Following the release of a video featuring actress Maia Campbell (best known from In the House with LL Cool J and Debbie Allen) shouting obscenities in an incoherent state, the internet began buzzing.
However, much of what was reported was that she was a prostitute with a drug problem, failing to mention her mental state…like many in the black community who suffer in silence when it comes to mental illness.
Maia has a co-occurring disorder after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder/manic depression and a substance abuse problem, which has symptoms similar to schizophrenia. According to a recent statement issued by her stepfather and grandmother, Maia “is in treatment and in a facility” getting the help she needs.
But there are so many in our communities who fail to do so.
We tend to rely on family, religious or social communities for emotional support, rather than turning to health care professionals. Because of this, mental health issues may be perceived as a failure of our faith. But there is no reason we can’t utilize all of our connections to deal with such things.
There’s also the general suspicion many of us have for the medical field and psychiatry in particular. It’s not easy to forget a time when blacks were unwitting and unwilling subjects of medical experiments such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.
The disconnect between psychiatric treatment and training and the black community and culture poses yet another issue. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, only 2 percent of psychiatrists, 2 percent of psychologists and 4 percent of social workers are black. On top of that, nearly one in four blacks is uninsured making sound mental health less of a priority for those who can’t afford it.
The rise in suicide among young, black males is linked to both the rise of violence in our culture and a lack of awareness about the nature of depression and the absence of counselors who are culturally sensitive enough to recognize depression in black youth.
Churches and community groups are the key to increasing awareness about mental health issues and the stigma associated with them. By encouraging community members to join the mental health profession and to seek mental health medical attention when needed, we will improve mental health awareness in our communities. Whether we want to admit it or not, it’s something that needs to be done.
I am a African American women living with Bipolar. First there are signs that someone is Bipolar. When anyone turns to drugs, child abuse, physical abuse bipolar characteristics are present. This type of abuse starts at home especially in the black community.
We as parents need to realize talking crazy to our kids, cussing at our children is a form on mental abuse. The abuse mentioned above will go into adult hood. Men will turn to gangs, and women turn to illicit sexual behavior.
The one thing that the black community needs to understand is when your love one turns to self-medication its Bipolar. I watched my nephew suffer from this illness and he committed suicide. All characteristics of Bipolar were present.
The thing that the black community can do is educate yourself!!!! The signs are there. Even though individuals don’t have health care that is not an excuse. Anyone can go to their local Mental Health Community and get drugs providing they are an activate participant in there own treatment. And if they refuse you can admit them to treatment. Everyone in their state has (probate court ). Even though probate court deals with property you can ask for an order to admit individuals against there will. I know we had to admit our aunt.
I am an activate participate in my own treatment. I am okay and i enjoy life to the fullest. I am hear to tell everyone it can be done.
Wow, this shows me alot. Humility makes you more human, because I honestly thought that the drugs were the only issue she had. I did not realize that she had a mental illness as well. I am going to pray for her as well. J Dakar, thanks for posting this story about her. All of the previous photos and footage of her made me angry and sad to see someone fall through the cracks. I am just sharing how I felt about the issue at first.
I didn’t realize that Bebe Campbell was her mother. It is nice to hear that her family is helping her recover.
As long as she gets the help, support and love that’s needed she will make it through!
Stay strong, you can make it Maia.
Peace!!
oh yeh, Maia was in a Broadway play after she left “In the House”, unfortunely I can’t remember which one, but she was excellent!!
Do anyone remeber the Broadway play she was in?
Sorry for my mispelled words…does anyone remember the Broadway Play she was in? Plus its on DVD.
Sad situation. I wish her well.
in all honesty, i believe kanye west is suffering from a mental disorder or some kind of behavioural problem. i don’t know who his real friends are or if he has real friends but he needs to be evaluated.
