50 Cent, Chris Lighty, and LL Cool J (image by Johnny Nunez/Wire Image)
Oh, hey. Welcome to another round of Mental Health Monday, your weekly dose of stories, resources, and motivation for your everyday life. On the last roundup, we had an update on British R&B singer's journey with depression, a documentary on the mental health of students of color by a Howard University student, mental illness on television, and a NYC psychiatrist that prescribes books rather than pills. Good times. Go have a gander.
If you haven't already, check out Mogul: The Life & Death of Chris Lighty, the new Spotify series about the life and death of the beloved industry executive who took his own life in 2012. It's brought to you by Combat Jack's Reggie Ossé. Find out more about it here.
If you're in New York, come on out and join Alex at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture this Wednesday, May 31 at #GetSomeJoy: A Blackstavaganza for Mental Health Awareness, featuring Hari Ziyad, Jayson P. Smith, Alise Leslie, Andrew Shade, Danielle Belton, and Darnell Lamont Walker. Get tickets and more information here.
THIS WEEK'S GOODNESS
'Mogul': Even In Death, Chris Lighty Takes Hip-Hop To Another Level
Black Boys Coping With The Trauma Of Watching Black People Die by Dr. Marcus Bright [HuffPost]
There is a secret depression that is rooted in economics that many Black men battle. It is hidden underneath an assortment of layers including an exaggerated bravado, drug and alcohol abuse, misdirected anger, and other forms of destructive behavior. Fantastical illusions are also a tool that is deployed to cope with the humbling realities of an often marginalized existence.
Long Beach approves its first 24-hour psychiatric urgent-care center by Courtney Tompkins [Long Beach Press Telegram]
Long Beach has approved the city’s first ’round-the-clock psychiatric urgent care center, a facility advocates say will provide necessary social services and offer an alternative to incarceration or treatment in hospital emergency rooms where waits can be long and beds are often too few.
Stars Behavioral Health Group, headquartered in Long Beach, will run the operation on contract with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, which operates five similar facilities across the county and plans to open four more this year.
We All F*ck Up: The Importance of Loving Yourself Even When You Disappoint Yourself by Vanessa Lewis [The Body Is Not An Apology]
"Look, the act of self love ain’t never been no easy thing — especially when you’re experiencing copious amounts of scarcity, shame, disenfranchisement, or loss. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a 10 billion dollar skin-lightening industry in countries where the world’s darkest people reside. Forty-two percent of voting women wouldn’t have voted for Donald Trump (an anti-choice, anti-union, anti-poor, pro-war, sexual harassment enthusiast).
And I, processing yet another anguishing break-up with someone who’s made it overtly and painfully clear that they no longer want anything to do with me, would be focusing more on healing, pursuing my goals, and moving through grief, rather than spending my days staring at his Facebook page, miserably pining for his affection and attention, and desperately reaching out to him even when I know better."
You're Attracted to Your Therapist: What Now? by Ruben Castaneda [US News]
What should you do if you’re attracted to your therapist? Suppose you hit it off with him or her and start believing you can be buddies outside the therapeutic setting? Or become overly emotionally dependent on your psychotherapist or psychiatrist?
"I hope something positive will come from dad's suicide" [Lionheart]
There can be nothing more heartbreaking to know that someone you loved was so ill and unhappy that they felt their only option was to take their own life.
But that is what Rob O’Halloran and his sister Lucy must live with: their father John O’Halloran, a successful chartered surveyor and former company MD, took his own life in 2015 after a long struggle with depression.
Demand for youth mental health services is exploding. How universities and business are scrambling to react by David Cribb [The Star]
At age 18, Kimberly could no longer come up with a reason to live.
The Toronto university student locked the door to her parents’ garage, stepped onto a stool in the middle of the room and looped an electrical cord around her neck.
“It’s something I couldn’t explain,” recalls Kimberly, who asked that her last name not be published. “I didn’t understand what was going on in my head . . . You want to give up.”
How to deal with your mental health when the world feels like a scary place [Metro UK]
Having anxiety and obsessive thoughts often boils down to a simple misunderstanding of the level of danger in a situation.
My brain tells me that leaving switches turned on will result in the house burning down, that if I don’t go and check the door seven times before bed I’ll get burgled, and – in the worst times – that if I go outside I’ll get murdered.
Get your tickets HERE to #GetSomeJoy HERE.
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