mental health
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Get Your Mind Right: A Guide to ‘New Age’ Therapies for Mental Wellness
There are a million ways for a girl to get her mind right. Some nights she might permit her waist to recklessly abandon it all on a dance floor. Some days it requires a flight to blue skies and even bluer waters (funds permitting). Many times, though, it happens in someone’s chair. A therapist’s. A…
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Eat, Pray, This Can’t Be Love
John Singleton. Dead at 51. Stroke/Hypertension. Nipsey Hussle. Dead at 33. Murdered. Phife Dawg. Dead at 45. Diabetes. Paul Bromley. Alive at 35. Overweight and spiritually confused. Is my clock ticking? Sounds morbid right? Anxious? Yeah, I know … As a black man living in America, thinking about my mortality has become a new daily…
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When Mental Illness Is Your Family Heirloom
You know that scene in My Cousin Vinny where Vinny’s girlfriend, Mona Lisa Vito, played by Marissa Tomei, testifies in court as an “expert witness” on cars? When opposing counsel condescendingly asks how a sweet little lady like herself—a hairdresser, even—could be an authority on automobiles, she replies, “My father was a mechanic. His father…
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Being Bipolar Means Always Having to Say, ‘Um…What’s Your Name Again?’
Charlie Sheen, who at one time was definitely a terrible person who also happens to struggle with mental illness and addiction, once said (and I paraphrase) that most people wouldn’t last very long in his head. While during the very manic time when he said these “tiger blood”-related things, Sheen was, again, a chaotic, awful…
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Taraji P. Henson Announces Two-Day 'Can We Talk?' Mental Health Summit
Actress Taraji P. Henson announced that her Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation (BLHF) will hold a two-day summit “to exchange ideas around normalizing the conversation of mental illness in the African-American community.” The first “Can We Talk?” Conference and Benefit Dinner will take place in Washington, D.C., on June 7-9, People reports. The Empire star, who…
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As Part of Statewide Reform, New York Graciously Grants Inmates in Solitary One Call Per Week
In a move to lessen what experts have deemed the “cruel and unusual punishment” of solitary confinement—which also has been likened to torture—a new bill in New York state guarantees that those sent to segregated units will have access to a phone within 24 hours of isolation, and that they can have contact with the…
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Giants Cleans Up at Daytime Emmys, Takes Home Outstanding Lead Actress and Outstanding Supporting Actor
Smash hit web series Giants continued its reign on Friday, with actress Vanessa Baden Kelly and actor Terrence Terrell taking home the hardware for Outstanding Lead Actress and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series at the 46th annual Daytime Emmy Awards. The series, which debuted on Issa Rae’s YouTube channel in 2017,…
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Yoga Is My Self-Care: More Black Men Need to Breathe
As soon as I walk into my yoga studio in Brooklyn, I leave every societal hang-up on how black men are supposed to act and feel at the door. I can be free. I can be me, at peace with my mind and body. I exist unjudged by the people practicing with me because they,…
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The Semicolon: How a Seemingly Obscure Tattoo Signifies Survival and Solidarity
In 2013, 27-year-old Amy Bleuel began a mental health advocacy organization dubbed “Project Semicolon” to bring awareness to suicide, depression, addiction and self-injury. Bleuel, who had lost her father to suicide 10 years earlier, died by suicide at the age of 31. The campaign, however, remains strong, inspiring others to take an active role in…
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In the Sunshine: The Root Tackles Mental Health in May
Today, May 1, marks May Day, the day that we pay homage to the workers of the world, and it also marks the start of Mental Health Awareness Month. Here at The Root, we take Mental Health seriously, and we aim to give our readership not only stories they can relate to, but which give…