and I'm and I don't owe anybody in
• 1:21:50
  the next relation. I don't have to tell you why I'm taking that day
• 1:21:53
  off. Up, I'm taking this day off. I'll see y'all tomorrow because
• 1:22:00
  you know what, I'm gonna take care of me because again, these jobs,
• 1:22:06
  these companies, people in the world don't care about you. So you
• 1:22:12
  gotta take care of you. You gotta make sure you're a one, because
• 1:22:18
  if you're not a one, you cannot be productive. Remember that you can't
• 1:22:27
  be productive if you're not a one. So you have to put you first
• 1:22:30
  again. Separate yourself from in people that are draining you. Cut them off.
• 1:22:36
  It's like a cancer baby. You gotta cut off the supply. Tell
• 1:22:42
  people no. Remove yourself from situations if you feel like they're not healthy for
• 1:22:46
  you. And that could be relationships, that could be friendships, health that
• 1:22:50
  could even be your job because a lot of people, your job will take
• 1:22:56
  a toll on you mentally, your relationship will take a hold on you mentally.
• 1:23:02
  Hell, your children may take a toll on you mentally. You may
• 1:23:05
  need to separate yourself from your children. But do that. You don't owe
• 1:23:14
  nobody in it. I'm telling you you don't owe anybody in explanation. When
• 1:23:17
  you decide and you say, you know what, I'm walking away from this.
• 1:23:21
  This is no longer conducer to my energy. I'm walking away. You
• 1:23:25
  do that, you put you first, You come before anybody, and I'm
• 1:23:33
  gonna push that. I'm gonna say that y'all repeated memorize it, take a
• 1:23:39
  picture, say it in your sleep, dream about take care. Put you
• 1:23:43
  first. Let me say that you have to put you first. I'm gonna
• 1:23:48
  always put me first. I need you to put you first. I need
• 1:23:53
  you to be selfish with yourself at times. Stop explaining to people why you're
• 1:23:57
  not calling. Stop explaining to peop for why you didn't answer their phone call.
• 1:24:01
  I don't I'm not explaining to you why I didn't answer my phone.
• 1:24:03
  Yeah, I saw you call. I didn't want to talk, period.
• 1:24:10
  I got your text. I didn't want to respond. Period. People that
• 1:24:16
  really truly genuinely love and care about you will respect that. The ones that
• 1:24:23
  question you have no respect for you. But the ones that love you,
• 1:24:28
  they understand and they're not gonna question you. They're gonna say they They'll send
• 1:24:33
  you a text and say, hey, I love I'm thinking about you.
• 1:24:35
  I love you. Those are the people that really genuinely love you. The
• 1:24:41
  ones that say, well, girl, why you didn't answer the phone.
• 1:24:43
  Gere, you know you saw me cup, No, I get on.
• 1:24:47
  Let me put you out with a trash because I don't need that energy.
• 1:24:54
  Disrespect. Put your first, Tell people know, cut people off. If
• 1:25:00
  you're on the phone, you're having a conversation. You don't like where it's
• 1:25:02
  going. Okay, girl, I'm gonna talk to you later, or I'm
• 1:25:05
  gonna talk to you later, hunter, whoever it is, cut it off
• 1:25:10
  because you gotta keep your mental in check. Stop apologizing that people. And
• 1:25:15
  I'm gonna say this wholeheartedly. I don't owe not one person an apology if
• 1:25:18
  I stop talking. But the ones that know me, you know I must
• 1:25:26
  be something must not be right. She's going through something. Let me let
• 1:25:30
  her get through it. She'll reach out to me when she's ready. That's
• 1:25:32
  respect. And they still love me the same. But you gotta put you
• 1:25:39
  first. You gotta take care of you first. You gotta say to hell
• 1:25:45
  with everybody else. But let me take care of me. Let me take
• 1:25:47
  care of my mental, let me take care of my physical, let me
• 1:25:49
  take care of my emotional, let me take care of my spiritual. And
• 1:25:55
  again, if that means stepping away, you do what you have to do
• 1:25:57
  for you, because only you know what's best. And if you feel like
• 1:26:01
  you don't know what's best for you, see, they ain't nothing wrong we're
• 1:26:08
  going ain't nothing wrong with seeing a therapist. Nothing. I love my therapist.
• 1:26:14
  Matter of fact, she's the one that encouraged me to do this podcast.
