black mental health
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When Therapy Is a Comfort
“So, what do you want to talk about today?” the thin Asian woman across from me asks. She asks this twice a week because I see her twice a week. Twice a week, I sit on a gray sofa with red accent pillows and talk for 50 minutes. She listens, often interjects and asks questions.…
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Death at DC Boarding School Highlights the Alarming Increase of Suicides Among Young Black Children
At about 6:15 a.m. Tuesday, several middle-school-age students at a boarding school in Washington, D.C., found their 12-year-old classmate unconscious. Officials would later confirm that the girl, one of the students’ roommates, was dead of an apparent suicide, Fox 5 DC reports. Paramedics who rushed to the scene could not revive her. The unidentified girl…
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Body Politics: Transforming Your #TransformationTuesday
#TransformationTuesday, a popular hashtag that encourages people to share their fitness success stories, has collected more than 11 million tags on social platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Like many, I’ve indulged in my share of posts showcasing my weight-loss journey and muscle gains. But though visuals can be inspiring, they can also haunt like…
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Stop Putting Your Life on Layaway: 5 Things You Should Say Yes to in 2018
Recently, Wifey and I went on a double date with another black lesbian couple I deeply admire. One of them is an über-talented writer, artist and teacher, while the other is a nationally recognized food-justice consultant. After we’d been out of touch for a while, the theme of the night was about catching up and…
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There Is Hope for Depression This Holiday Season
I’ll never forget the day I got the phone call that one of my closest friends for 20 years—a beautiful young wife and mother—had suddenly and inexplicably taken her life. Her depression, which had gone undiagnosed by doctors and unrecognized by those of us who knew her well and loved her dearly, just became too…
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Little Black Girls Are Killing Themselves. Does Anyone Care Enough to Figure Out Why?
When I was 4 years old, I told my mother that my nursery school teacher told me to “stop acting like a baby” because I had gotten a boo-boo on my knee. According to my mother, she asked me what reception other little kids received when they got boo-boos. I told her that a little…
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With Sisters Thrive, Chirlane McCray Is Tapping the Power of Black Women to Address the Mental Health Crisis
Chirlane McCray is doing the work. A recent write-up in the New York Times noted that McCray had redefined the role of first lady in the nation’s most populous city, with the paper calling her “likely the most influential, if not consequential” first lady in New York City’s history. McCray’s focus on mental health services…
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Mom Admits to Beating 10-Year-Old With Extension Cord Before He Reportedly Stabbed Himself to Death
A Memphis, Tenn., mother admitted that she used an extension cord to beat and choke her 10-year-old son, who apparently later killed himself. Robin McKinzie told police that she used the extreme methods of punishment to discipline her son, a fourth-grader. She told officers that afterward, the boy got angry, ran into the kitchen and…
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Medical Examiner Rules Death of Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam a Suicide
Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, who had the distinction of being the first African-American woman to serve on New York’s highest court as well as the country’s first female Muslim judge, committed suicide by drowning in April, according to the New York City medical examiner. The coroner’s office confirmed its findings in a statement Wednesday, the New…