Image Credit: Peace Of Mind
The latest episode of Facebook Watch’s newest talk show, Peace of Mind with Taraji, is now available!
In Peace of Mind with Taraji, Golden Globe Award-Winning Actress Taraji P. Henson and her best friend and co-host Tracie Jade shine a spotlight on the challenging mental health issues facing us today – particularly of those in the Black community. Through personal interviews with both celebrities, experts and everyday people, the series shows how to provide support, bring awareness and help eliminate the stigmas of mental health issues.
Watch today’s episode: HERE
- Title: Surviving Mental Breakdowns with Tamar Braxton
- Description: Tamar Braxton in a no holds barred conversation on her mental breakdown, suicide attempt and what pushed her over the edge. Then, a mother & daughter share their mental breakdowns and how they broke the generational cycle.
Some highlights from the episode include:
- 0:56: Taraji and Tracie break down their thoughts on the term “strong Black woman”
- Taraji: “Is it me or are you getting tired of hearing the strong Black woman phrase?”
- Tracie: “If I hear it one more day, one more day!”
- Taraji: “It’s just so annoying because when we were charged to be the backbone of everything and everybody?”
- Taraji: “I remember when I started my education…and I just remember hearing that phrase…and I am the time it meant so much, it gave me such a sense of pride being at the bottom of the totem pole. It was almost like our armor…but then as time goes on, you become a young mother, you are now in the work world, and then that term begins to become a stigma.”
- Tracie: “That weight gets heavy.”
- 3:39: Tamar talks to Taraji and Tracie about her experiences in the lead up to her suicide attempt.
- Tracie: “If you could put a timestamp on when you think you felt like you were losing control of your life, when would you say was the moment?”
- Tamar: “The first time I knew that things wasn’t normal, was when everything went down with The Real. I was in my bedroom; it was completely dark.”
- Taraji: “Did you feel like you were in a fog?”
- Tamar: “Oh yeah…you don’t shower, you don’t eat, you don’t know what day of the week it is or the time…”
- Taraji: “And you don’t care…”
- Tamar: “You don’t care. I was able to hide it enough, to pull myself … barely…out of it, and then I go back to the same toxic lifestyle, without dealing with everything that happened to me prior and that is continually happening to me, right? From day-to-day I was just barely sliding by y’know? I just felt choked, because it was no escape, I just didn’t see another way out… I wanted to die, everything was going wrong.”
- Taraji: “Just give us a list.”
- Tamar: “Oh Linda [laughs] girl, oh I had no relationship with my family, I was estranged from my sisters, including my mother, and I worked with my family – we had no healing time. My relationship with my fiancé at the time was out of control, I saw no signs of nothing, y’know. The relationship with my child was surface, meaning like, yeah I check-in, but I wasn’t really checkin’ in. Y’know I would make him some food but I didn’t know if he liked it, you know what I mean, and with myself, I gained 50 pounds, so I didn’t even recognize myself anymore, that should have been such a huge sign to me, that something is WRONG, that things are not going well at all.”
- 5:40: Tamar on why she considered taking her life.
- Taraji: “Can we talk about your beautiful son?”
- Tamar: [Tearing up]
- Taraji: “Take your time.”
- Tamar: [Crying] “Logan was the reason why I made that decision, I just felt like he deserved better, I felt like I was embarrassing him, being a fool on TV.”
- Taraji: “You thought he would be better without you?”
- Tamar: “In that moment, ‘cause I knew that was not what my whole life really was, it’s not who I was.”
- Taraji: “That’s deep.”
- Tamar: “I didn’t want him to be embarrassed in front of his friends…his foul-mouthed, ghetto Mama.”
- 7:55 Taraji shocks Tamar by saying she sees herself in Tamar
- Taraji: “I’m going to walk away feeling so much better about myself because I see so much of myself in you.”
- Tamar: “You do?! But you seem like you have it all together.”
- Taraji: “Isn’t that how it always looks? You too! We learnin’ as we go. There’s no rule guide. There is no book that says, ‘This is how you live a perfect life.’ My therapist set me free when she said… ‘The perfect lie is perfection.’”
- 13:15: In the second interview of the episode, Shelley Meche’tte and her daughter, Bree Jones, join Taraji, Tracie and Tamar to discuss their personal mental health issues, including a past breakdown and quarter-life crisis:
- 13:42 Shelley discusses what led to her mental breakdown with Taraji, Tracie and Tamar, and her lowest point.
- Taraji: “So Shelley, you had a lot going on. You were a single mom…you had a high-pressure job, and you were going through a break-up. Did you realize you were on the verge of a mental breakdown?”
- Shelley: “Not at that moment I didn’t, but when I reflect back on it…those things start coming back again. And I hate to even admit this right now…at some point I started hearing voices – ‘You’re dark. You’re ugly.’ – because of your complexion. Not just cuz you ugly, but your complexion makes you ugly.”
- Tracie: “Sista, I know. Give me a tissue!”
- Taraji: “This is what’s really effed up about it – the darker you are, the stronger you are expected to be.”
- Tracie: “What would you say was your lowest point?”
- Shelley: “I literally remember the night I put my daughter to bed and this particular night I couldn’t do it anymore. So, I laid on the floor, after I put my child to bed, in the fetal position and I was holding my head because I wanted the voices to just be quiet. And so, I laid there, and I asked God to kill me. And I said, ‘If you love me, then you’ll kill me.”
- Tamar: “It was the release that you wanted. I’ve been there.”
- Shelley: “I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody…I just wanted the hurt to stop. And if God did it then my daughter wouldn’t have to utter the words “my mom’s committed suicide.’”
- 18:37 Bree opens up about what led to her quarter-life crisis and what got her through.
- Taraji: “So Bree…just last year you experienced your own mental breakdown yourself. Tell me about that – how was that? What brought it on?”
- Bree: “I just had a lot of anxiousness turning 25 because my mindset has always been when you turn 25 you’re supposed to have X, Y, and Z. I still live at home with my parents…there’s just a lot of things that I felt like I didn’t have to my name.”
- Taraji: “So because your mom was so open about her mental health, do you think that’s why you’re so open and can talk about it? Did that help you?
- Bree: “I’m almost positive it did. My episodes that I was having with anxiety, I’ve always felt the support of my family. So, it wasn’t easy, but it was easy to go to them and to have them as I was going through my episode.”
- 13:42 Shelley discusses what led to her mental breakdown with Taraji, Tracie and Tamar, and her lowest point.
On this Wednesday’s episode Taraji and Tracie are joined by Dr. LaShonda Green to discuss mental breakdowns and unpack the conversations from today’s episode with Tamar Braxton and explain why suicidal thoughts are not so uncommon. Taraji also shares details on her own shocking mental collapse.
- Title: Is the Pressure to Be a Strong Black Woman Too Much?
- Description: Taraji reveals her shocking mental collapse as Dr. LaShonda Green breaks down mental breakdowns. Why do Black women in particular try to heal on their own, the toll that takes and tips to help.
Peace of Mind with Taraji episodes drop every Monday and Wednesday at 9amPT/12pmET. Episodes can be found on facebook.com/Watch and Taraji P. Henson’s Facebook page: facebook.com/tarajiphenson
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