• 1:26:18
  So yeah, but you first remember that and know that I love you
• 1:26:26
  always and I want to see you when I want to see you heal.
• 1:26:30
  I want to see you be the best for you. I want to see
• 1:26:35
  you. I want you to stop them in your own light. I want
• 1:26:40
  you to stop playing with your potential. I want you to go for the
• 1:26:43
  gustel baby. I want you to do and be the best that you know
• 1:26:47
  you can't be. It's achievable, it's attainable. And just no, dark
• 1:26:54
  guys don't dark days don't last always. It's okay to get out there and
• 1:27:00
  dance in the rain, because after the rain comes to sunshine and the rainbows.
• 1:27:09
  I believe that I'm living in I just had to wait my turn.
• 1:27:15
  I just had to be patient with myself. I did, but God didn't
• 1:27:23
  give me what I asked for until he felt like I was mentally ready to
• 1:27:27
  take to take it in, to take it all, and he sees that
• 1:27:32
  I'm healing, that I'm moving into the light, that I'm coming away from
• 1:27:39
  the dark, and I'm coming into the light. I'm coming into my own
• 1:27:42
  I'm starting to love Ashley a little more every day. I'm starting to take
• 1:27:45
  care of my mental a little more every day, and that's a beautiful I
• 1:27:54
  love y'all, I promise I do. Y'all know. I do, y'all
• 1:28:00
  know. I just love, love, love, love, love, y'all.
• 1:28:02
  So I'm moving into my final thoughts. Mental illness does not mean you're
• 1:28:10
  crazy. Mental health is imperative. It's a conversation that no longer needs to
• 1:28:24
  be swept under the rug. The stigma needs to be removed, especially in
• 1:28:29
  the Black community, needs to be removed. It's nothing wrong with getting an
• 1:28:39
  unbiased with getting an opinion from an unbiased person acted help you along the way,
• 1:28:48
  nothing wrong with it. I'm not saying prayer doesn't work, because it
• 1:28:55
  does. But sometimes you need a little push. Sometimes you need a little
• 1:29:00
  more than prayer. Again, our wholehearted believe in God, baby, because
• 1:29:05
  God has pulled me through a many stores. Let me say that without God,
• 1:29:11
  I wouldn't be here today. But I also advocate and will continue to
• 1:29:18
  advocate for mental health, especially in the black community. You can do anything
• 1:29:28
  you put your mind too. You can push through. It does get easier.
• 1:29:34
  I know right now, it may not seem that way, man,
• 1:29:36
  I feel that way. But it does get easy. Your vision does become
• 1:29:44
  a little clearer. But you have to know that one day at a time,
• 1:29:51
  one foot in front of the other. Healing doesn't come overnight. It
• 1:30:00
  doesn't. I just know I believe in you, and I know you'll do
• 1:30:06
  the right thing. I know you're gonna get better, keep fighting, don't
• 1:30:12
  give up. I pray for peace, and I'm gonna say this again,
• 1:30:17
  I pray for peace over the broken hearted. I send love and prayers and
• 1:30:23
  light to the ones that are ready to give up, the ones that are
• 1:30:26
  ready to throw one a tie. Don't do it, don't do it.
• 1:30:32
  I got you. I've been on that ledge where I've been ready to jump,
• 1:30:40
  where I was ready to end it all. I've been down that route
• 1:30:46
  within the last six months. I was there. But it is easy.
• 1:30:56
  And just know that I love you, and I'll keep praying for you and
• 1:31:00
  your mental h y'all just don't know. I'm gonna keep avocating. I'm gonna
• 1:31:15
  keep pushing. I'm gonna keep loving and keep praying sending positive energy your way.
• 1:31:27
  Whoever's going through something, I love you are the ones that feel like
• 1:31:32
  it's not gonna get easier. It does. For the ones that say they
• 1:31:38
  can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's there, it's
• 1:31:43
  there. Be kind to yourself, give yourself breaks. You're gonna make it.
• 1:31:51
  I believe in you. I haven't told you that. I'm proud of
• 1:31:57
  you. We did it, we made it, and we're gonna keep going.
