Black Pain It Just Looks Like Were Not Hurting
Black Pain It Just Looks Like Were Not Hurting
Terrie Williams knows that Black people are hurting. She knows because she’s one of them.
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.
Terrie finally collapsed, staying in bed for days. She had no clue what was wrong or if there was a way out. She had hit rock bottom and she needed and got help.
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.
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.
Black people are dying. Everywhere we turn, in the faces we see and the headlines we read, we feel in our gut that something is wrong, but we don’t know what it is. It’s time to recognize it and work through our trauma.
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.
Stop suffering. 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.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Wow! Pretty Depressing.
I won’t go into too much detail but I found this book depressing. The author, in my opinion, talked far too much about depressed people. There were several times where I had to put the book down and walk away from it because of the headache I was getting from it. By the time I reached the “help” section, I was thoroughly depressed. Unfortunately.
5 Stars A must read for the black community
I wish that everyone I know, regardless of their racial background, could get a copy of this book, because ultimately the unresolved pain in the black community affects us all. A good friend of mine recommended this book several months ago, and I am glad that she did. Terrie Williams takes a comprehensive look at subject that is often too “taboo” in the black community - emotional pain and mental suffering. And yet, if you look at a lot of things that plague our communities, from problems related to addiction, domestic-violence and other self-destructive patterns, you will find emotional pain and suffering almost always at the root. But we can’t talk about these things freely (especially us men) because to do so is to be deemed weak - or so we think - or because of the myth that only “white people” have these kinds of mental illnesses. To not be well mentally, however, is just as bad as not being well physically and Ms. Williams does a great job of highlighting these facts and suggests ways to combat these problems. I highly recommend this book. I know from personal family experience the toll that unresolved pain does in the lives of families. I wish this book had been around when I was much younger…
5 Stars A MUST read for EVERYONE
If ever there was therapy in a book, Black Pain has it. Terrie Williams put her finger on a problem that has permeated black culture like an odorless gas seeps into a house and slowly poisons it’s occupants. The pain so many feel and can’t identify is like that poison, creating depression, drinking and drug problems, and overall unhappiness, as the underlying cause is ignored. This book brings the problem to light through Terrie’s personal voice and honest telling of her own experience with this pain. This book should be read by every human being–to understand that racial double standards still exist and how it effects our brothers and sisters. Only with awareness can healing begin! Daylle Deanna Schwartz
5 Stars Real Talk.
What a timely and necessary book. I had the honor of meeting the author this summer and she signed my copy. Excellent book. And we are both in the same profession; I even recommended it to my colleagues.
My Black people - stop faking. Get the help you need.
5 Stars The Real Deal
A very thoughtful and insightful view beyond the mask of so many. I was inspired by the book to become more sensitive and perceptive to the reality of depression. This book is a must read, and Terrie Williams has a way of making it a good read!
Filed under: Mental Health Books