The Mental Health Saga

This is an ongoing topic for me because I take it personally. Mental Health is growing to become a major epidemic in our communities all over. We have too many people hurting and suffering because of undiagnosed mental illness. Whether they are among the homeless population, those working, and those living in our society wearing a mask, not only for COVID but also to hide the pain and suffering.

Not to mention our youth, teenagers and younger, suffering and having anxiety attacks at 13 or committing suicide at 9. What is really happening? We have to listen to our children. If we believe they are the future, and they are, "Teach them well and let them lead the way," as Whitney Houston sang.

If you have felt like "life" is choking you and you can't breathe, changes need to be made to your lifestyle, your outlook, and your belief system. We have to remove this yoke from around their necks, the shackles off their feet, and let them soar like eagles. We start by listening.

Despite what the media does, it is imperative we develop healthy relationships. You can start by reaching out to me, Natasha Turnbow, counselors, and psychologists for professional help. We need to do an introspective analysis, so we can examine our lifelong emotions and describe them to a professional. It is not the same as talking to your friends or those you may not know that gossip about you later. We must take ourselves seriously and invest in our mental stability. And above all, we should reach to a higher source and listen to the voice that speaks to our spirit.

You can have a 6'5" muscle bound man that looks good on the outside. If his mental state is not right, all of those muscles don't mean a thing. Consider the athletes and entertainers. Some of them are in the best shape of their lives. They have the money, cars, houses and whatever their hearts' desire. Yet, there are a great many of them that suffer from mental illness.

If we don't take care of ourselves and our children, then we will become a lost society; one that is uncaring, unstructured, unlearned, and unloved. We have to do better than what we have been doing. Reports show since COVID has impacted our lives, mental disorder has seeped into our being and thrown us 'off kilter.' We have got to rebalance our being. It may mean stop doing so much; stop trying to impress others who are not even looking; stop being angry, stop being a push-over, just STOP! Let clarity come into your life with my help and learn to breathe again.

We must conduct strong self-awareness, be curious about ourselves and our vulnerability...and most of all, reveal our mess to ourselves and professionals like me. It is then, and only then, we can be like the Sankofa bird, which is described as 'going back to the past and bringing forward that which is useful.' This widely revered Africana Studies description renders true for us all.

Partly quoted and taken from The Tennessee Tribune - Howard Jones is the senior pastor at Fairfield M. B. Church in Goodlettsville and an assistant principal in the MNPS system. He hosts the "Lifting the Lid Leadership Call" program weekdays at 6 am CST