Black Pain

It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting

Terrie M. Williams

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781416554127
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Abnormal Psychology
• Index: Social Sciences

Black people are dying everywhere we turn, in the faces we see and the headlines we read, and we feel emotional pain, but we don't know how to tackle it— it's time to recognize it and work through our trauma. Terrie had made it: she had launched her own public relations company with such clients as Eddie Murphy and Johnnie Cochran. Yet she was in constant pain, waking up in terror, overeating in search of relief. For thirty years she kept on her game face of success, exhausting herself daily to satisfy her clients' needs while neglecting her own. When she finally collapsed, she had no clue what was wrong or if there was a way out.She learned her problem had a name—depression—and that many suffered from it, limping through their days, hiding their hurt. As she healed, her mission became clear: break the silence of this crippling taboo and help those who suffer, especially in the black community. Black Pain identifies emotional pain—which uniquely and profoundly affects the black experience—as the root of lashing out through desperate acts of crime, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, workaholism, and addiction to shopping, gambling, and sex. Few realize these destructive acts are symptoms of our inner sorrow.In Black Pain, Terrie has inspired the famous and the ordinary to speak out and mental health professionals to offer solutions. The book is a mirror turned on you. Do you see yourself and your loved ones here? Do the descriptions of how the pain looks, feels, and sounds seem far too familiar? Now you can do something about it. The help the community needs is here: a clear explanation of our troubles and a guide to finding relief through faith, therapy, diet, and exercise, as well as through building a supportive network and eliminating toxic people. Black Pain encourages us to face the truth about the issue that plunges our spirits into darkness, so that we can step into the healing light. You are not on the ledge alone.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Mary J. Blig
• Foreword by Susan L. Taylor
• Introduction
• Chapter One Depression not Killing us Softly
• Chapter Two I’M not Your Superwoman Overworked, Undervalued, and Under Pressure
• Chapter Three I Wish it Would Rain Black Men and Depression
• Chapter Four It’S a Hard Knock Life the Young and the Depressed
• Chapter Five That’S What Friends are for How Loved Ones Can Help
• Chapter Six A Spiritual Hospital the Black Church and Depression
• Chapter Seven Don’T Snap Out of IT! Healing in Your Own Time
• Chapter Eight Oh, Lord, Please Don’T Let Me Be Misunderstood Can I Get a Diagnosis?
• Chapter Nine I Will Survive Getting the Healing Done— Therapy, Medication, Alternative Medicine, Exercise, and Spirituality
• A Final Word Making a Way Out of No Way
• A Guide to Breaking Our Silence and Getting the Healing Started We Heal by Sharing!
• Resources For Working Through
• Acknowledgments
• Index