Thank you CL for posting more than just gossip. Mental Health issues are prevalent everywhere. How sad for Maia…such a beautiful woman. I truly pray she gets help. I know her poor mother was really concerned about this. One of her last books, 72 Hour Hold, touches upon a mother whose daughter suffers from bi-polar issues. It wasn’t supposed to be non-fiction, but it is quite evident that some of the situatins were things that she experienced with Maia.
It’s a good read b/c it explains how difficult it is to get someone who is over 18 forced mental health. Technically, a person can’t be kept unwillingly in a facility for more than 3 days…BUT if you’re not in your right not, of course, you’re not going to want to stay in a mental health facility…it’s such a catch 22.
All help is not lost though! I have a friend from high school who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in college. Becuase of it, he got into a legal issue which forced him into a facility rather than jail. Fortunatley for him, he is now managing his situation with medicine and is on his way to living a prductive, healthy life. Also, my mother-in-law is bi-polar and had serious bouts when my husband was a teenager- to the point of hospitalization, but she , too, is highly functioning and happy and healthy now (forever on medication) for over 15 years.
I pray Maia can get the real help she deserves, so she can get back to living her life.
I believe her mother wroth a book about mental illness called, 72 Hour hold, which was rumored to be about Maia’s illness. I’m so grateful that she is getting help but there are thousands of others who are still lost. I just wish her family would’ve helpled her long before the video hit the internet and embarassed her in front of thousands of people. You would be more surprised at how many families have mental illness and we call it, slow or just acting up, just trying to get attention, when these people need professional help. I hope Maia takes her time so that she can truly heal. God, please be with her. And I truly hope people are praying for her and judging or making fun of Maia’s situation.
This is a major, major issue to be address amoung the young and to the elder of our black community. Some of us do not seek help and try to self medicate with drugs, alchohol, even non prescribe prescription. We need to show more love and awareness to support. This will stop the crime rating of violence. I attend a college in Missouri to be able to help people who hold all the memories of the past in by using a substance to help the problem. 82% of people will not seek help because they are scared that they are going to be considererd crazy. i have an uncle who have multiple personalities untill he got old never had seek help and died of achoholism. Everyone just thought it was just him being him. We just learn to acccept this and then carry on but face the consequences. Everyone has the one family member that you are like something is not right, stop!!! and think (positive) and try to get them help. Hang close and let them know you are there because in eyes of the lord we are all Gods’ children. Wake up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for this post CL!
Mental Health issues really do need to be addressed within the black community. This post, if you people would read it the way it was SUPPOSED to be read, was about just that. Maia is just an example when there are many, many more Maia’s out there!
Success/failure in career, school, or whatever does not “give” one a mental illness. Some people are born with chemical imbalances in their brain that do not show up until long after birth. Do you know what seratonin is? It is a brain chemical that controls our ability to be happy or sad. A person with Bi-Polar Disorder sees life in black and white, their seratonin is IMBALANCED. They have MANIC episodes which make them feel joyful and invincible. Then, instead of coming down from that like normal people, they crash instead into deep horrible depression. Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors and the like (um, lithium and prozac, etc) BALANCE out this chemical so they can live full lives like the rest of us.
PRAYER DOES NOT WORK! I REPEAT — PRAYER DOES NOT WORK!!
Stop acting like depression is not something we do not suffer from, #47 LIZ E! Just stop it! Prayer?
See, religion is another thing that’s what’s wrong with the black community. We (well … y’all anyway lol) depend too much on someone that doesn’t even exist. Ain’t no DAMN god, so we have to GET OFF OUR AZZES and take care of each other. Two hands working accomplish more than a thousand clasped in prayer.
Pray for her? Seriously? If that is the case then pray to your god to STOP giving people mental illness. Why not pray for THAT instead since everybody is so dependent on it? Then let’s see what happens.
But I digress …
Anyway — YES black folks get sick this way. YES black folks kill themselves. YES black folks have mental health problems just like every other community. The difference is that the more we glamourize that “macho black man/strong black woman” STIGMA on our heads to keep smiling even when you’re crying inside, the more of us will end up just like Maia.
