therapy
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Is Dating Getting Young People in the Door to Therapy? These Experts Say Yes
Dating is hard. Anyone who says otherwise is probably lying or not a millennial. Whether the reason is we’re too busy to find someone, too uncomfortable to get out there (one time for the awkward black girls!), or a whole host of other reasons, more and more young people are finding it harder to settle…
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Common Opens Up About Being Molested as a Child and the 'Deep and Sudden Shame' He Felt
Shame thrives in silence. With every word spoken, every narrative reclaimed, sexual abuse victims and survivors have found a renewed power. In his new memoir, Let Love Have the Last Word, Common spoke about a topic that is often buried in silence amongst black men in the community — experiencing sexual assault. Trigger Warning: Please…
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I Used to Reject Therapy. Now I Embrace It Wholeheartedly
My relationship with therapy is, to say the least, old and complicated. When I was a young child, my public-school teachers sent me to therapy. According to my mama, I was acting like a “damn fool” and they thought I was adversely impacted by my parents’ divorce. I don’t remember much about it except the…
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Mr. Big, Therapy and Creating Closure for Myself After a Toxic Relationship
You probably were not expecting another chapter in the saga of Mr. Big and, quite frankly, neither was I. That relationship ended on a less than cordial note, and I had put it behind me and begun focusing on working my own shit out. I tend to do that after intense situations. I always want…
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How the Book of Ryan Became My Therapy and Helped Me Understand Fatherhood
When I’m in the studio, I sometimes have these visions of conversations I’d like to have with my father. It leads me to think what it would be like if he and I could communicate on a higher level because there’s always been this barrier between us. Not even just us—everybody in our family. In…
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How to Watch Your Family Drown Slowly
Editor’s note: Until recently, mental health and illness were taboo subjects in the black community. But thanks to the efforts of those brave enough to speak on it, that’s changing. In that vein, The Root team is taking this week during Mental Health Awareness Month to write about how mental health has touched our lives.…
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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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I Didn’t Go Home for Christmas Because I Was Ashamed About Being Suicidal
I just spent Christmas away from my family in Virginia for the first time. I had recently returned from teaching a Mental Health First Aid class for staff at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and escaping New York’s oppressively cold weather for a few days. I was still exhausted when Christmas Eve—when I’d typically go…
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Going Toward the Light: My ‘Year of the Glow Up’ in Review
When I declared 2017 “the Year of the Glow Up,” I needed a win. 2016 was my first year without my mother, and it was painful, to say the least. In her death, my greatest fear had been realized, and adjusting to that “new normal” wasn’t easy. My mother was my center; I’d lost my…
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My Battle With Depression (and the Pills and Therapy Necessary to Defeat It): A Coming-Out Story
A recent Facebook post is the reason for this story. Someone I don’t know well posted some difficulties he’s been having. He danced around what sounded to me like depression. Without actually using the D-word, he talked about having a hard time getting out of bed, feeling sad for no reason and just wondering if…