By Maurice Carroll,
Special to the AFRO
As the seasons change, reflection is a key. This week, the AFRO asked local Black men two questions to get insight on stressors that were affecting their mental health and how they got on their paths to healing.
Keston De Coteau
Entrepreneur, Photographer/ Video Producer
What was affecting your Mental Health?
Being a father of a child with special needs comes with a lot of anxiety and traumatic stress for both me and my wife.
How did you heal or how are you healing?
I chose to communicate openly with my confidants. I would also ask myself “Why am I having these emotions and dark thoughts?” when they showed up in my mind instead of allowing them to take root in my day to day mindset. My work is art so working is art therapy for me. Joy comes from completion because it’s one of the few outcomes I have autonomy with.
Desmond Guy
What was affecting your Mental Health?
Not being honest with myself and not speaking how I feel. Being angry for no reason or what I believed was no reason.
How did you heal or how are you healing?
I healed by reading voraciously about personal development, practicing breath, changing my perspective, accepting accountability, meditation and really working on accepting myself and questioning what is and what I believe. You don’t find yourself, you define yourself.
Anthony Parker
Musician/Philanthropist
What was affecting your Mental Health?
A lack of professionalism, honesty and people following through with commitments affect my mental health on a weekly basis.
How did you heal or how are you healing?
I’m coping with this through weekly therapy, acupuncture and working with people that carry my same values.
Daryl Taylor
Creative Content Director
What was affecting your Mental Health?
What was affecting my mental health was animosity that I had towards my father stemming from childhood. My father was an addict and that affected his ability to be the father that I ideally would have wanted to have. He was very loving but had his challenges and imperfections.
How did you heal or how are you healing?
So, how did I heal from that? I found empathy. 2017 he was diagnosed with stage four cancer and it was quite clear that he wasn’t going to be around much longer so I took that as an opportunity to have a series of conversations with him which allowed me to understand his life a lot better AND what series of events led to certain decisions. It helped me to release the animosity because I was able to see him as a full human being. I saw him as someone who wasn’t much unlike myself and given the same set of circumstances, it was possible that I would have ended up in the same place as him. I was able to fully see and understand that which allowed me to improve my mental health…by releasing that anger.
Sean-Toure’ Thames
Workforce Development Director, Mindfulness Instructor and Hip-Hop Musician
What was affecting your Mental Health?
Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder and Childhood trauma. Being a survivor of urban American and trauma of various forms led me to some very dysfunctional and self-destructive behaviors from my youth into my early adulthood. I knew that I was on a path of self- destruction and I needed help. I made a choice to commit myself to getting therapy and taking care of my spiritual and physical health. It’s been a journey of self-discovery and re-definition for me. It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.
How did you heal or how are you healing?
Healing is an on-going process for me. I’m healing, and I think life isn’t about being healed, but it’s about learning to heal, love, forgive, and continue to move forward despite the pain I’ve endured. I’ve consistently focused my attention on mindfulness meditation and physical fitness to help with my healing, in conjunction with my spiritual faith. I’m very happy to see the growth I’ve experienced. I’ve been able to support other people by providing support groups, meditation classes, Reiki Healing, and physical fitness mentorship.
Allen Johnson
Manager
What was affecting your Mental Health?
Daily stressors, the lack of rest and even dehydration affected my mental health.
How did you heal or how are you healing?
I work on my healing everyday by drinking more water, getting more rest and practicing Transcendental Meditation.
E. L. Briscoe
Coordinator for the Visual Arts, Morgan State University
What was affecting your mental health?
At various points my mental health was affected by various things. The largest issue that effected my mental health was dealing with students who had challenges with either mental health or mental disorders. Some self-identify but others do not. The burden of trying to teach a certain set of skills and/or concepts to several students who are dealing with varying degrees of mental or social disorders can have a bearing on my own mental health (there is a clinical term for it that I am not recalling). In my career I have and continue to have to observe students to determine where they are in their development and work out what they may need to foster their growth. The challenge is to discover whether their difficulties are related to mental disorder, maturity level or some other issue. This takes time that I often don’t have because of the amount of time I have to engage with them.
How did you heal? Or are you healing?
The healing is a repeating process because of time available. At times I have had to disengage from people to put things into perspective. I have had to regroup to decide whether engaging in certain issues is worth my energy and/or time. If interacting directly I often must make a determination as to whether or not this issue directly affects me. If not, I actively disengage from it. That process does not actually work all the time. I process whether this is an issue of principle or is there a direct problem; and can I just let it go.
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