• 1:32:05
  And that's my final thoughts for to night. Man. I always try
• 1:32:12
  to make it through a show where I don't get too emotional. But y'all
• 1:32:14
  already know. When it comes to mental health, y'all know, I just
• 1:32:16
  y'all know this. It's it's a sore spot for me, but so much
• 1:32:21
  needed conversation. Oh but I did want to go ahead. I did want
• 1:32:27
  to post excuse me. I do have a couple of links that I wanted
• 1:32:30
  to postum with regards to mental health. There's one link that's a https M
• 1:32:42
  A F a f SP dot org dot org. It is it's the Afterhole.
• 1:32:50
  God, I can't even remember what it is, but that's a resource
• 1:32:55
  um for anyone that is struggling, that is looking for some type of help.
• 1:33:00
  When it comes to excuse me mental health, y'all forgive me excuse me
• 1:33:03
  for that. UM. I also have another link, which is uh the
• 1:33:08
  Black Mental Health dot Com forward slash suicide forward slash for anyone. UM,
• 1:33:14
  if you or someone you know is contemplating suicide. Here's UM some resources that
• 1:33:20
  are specifically garnered towards the African American community. I also have Let me go
• 1:33:29
  back, I have another link. Here we go. Let me move this
• 1:33:34
  out of the way. All right, there we are. Those are one,
• 1:33:45
  two, three, five links UM for African Americans and Black specific mental
• 1:33:49
  health resources. So you have the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective which is
• 1:33:56
  BEAM. You have Black Girls Smile, you have the stee Fund, you
• 1:34:00
  have therapy for Black girls, and then you have the African American Mental Health
• 1:34:08
  Excuse me again. These are just a few of the resources that I was
• 1:34:12
  able to find with regards to mental health for the African American community. I
• 1:34:18
  know I've heard a lot of people say, oh, there's no resources.
• 1:34:24
  These are a few that I have come across. Again, if you run
• 1:34:28
  back, run this episode back to the end, you could collect these links.
• 1:34:33
  I will let me move this out of the way, y'all forgive me,
• 1:34:42
  excuse me, Let me go ahead and post these links again for you.
• 1:34:47
  Again, you have the afsp dot org excuse me, and then you
• 1:34:54
  also have the black mental Health dot com forward slash suicide. Again, those
• 1:35:00
  are just a few of the resources that I was able to come across with
• 1:35:02
  regards to providing for the African American community. So take advantage of those resources
• 1:35:10
  that I provided to you. Guys. Actually it was let me go back
• 1:35:18
  and I'll tell you. Actually it was the therapy for Black Girls how I
• 1:35:25
  was able to find my therapist. So again, y'all, these are some
• 1:35:29
  of the resources that I was able to come across. Take advantage of,
• 1:35:33
  you know, utilize them, if not for you, pass them on to
• 1:35:38
  someone else who may be battling with um mental illness. You know, it's
• 1:35:45
  doesn't take a moment but to share it. But I also want to let
• 1:35:48
  you know that black mental health does matter. It does. It matters.
• 1:35:53
  It matters, It matters, and you're important and I love you and I'm
• 1:35:58
  proud of you, and I are pre change. All right. So if
• 1:36:02
  anybody there's the let me post a couple of my links. Okay, so
• 1:36:08
  there's the link to my website www dot black Girl Interrupted podcast dot com.
• 1:36:15
  Um, I need to work on that tonight because I need to upload some
• 1:36:18
  of the newer episodes. UM. If you want to visit the website,
• 1:36:25
  UM, the website will keep you updated with any events that black Girl Interrupted
• 1:36:30
  UH may have coming up. I am gonna post the new link to my
• 1:36:34
  interview with Voya Houston, and then once I do have another I actually have
• 1:36:41
  two more interviews coming up, one for magazine Women Who podcasts, and then
• 1:36:45
  I have another interview in August. I will actually, once I'm able to
• 1:36:48
  get the link, I will post the link to you guys to tune in
• 1:36:51
  and come in and support your girl and let me know UM what you think.
• 1:36:59
  Again. H www dot black Girl Interrupted podcast dot com is the website
• 1:37:04
  that will again keep you updated on any events that Black Girl Interrupted may be
• 1:37:10
  may have coming up in the near future. Also, if you are wanting
• 1:37:15
  to be a guest on Black Girl Interrupted, here we go. There is
• 1:37:20
  the email address you can also submit through the website as well, and it
• 1:37:27
  will come directly to my email. UM. Again, the email address is
• 1:37:30
  black Girl Interrupted one the number one UM at gmail dot com. Again,
• 1:37:35
  please allow me twenty four to seventy two hours to respond to any inquiries.
