Anxiety is a crippling disorder that, unfortunately, goes untreated. Many of my friends claim that they suffer from this illness. I’d be none the wiser because they’re no physical symptoms for this. However, we don’t talk about how people usually self diagnose themselves with depression, anxiety, etc. to be “quirky” “artistic” and gain more sympathy; and the amount of stigma that creates, but I digress. The factors that cause anxiety can be stress, trauma coupled with the chemistry of the brain. Studies show a direct correlational between social media use and depression/anxiety. I recently read “Shook One” by Charlamagne Tha God, and he discusses (with scientific studies) how stress affected him personally and ways to manage it. In this post, I will discuss the main ideas, whether I agree with them or not. I’ll tell you about the methods I use when I’m down (I don’t want to self diagnose) and how these methods develop mental fortitude and possibly lead to a better life.
Charlamagne
I read Charlamagne’s debut book entitled “Black Privilege.” It was an easy read, his tone and word choice was so distinct that it felt like he was reading the book to me telepathically. In this autobiography, he gave intimate accounts of his upbringing in South Carolina. He used humor and hip hop references to highlight the pain and hardships he faced while trying to traverse on the right path in life. Since I thoroughly enjoyed Black Privilege, maybe his sophomore effort, Shook One, would be just as good.
Charlamagne gets honest about his struggle with anxiety and methods he sought to have his fears under control. Anyone who struggles to find resources to combat mental illness can read this book. He states the average cost of a therapist, what a session entails, and why it’s essential to seek help. Charlemagne also discusses different fears, fear of failure, fear of therapy, and fear of losing his roots.
Blackanoid
When your stress levels are chronically high, it can create all sorts of lasting damage. Physically, it can lead to diabetes, which African-American men are almost twice as likely to develop as white men
Shook One page 61
Diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease are standard in the black community. Many of the stress factors will cause a stress hormone called cortisol to release into your body. Cortisol is used with adrenaline to aid in your flight or fight response, but too much can be harmful to the body. For example, that’s why it’s important to swiftly and humanly dispatch an animal when hunting or harvesting because the pain releases cortisol, this quick way is ethically humane for the animal, and it prevents the cortisol from making the meat taste bad.
Hunting example aside, I believe that this can change. Find out what’s causing these fears, and consult a therapist. Maybe it’s a family tragedy, childhood trauma, etc. However, I can’t entirely agree with the notion that “I fear the world because I’m black,” no wonder black people have stress-related diseases/disorders. They teach us, dear, I say-indoctrinated us to fear something that we can’t control, skin color, and how others react. I’ll expound on this point at the end. As far as the physical implications of stress/fear, since my family has a history of diabetes and hypertension, I try to stack the cards in my favor. I researched clean and healthy diets, cut out most fast foods and exercise 5-6 days a week. I’ve recently started meditating, and that helps me with the physical stress of life. Nobody’s experience is stress-free. As long as you’re alive, you’ll be stressed. My point is that with a bit of discipline, you can inoculate the physical ailments caused by stress. Please don’t mistake my words and think that I’m saying it’s easy. Dieting, exercise, and meditation are SIMPLE, not EASY.
The fear of therapy
There is still a basic mistrust of any sort of white-run system that claims it can “help” black people. We still remember the Tuskegee experiment, in which the “doctors” told black sharecroppers they were getting free health care, but in reality they were shooting them up with syphilis
Shook One page 105
In this chapter, Charlamagne discusses why black people mistrust therapy and how therapy played a role in his recovery. I agree with this because there was a time when it was perfectly legal to harass and screw over people of color-but times change. Charlamagne further explains that black people deal with their problems in private and would not allow a therapist into their dysfunctional world. If you have many friends, you have that one friend you can confide in and the other friend with a loud mouth that you wouldn’t confide in. So sharing your problems with a total stranger (therapist) can be daunting. What’s the worst that can happen? The therapist will tell his/her friends that you’re a reclusive guy/girl with mommy/daddy issues and laugh at you over wine/beer glasses.
No! Therapists are there to help. You pay them to listen and offer advice. Most of them are personable empaths that would help people even if a paycheck wasn’t involved. You can research and pick a therapist with the same gender, race, or age as you, so there’s no excuse. However, if you find out that your therapist did the aforementioned violation of confidentiality agreement, I’m pretty sure you can sue, and they lose their license…cha cha real smooth?
