Summary Of Black Pain By Terrie Williams

Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting by Terrie M. Williams, gives us insight into her life. Terrie M. Williams is a public relations expert and social worker. With her use of personal experiences, accounts from others, and professional insight, she highlights major mental health issues, but most importantly depression within the community. Due to her unique background, she is able to address the issues of mental health with a broad view. The book dives deep into the lives of African Americans and the various mental health struggles they face. She addresses the stigma and expectations surrounding mental health, which has caused people to mask their pain. The book begins with Williams' personal account of her battle with depression.

She talks about how her demands from her public relations company and the expectations to perform at a high level overwhelmed her. In addition to her personal life challenges. She also outlines the various treatments she underwent to help her with her disorder. Williams’ sought professional help through therapy. Her therapy sessions played a crucial role in her recovery. Her therapy sessions allowed her to come face to face with her trauma and explore her emotions. It also helped her develop better habits in dealing with her emotions. As seen throughout the course, therapy is very prevalent in today's society. She also, at certain points in her recovery, used medications which helped her manage her depression. Overall, the treatment was a major part of her recovery. By utilizing the therapy, medication, and other strategies she was able to navigate her way in dealing with her mental health. Through the use of the sociocultural view in which many outside stressors caused her “pain”. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Her personal story and how she was able to not only overcome, but navigate through the mental health issues she faced is very

It can be very impactful for a person going through such struggles to find out that there are others, such as celebrities, that are going through mental health problems as well. I believe the purpose of this book was to reduce the stigma behind mental illness and seeking help. Williams describes how the stigma behind mental illness can lead to silence and reluctance to seek help. Her story alone is a great example of what happens when we do not confront the struggles we face. The book puts a major emphasis on the importance of seeking help. It is an eye opener and call to action, encouraging individuals to break their silence to seek help and help others along the way. “We were conditioned from very early on to divorce ourselves from our feelings. You had to deal silently with the stress that was a constant part of growing up. No one ever talked about the pain, the trauma.”(Williams 109). This quote from the book stuck out to me because this feeling of divorce with our emotions is prevalent in my community. I learned the importance of expressing my feelings is not a weakness, but can contribute to helping my mental