• 1:37:42
  UM. I will. I'm gonna set designated day to where I'm doing it
• 1:37:46
  on Saturday, so I'm gonna be able to respond to like, any emails
• 1:37:49
  and any inquiries, any topics or conversations that you would love for me to
• 1:37:54
  bring to Black Girl Interrupted. Let me know. There's the email address down
• 1:37:58
  at the bottom again, black Girl into Erupted one at gmail dot com.
• 1:38:01
  Y'all, let me know what you want me to talk about. Let me
• 1:38:03
  know if you want to be a guest on the show. I will say
• 1:38:08
  this, I am not not not not looking for a co host. I
• 1:38:13
  have tried the co host route that did not work. So I will have
• 1:38:18
  guests that come on the show for various topics. But I am not looking
• 1:38:21
  for a co host. So let me just be very clear with that.
• 1:38:27
  UM. I know I received a couple of emails with regards to that excuse
• 1:38:30
  me, but no, I am not looking for a co host. But
• 1:38:33
  again, any topic excuse me that you feel you would like for me to
• 1:38:41
  discuss that you feel like I may not have addressed, let me send that
• 1:38:45
  email again to a Black Girl Interrupted one at gmail dot com or again.
• 1:38:50
  You can also submit it through the website and again allow me twenty four to
• 1:38:56
  seventy two hours to respond to any emails or any request that you may have.
• 1:39:02
  Also, again, the upcoming episodes for a Black Girl Interrupted podcast.
• 1:39:08
  Of course this is made so this is mental health Awareness Month. So Thursday
• 1:39:14
  I will be speaking on depression, and I really want to talk to the
• 1:39:18
  black men. I'm not saying the black women are not important, but I
• 1:39:23
  really want to point to the black men for a moment. So Thursday night's
• 1:39:28
  episode will be Depression and the Black Man. So I will be discussing black
• 1:39:33
  men and depression and what we can do as the people as well as a
• 1:39:40
  community to encourage you to seek that help from a psychiatrist, psychologist, a
• 1:39:47
  therapist as needed as such. Soup again this coming Thursday, and I do
• 1:39:55
  have to update because I will be going live at eight thirty again. I
• 1:39:59
  don't get off until eight o'clock, so eight thirty Central time, nine thirty
• 1:40:02
  Eastern time. Still every Tuesday, every Thursday. Again. You can find
• 1:40:09
  me on Instagram, Twitter, you can find me on TikTok. I'm really
• 1:40:14
  not on TikTok a whole lot. I'm just really kind of floating around everywhere.
• 1:40:19
  Hey, Nutty nut you know what, Malcolm, Jamal Xpericon, Jackson
• 1:40:26
  King Junior, Hey, Nutty, good to see you. But yeah,
• 1:40:32
  but again, I'm gonna finish the month out where we are addressing all things
• 1:40:38
  with regards to mental health, and then next month, y'all just have to
• 1:40:43
  wait. I had a couple of things coming up, hoping get my fingers
• 1:40:46
  crossed that I can get some of these guests on, So that's what we're
• 1:40:53
  gonna be doing. So I just want to say thank y'all again tonight to
• 1:40:58
  tune it in, and it's been a phenomenal show, great show as always.
• 1:41:02
  I know, y'all, I'm gonna stop trying to get emotional, but
• 1:41:05
  hey, I can't help you know again when it comes to mental health,
• 1:41:11
  y'all already know where I stand with that, and I'm gonna keep pushing.
• 1:41:15
  I'm gonna keep advocating with regards to mental health, soap, I just want
• 1:41:21
  to say, let me change this right now, y'all. But again,
• 1:41:25
  on that note, I want to say thank y'all for tuning in. I
• 1:41:29
  love y'all so much. Happy Tuesday. I hope you have a great evening.
• 1:41:33
  I hope Wednesday is better for you and I'll see y'all Thursday, eight
• 1:41:38
  thirty pm Central time, not a thirty Eastern time. And don't forget like,
• 1:41:42
  share, subscribe, comment, or tell a friend, bring a friend.
• 1:41:45
  Let's get the party started. So I love y'all. Have a good
• 1:41:49
  night to your Thursday