Losing my roots
I no longer feel to hang out when I’m in Moncks Corner, but I still feel a lot of anxiety about the people I’ve left “behind”
Shook One page 149
Charlemagne named this section “Survivor’s Remorse,” he discusses how he feared being judged by his friends/family back in South Carolina to become wealthy and forget about the hood. He also voices his anxiety about failing to help other people out of the hood. I can’t relate to his situation because I’m not affluent, but I understand where he’s coming from. Half of the time in the black community (I can’t say “all the time”), we have that crab in the bucket mentality, pulling the escaping people back down. Once a black person gets money, moves into the friendly neighborhoods, they hit you with “you forgot about us,” “you sold out to the white man,” and some extreme instances, “Uncle Tom.” For Charlamagne, this became a moral tug of war because it’s important to give back and remember your roots, but it’s vital to march on and live your life.
I’ve seen people get guilt-tripped into giving away their hard-earned money to people who didn’t care about them before they were rich. I’ve seen rappers that were too prideful to move out of their dangerous neighborhood, and they end up getting murdered by their peers. If I were in his position, I’d establish businesses in my community to create jobs and develop extra-curricular activities for the people. My point is that why worry about what people from your hood think about you? As you progress through life, your circle of friends changes. So help your community as a whole and not worry about the individual’s opinion of your success.
Stoicism
One type of anxiety I still have to work extra hard to contain is the fear of failure. Even though I’m living my dream, there are still moments when I feel like the fear of failure sneaking up on me again.
Shook One page 234
I’m with Charlamagne on this one. Other than the fear of heights/roller coasters, I fear being homeless/destitute. Fear is a natural thing that keeps us alive. We fear heights because humans are land-dwelling creatures, the cavemen feared the dark because they were afraid of nocturnal predators that they couldn’t see coming. Even though fear is natural and good to have, too much can debilitate you like anything else. With this in mind, I happen to stumble upon Stoicism, an ancient Greek/Roman philosophy that teaches virtue, tolerance, and self-control. I’m currently learning Stoicism as I type this, but I can share a little of what I got out of it so far.
- Stoicism operates off of “Logos,” meaning that the world functions off of cause and effect. You get what you put forward.
- You have no control over events, but you can control how you react to it.
- Deal with the world for what it is.
- People who reach real virtue and self-control in themselves can bring positive change. Like Jordan Peterson says, before you change the world and tell people what to do, clean your room and make your bed beforehand. How are you going to change the world if you don’t have self-control or discipline?
- Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor and stoic philosopher who wrote a book called “Meditations,” about meditation, virtue, and discipline. Historians consider Marcus Aurelius as one of the greatest Roman emperors. While serving a 27-year prison sentence, Nelson Mandela read Meditations, and that was one of the things that got him through the sentence.
In Conclusion.
While in Barnes and Noble, I picked up Shook One out of impulse, not knowing it’s about mental illness, and I ended up liking the book. Shook One was great because it was like the qualities mentioned earlier of Black Privilege.
I want to preface my final point by saying that if you are reading this and you suffer from depression/anxiety, know that you’re not alone. Many people are fighting the same battle as you. Invest in this book because the scientific facts of mental illness are clear, and finding a therapist is surprisingly easy. I know anxiety/depression is a chemical disorder of the brain, I can preach about discipline until my fingertips become sore. The circumstances can be out of your control but you can control how you react. Frankly speaking, it’s up to you to seek help and take control of your fears. It starts with a simple self-reflection to pinpoint what’s going on and begin to seek healing.
I’d also suggest reading up on Stoicism philosophy. I’m currently waiting on “Meditations” in the mail. I’m a big advocate of not worrying about things you can’t control like someone’s thoughts about you, race, government (unless you voted), the weather, and other external factors. Look within yourself, study your craft, learn new things, practice self-control. Self-control being having a regiment, abstaining from pointless distractions (abstain from porn, sex, frivolous spending, junk food, negative people, etc.) For the sex part, it’s temporary! Personally speaking, through the years, I felt some anxiety and somber thoughts because I was a slave to my desires and lacked self-control, therefore my self-esteem was low. For my male readers, like other drug addictions, porn addiction can ruin your androgen receptors, causing you not to process dopamine and testosterone properly. This abstinence works for me, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Although these times we’re living in are bleak, things will get better!
Headley's View 