Tamela Gordon was in her early-30s when she realized how the self-care trend was quietly killing her mind.
While living in New York, she was using a couple of different methods to nurse her addiction, low self-worth, body image issues and other problems. But activities like hot yoga and hiking were bandages that barely kept her mental health together. She was enduring the traumas of sexual assault, homelessness and health concerns. It wasn’t until she voiced her struggles that a village of Black women got Gordon to a headspace where she could access resources to care for her mental health. Gordon shares her healing journey in her book “Hood Wellness: Tales of Communal Care from People Who Drowned on Dry Land,” which was published in June. Society’s version of self-care won’t save the minds of Black, brown and queer communities who face danger in multiple ways, she said.
The mental strain of discrimination and the lack of adequate mental health care for people of color are some of the issues highlighted during BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month, which occurs each July. Mental illness is more persistent and causes higher burdens in Black and brown people versus white people. In 2022, Black Americans with mental illnesses were 38 percent less likely to receive mental health services due to financial, racial and other systemic issues. While experts stress the importance of having mental health professionals who look like their clients, only four percent of therapists are Black. That number shrinks to less than one percent when narrowed to Black men.
“Hood Wellness” doesn’t just focus on Gordon’s story. Essays from other Black, queer voices who overcame obstacles are woven into the book, including a woman who is living with HIV, a Black mother raising an autistic son and a 25-year-old who explores what beauty and wellness looks like after losing 80 percent of his face at 8 years old during a dog attack. Gordon’s method of storytelling transforms the book into a literary support group where readers can absorb life lessons and strength from a collection of personal essays that are split into three sections focused on one’s relationship to their bodies, identities and rights.
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