5 powerful moments from 'Peace of Mind with Taraji'

Peace of Mind with Taraji—the mental health series created by actor and artist Taraji P. Henson—strives to help reduce the stigma around mental health, especially within communities of colour. Henson, who hosts the show with actor and best friend Tracie Jade Jenkins, frequently has Black therapists on the show, and stresses the importance of finding culturally competent professionals in order to faciliate meaningful therapy experiences coming from a similar place of understanding.

Below are five powerful moments from the series (available on Facebook Watch).

Tamar Braxton challenging the 'Strong, Black woman' trope 

In the episode "Surviving Mental Breakdowns with Tamar Braxton," the singer and TV personality speaks candidly about her mental breakdown and suicide attempt and what she says pushed her over the edge. 

Braxton says her public firing from the talk show The Real was the trigger that made the rest of her life also unravel. She knew things weren’t normal when she stopped taking care of her basic needs. “I didn’t care. I also didn’t see a way out. I wanted to die,” she says. “Everything was going wrong. My relationship with my then-fiancé was toxic; I was estranged from my mother and my sisters. My relationship with my son was only on the surface. I also gained fifty pounds.” 

Breaking down, she says she thought her son Logan would be better without her. “I felt like he deserved better. I felt like I was embarrassing him [because I was] being a fool on TV.” Things came to a head when she landed in the hospital after a failed suicide attempt.

The idea of the ‘Strong, Black Woman’ is a burden that many Black women carry, says Jenkins. Braxton agrees. “I told myself that I was an independent Black woman who could do anything and get over anything. That was a bunch of bull.” She says that going to therapy every single day is the best thing she’s ever done. “Because I don’t have it figured out. You don’t know you’re toxic until you stop being toxic.”

Taraji P. Henson on the complicated nature of grief

In "Shock, Grief and How to Cope," Henson shares how in 2003 her son’s father, William LaMarr Johnson, was murdered at the age of 34. Henson says that she didn’t know how to to break the news to her son, Marcell, who was nine at the time. “I didn’t know how to tell him that his father was murdered. So I told him his father died in an accident,” she confesses, breaking down.

“I didn't have the balls. It wouldn't come out. I hid it. It was in the paper and I didn't know how to tell him. [His father] was stabbed to death. It was the worst way you could die. I didn't have the words." But later in life, her son found out the truth. “He came to me and said ‘Why didn’t you tell me my daddy was murdered?’  We had to get therapy." 

Iman Chatman on mental health stigma for Black men

Iman Chatman, 24, has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder for only two years. Growing up he would often have mood swings. “I would also have conversations with people who weren’t there,” he says on "Are You Bipolar and Going Undiagnosed?" Chatman says that during a particularly troubling episode, he drank excessively and didn’t sleep for a month. The incident was his wake up call.

The first person in his family to seek professional help, Iman says he was in denial when diagnosed. “I didn’t tell anyone. I was broken,” he says breaking down in tears. Black men in particular are very reluctant to seek help, says Henson who shares a little of the unpredictable childhood she experienced with her father who had bipolar, but was undiagnosed as such. “Back then it was called being manic depressive.”

It took some time but Chatman came to terms with his diagnosis and realized how much it explained his behaviour and that he didn’t have to face it alone.

RELATED: Taraji P. Henson hosting a new show about mental health

[video_embed id='2050179']RELATED: Taraji P. Henson hosting a new show about mental health[/video_embed]

Gabourey Sidibe on bulimia as a self-defense mechanism

Gabourey Sidibe says she has been dealing with depression from a very young age. In "Bulimia: Not Just For Skinny White Girls with Gabourey Sidibe," Henson’s co-star from Empire says she was used to being made fun of for her weight, but it was when her parents split up that she started to feel different. “I was in the third or fourth grade and my world changed. It felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me.” 

Sidibe says she cried a lot in elementary and junior high and high school, but the anxiety started coming “full force” when she was on her way to college. She said she would have to get to school early to clean herself up. “I’d be sweaty; I’d be crying. My clothes would generally be wet with tears.” One day she was crying so hard that she threw up. As soon as she finished, her tear ducts dried up. It was like a light bulb for her. “I felt like this was it. This was the button I needed.” 

Bulimia became a coping mechanism for Sidibe because it was the one thing she felt she could control. “I would go six or seven days without eating and I would feel such a sense of accomplishment,” she says. “People were also telling me that I was looking good so why would I stop?” Sidibe says her bulimia wasn’t about losing weight or controlling her appetite. “It was a self-defense mechanism. It was about controlling my emotions, but really it was getting out of control.” 

Sidibe says that when she was nineteen, she realized that she was having panic attacks and that’s when she sought professional help. Even though her family didn’t believe that she was depressed, Sidibe says she knew they were wrong and continued seeking help anyway. She says that while she still struggles, therapy such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) has helped her become more resilient. 

Jay Pharoah on police brutality towards Black men

On January 26, 2020, Jay Pharoah was jogging in his neighborhood when out of the corner of his left eye he saw a police officer. “I didn’t think anything of it,” he says in the episode "Police Brutality: It’s Not Just Physical Abuse With Jay Pharoah." A few seconds later he says he heard an officer call out: “Get on the ground!” Pharoah saw the officer’s gun pulled out. “I drop to the ground and see three more police cars pulling up. Then with guns drawn, they’re coming towards me. The one in the front puts his knee on me and he’s cuffing me. I have never had handcuffs on me before. I felt like I was drowning,” he says. “I felt like I was under water and I couldn’t breathe.” 

When police realized they were wrong, they let Pharoah go. Pharoah says he is grateful that when the police first approached, he happened to see them through the corner of his eye. “If I had had my headphones on and didn’t hear them and just kept running, I wouldn’t be here right now.” He continues to hold a lot of anger about the incident. “There’s a lot I haven’t dealt with yet about it.” 

He emphasizes that while the officers could chalk the incident up to an “Oops,” or “It’s all in a day’s work”—it left him, “not them”—with the trauma of what happened. It also woke him up to the reality: “If you’re Black in America, you’re guilty first.” He says that growing up he would see similar incidents on TV, but it didn’t hit him the same way. “Now I get it. That day put things in perspective. [As Blacks], we’re the ones left with trauma of the George Floyds, the Ahmaud Arberys and the Breonna Taylors.”

When it comes to mental health, every action counts! Join the conversation on Bell Let’s Talk Day, January 28, and help create positive change for those living with mental health issues. For every text message, mobile or long-distance call made by Bell, Bell Aliant and Bell MTS customers, Bell will donate five cents to Canadian mental health initiatives. The same goes for every tweet or TikTok video with the hashtag #BellLetsTalk, watching the Bell Let’s Talk Day video on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest or TikTok, or using the Bell Let’s Talk Facebook frame or Snapchat filter. But that’s just the first step: Visit letstalk.bell.ca for more ways you can effect change and build awareness around mental health.

BEFORE YOU GO: Dr. Rheeda Walker on her book 'The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health'

[video_embed id='2125920']BEFORE YOU GO: Dr. Rheeda Walker on her book 'The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health'[/video_embed]