Tamar Braxton hasn’t dropped any new music lately, but last week she delivered an important release. The four-time Grammy-nominated singer posted a video message to her Instagram page for those dealing with mental health issues.
The “Love and War” singer posted the video with the caption, “Ima take this down later. Cause some of y’all man….smh.”
Braxton spoke for nearly eight minutes on the topic.
“I just wanted to give some encouragement to people who have had experience with mental illness and have gone through a mental illness situation,” she said. “And I was just talking about the box that people put you in after you’ve worked so hard to get into a safe good space with yourself.”
Braxton said that she wanted to make sure that those who are suffering don’t feel alone: “I just wanted to give some encouragement to the people who are struggling to stay in a good place because of the perceptions of other people who don’t quite understand.”
She spoke about how hard it is to fight against the stigma of mental illness.
“I don’t think you guys understand how difficult it is to change the narrative of ‘something is wrong with you,’ Or ‘she’s sensitive, you gotta be cool or sensitive with her you gotta watch your stride with that person because you know she suffers from mental illness,'” she said. “And it’s not fair. It’s not fair because of the work we put into, to be OK.”
Whether you know you have a mental illness or not, somedays it’s seemingly impossible to get out of the bed because of the way you were perceived by the people who don’t get it, or it’s not normalized for them. It’s our job to normalize mental health.”
In July 2020, Braxton was hospitalized after a suicide attempt, as theGrio reported. The incident was discussed in a trailer for the then-upcoming seventh season of the reality series, Braxton Family Values. Braxton said she felt exploited by the network, discussing as much in an October 2020 social media post:
“After waking up to that disgusting trailer…F**K @wetv and whomever else participating for using my pain for their pleasure and ratings,” she wrote. “Don’t miss my exclusive TELL ALL on my girl @tamronhallshow next week..at some point this abuse HAS to STOP and P.s. I’M NOT FILMING FOR THIS SEASON! THEY ARE DOING THIS WHILE I’M NOT ON THE SHOW #SCUMBAGSH**.”
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