Donalee Curtis (Youtube)
Welcome to another round of Mental Health Monday, your weekly dose of stories, resources, and motivation for your everyday life. Last week, we explored why therapy is gangsta, how treating insomnia can help depression, and Phillip J. Roundtree, MSW, MS, mental health advocate and host of #YouGoodMan?, discussed his journey with depression. Check it out.
THIS WEEK'S GOODNESS:
Wellness advocate Donalee Curtis presents 9 ways she takes care of herself and keeps it together.
"'How Frank Ocean Encouraged Me To Fight For My Mental Health And Go To Therapy" by Carrington Kensey [Blavity]
Like any other day I came into my apartment and dropped my things on the floor in pure disgust. Like any other day, I pulled out my headphones in agony as an R&B gem from my childhood played on. And like any other day, I walked into my bathroom and looked at my oily ass face in the mirror and asked: "How you living Mr. Kinsey?"
But unlike any other day, I actually lost my s**t. The world cracked over my head like a fresh ass Trader Joe's egg and rained over me unlike anything I had ever felt before. I cried. Like real tears. It honestly felt like anything bad that had ever happened to me manifested itself into those tears. They rained down my face until it was constricted with the tightness of the stress I had been feeling over the past few weeks.
The latest episode from Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, Therapy for Black Girls Episode #26: Five Myths About Suicide
"Black Women – Part 1" by Charmaine Perry [The Gray Matthews Project]
I’d like to say that I always liked being black, but I’d be lying. I’d like to say that I always liked being dark-skinned but I’d be lying. I’ve just started writing this piece and my fingers are already unsteady. I’ve always lived in my head; played stories out there, held long deep conversations with myself when I struggled to find someone to connect with, and wrote long beautiful poems there. I’ve been the dark-skinned oddball in the family for so long, I don’t know how to be anything else. It took a very long time – 20 years – to start to embrace my complexion. I’d also always known that I was black, but until living in the US, I really didn’t know that I was black.
"NFL Star Brandon Marshall on His Borderline Personality Disorder Diagnosis and Removing the Stigma of Mental Illness" by Susan Young [People]
“After a couple years of volatile behavior, I found myself at Mclean Hospital (near Boston), where I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder,” Marshall, 33, tells PEOPLE. “I didn’t have the skill set or tools a healthy person would have to self-regulate when something was off.”
"Why Finding a Therapist Can Be Especially Hard for Black Women" by Jihan Thompson [Oprah]
It would help if there were more therapists of color, yet only about 5 percent of all practicing psychologists in America are African American. In the face of such numbers, licensed psychologist Erlanger Turner, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston–Downtown, is encouraging therapists to deal with their cultural blind spots.
ACTIVITIES:
- The mission of Black Girls RUN! is to encourage African-American women to make fitness and healthy living a priority.
- Black Men Run, an organization working "to encourage health and wellness among African American men by promoting a culture of running/jogging to stay fit resulting in “A Healthy Brotherhood.” Find a running group near you.
- Get the hell up: Find a 5K near you.
Also, Alex recently launched his year-long multimedia mental and emotional wellness movement for Black and brown folks, called Get Some Joy. The aim is to promote health, spread resources, increase access to care and support, and destroy dangerous stigmas that prevent folks from opening up about their challenges. Answer the question, "How do you get some joy?" here.