Get a clue, black folks. Now!
Let’s be for real here, a lot of people suffer from mental disorders and/or drug abuse. While it is a shame that she has been on this road, where were the people when she first started slipping? When she began prostituting, who kept in touch with her to make sure she was alright? If these people who “love” her now were there then, maybe, just maybe she would be better. Stop feeling sorry for people and get out and help them. Don’t just make her an exception because she has a famous face.
@ Aina
I agree with most of what you said EXCEPT for the part about there is no God. Sorry but I don’t see how you can wake up in the morning see the sun rise and declare such a thing.
However I do agree that people (especially black people) need to be more proactive in dealing with mental illness. Prayer is good but you still have to seek help. You can not pray a mental illness away. Some people really need medication so I don’t know why some are acting as if medication is a bad thing. Some people with mental illness are able to lead normal lives because of medications. There are also many people who are in the prisons all over the U.S. that actually have undiagnosed mental illnesses.
J.Dakar, thanks so much for such a necessary post! I have to aunts w/ mental illness. It is so sad to watch someone you love that you can’t help. The mental illness is a barrier to treatment, as Maia’s family wrote. Many times, the mentally ill won’t accept treatment, though they might know they need it.
I was diagnosed w/ a chronic illness in 05 that lead me to depression. In 07, my husband suggested we take advantage of free counseling on my job. It helped us both tremendously! We were able to talk out and learn to work thorugh so many underlying issues that we didn’t know were effecting us besides the fact that I was sick.
I hope this post will encourage others to do the same. As a people, we need to not ask irrelevant questions or past judgment, but seek out ways to help fix the problem.
I know this post is old now, but @ Lord Help Me and others suffering from Anxiety & Depression: There is a product/self help tool called the Midwest Center’s Attacking Anxiety and Depression program with Lucinda Basset. It is excellent. The truth of the matter is, there is only so much someone outside of yourself can do. Only you can do this program, only you can get inside your own head and start healing from within. It was a life saver for me. I was 10 when my symptoms started and was 24 when I finally got help through this program. I am now 29 and can say I feel “normal” – and often times am very positive and optimistic – more so than those around me and I am now in a position to help others as well.
PS – At the atheist Aina – your entitled to your beliefs. But I know for a fact that there are angels, spirit guides, etc… from my own personal experiences and from the experiences of loved ones who have had out of body experiences – therefore, I believe that there is also a God. There are just certain things that you just can’t deny once you have seen them with your own eyes.
In way am I a doctor, or shrink. But what I would like to touch on is our words. It’s one thing to be inflicted with something, but it’s another to posses it. The problem stems from our language. Hear me out on this. When speaking any other language, when someone is sick, if you were to translate the sickness they had, it would be they are inflicted with or they suffer from. But it is the English language where we use words of posession, when dealing with a sickness, such as I have a **** or my ****. I just wanted to touch on a few that were kind and bold enough to share their struggles. I’m not here to criticize, just shed a little light on how we as people can be ensnared with the words of our mouth.
I do however believe than in addition to prayer and family support, people should seek the medical attention of a doctor, I do however do not believe that medication is always the answer, when dealing with mental illness. In our religious societies, we come to believe that when we are prayed for or over, if we do not receive immediate healing then somehow our faith is not strong enough or developed, when it could that prayer was meant to find the right doctor to help with the ailment. Whether or not it was miraculous or by the hand of the doctor, if you are healed your prayer was answered just the same. GOD meets us at the level of our faith.
My point is for all us to watch the words that come out of our mouths. Only let words that are uplifting or positive be spoken.
see, this is why i wanna become a psychiatrist or psychologist. so i can do my bit to help our community. like with a lot of the problems with in our (black) society, we need our own people to help us.
Good post CL. Kudos. Mental health is so important.