After HHP’s devastating death and this week’s shocking tweets from rapper Gigi Lamayne where she hints that she tried to commit suicide before being checked into hospital, other stars have also started opening up about their battles with depression and anxiety. Pop star Lady Zamar is one of those major celebs in the country who has had enough of the taboo around mental health – and has taken to Twitter to vent.
In her heart-breaking posts, the star revealed that she believes that men and women should be having more conversations around mental health and even opened up around her own battles which saw her attempt suicide when she was just 16 years old.
A Thread📝
There's this giant elephant in our societies today.. We are predominantly black and African, so no one really teaches us with conviction that ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION ARE REAL.. That they are thieves and the worst kind of killers of the young and old since since since
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
We keep quiet about our experiences with depression and anxiety, we often don't speak about how we feel coz for the most part in black homes, children and women are not encouraged to talk about their emotions or feelings and men are taught to not have/show feelings AT ALL
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
Men are raised to just be strong and be provider's and to bottle everything in and to not cry.. A little boy who cries is told to wipe his tears coz boys don't cry.. So they grow up NEVER SPEAKING ABOUT WHAT THEY FEEL, THEIR DREAMS OR THEIR TRUEST DESIRES.. Caged in from birth
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
Women are in turn told to be women, boxed into societal confines & raised to take care, nurture their homes, their children, their non communicatng husbands/partners who say nothing bout their emo to and their dreams are stifled for their duty and they are told not to complain
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
These things of power and authority that men are taught under cut what a real relationship should be or look like, cultural allowances create barriers between women and men, men sexualize women and don't wanna hear them, women only see men as material providers after the model
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
It's no wonder society is so disgusting today… How then do you expect a young man to speak about depression and a young woman to admit to having anxiety when it's been the state of the women in her family for generations.. No one seeks help coz no one knows theyre in trouble
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
Its a taboo and almost unheard of to go to a councellor, psychologist, psychiatrist in black communities.. Why you need to pay someone to talk to? Talk to us, speak to your family, don't you have friends? That's what most ppl will ask you.. So for some who do seek help, stop
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
It goes deep though this taboo of not talking to someone in all ethnicities and cultures.. People often say you need to be insane and mentally impaired to say you have a mental disease… The stigma around mental hospitals/illness is palatable in most communities
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
The problem of mental health is an increasing epidemic and not many are aware of its disastrous effects.. The most silent of killers, the darkest kind of disease, the most effective & the hardest to spot, diagnose and treat esp when ignorance runs rampart, a deadly seriel killer
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
When I was 16 I tried to commit suicide, I hated my life & couldn't for the life of me understand what was going… on the outside everything was perfect.. In matric I was treated for anxiety & mild depression, went to therapy for months (I was fortunate someone understood it)
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
I later turned to God coz I was raised to believe in Him so I had a solace.. My parents didn't know and wouldn't know for years coz I went to therapy on campus.. I was teased and kids made fun of me but I was determined to know what I was going thru, to understand it…
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
By grace because of what I went thru as a teenager (the doctors diagnosed me with psychosomatic asthma caused by my mental and emotional state of being) every single time I feel like I'm losing it I seek help
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
People still tease me, people still think I'm being dramatic and for the most part the people around me still don't understand when I say I'm feeling this way or that way… I learned the hardest lesson being a person who has been treated.. That most ppl really don't get it
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
But they're are those who do.. Doctors, health practitioners.. It has gone so far as to have psychological studies dedicated to the African child, the black family.. Broadened to include the implications of culture and religion… This is just one part to getting part…
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
Seeing someone can help or it won't.. It's such an unpredictable mental illness and such uncharted waters for the human that there are still many many studies dedicated to understanding depression and anxiety, how to treat it and where it starts.. There are general triggers yes
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
But for the most part, alot of people can start being sick with no traceable reasons or triggers.. Children as young as 6 months can depressed, teenagers & adults.. Men & women alike.. It has no favorites and no warning sometimes.. Some are stronger willed than others to fight it
— 👑KingZamar (@Lady_Zamar) November 6, 2018
We’re so glad personalities like Lady Zamar are speaking out about depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. We’ve seen what the results of keeping emotional distress does to people and the only way we as a society can overcome the stigma attached to mental illness is to speak out, share your story and remind people that they are not alone.
We’re so proud of Lady Zamar for sharing her story.
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