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Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting

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Millions of black people are needlessly suffering from depression. Even when the symptoms of depression are raging and screaming inside of us, too many of us are not doing anything to seek help. Could it be a lack of knowledge about the disease? Could it be the stigma that depression is a mental illness and we are ashamed to be associated with a disease such as this? Would we choose cancer or high blood pressure, would we choose a heart attack? NO. Neither do we choose depression.
Terrie Williams latest book "Black Pain, It just looks like We Aren't Hurting" is a literary treasure. This book should be recommended reading in every household, and school counselors should have a copy on their shelves. It's a masterpiece for book club discussions.

Terrie Williams, an International Motivational Speaker, Publicist, Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author and Visionary, comes forward and leads the way to encourage you to exit the darkness and enter into light. The collective wisdom that is shared in this book will, without a doubt ,let you know that because we often choose to remain silent, untreated depression can be extremely traumatizing. It can even kill you.

Whether fervently speaking to an audience or ardently through the pages of this insightful book, you are instantly aware of her compassion for others. You sense the urgency of her mission to expose the myth that depression is a weakness and something that you should be ashamed of.
One story, Terrie's own life account of a successful journey in the business and entertainment world, while secretly fighting the intense forces of depression is riveting to say the least. What happened when her mask came off? It was monolithic. Thousands of people from all walks of life reached out to Terrie, for they too were struggling with this condition.

Black Pain is full of quotes, statistics and true chronicles from celebrities, professionals, and everyday working people who candidly and passionately share their stories. The inner struggle and conflict with depression comes in many forms and can attack different people in various ways. This triumphant book is about finding the courage to take responsibility for yourself or for someone that you love.

You'll be astonished, you'll be sorrowful, you'll even laugh, but most of all you'll be informed.

Three words; Read Black Pain.
Let's start talking and sharing so we can become a part of the solution.

Sisters Sippin Tea - Tulsa Chapter

Terrie M. Williams, a professional in mental health care, as well as the owner of a public relations firm, describes the debilitating agony of depression felt by black people, yet denied by many. In the black community there is a taboo against looking "crazy" or not having enough faith in God. This prevents many from seeking the help they need from professionals to deal with deep depression. She covers the subject in many ways and gives the symptoms of depression; she covers the depression of women and men separately. She notes that many black women feel they have to be super woman and don't know how to just say `no' to anyone asking a favor or needing help. She lets us know that if we can't help ourselves first, we won't be any good to anyone else. Black men have difficulty showing weakness of any sort and many times don't seek the help they need. BLACK PAIN covers the myriad reasons for pain in the black community, especially among the young, such as living in foster care, single parent households, dealing with addicted parents or struggling parents who have to work all the time. Depression breeds anger and produces gangs running the streets taking out their anger on each other because it temporarily relieves the pain. The Hip Hop culture is sometimes a reflection of depressive situations.

BLACK PAIN doesn't leave it there, with merely a description and the symptoms. Ms. Williams also gives solutions to the problem, discusses the many medications that are on the market for depression, as well as their positive and negative side effects. She includes a list of readings that will help, and she even includes a letter that can be written to friends to form a support group when help is needed. Ms. Williams also includes her mailing and email addresses so she is accessible. Many of us don't even know we are depressed but a reading of BLACK PAIN will define it for you. There are ways to help others we see who need help with depression. That is a big help, because we frequently know something is wrong with a relative or friend, but we don't know what it is or how to deal with it. This book will give you guide lines for getting them and yourself back on track. It is a must read for anyone living today. I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Terrie Williams has written a masterwork on how Black oppression has led to Black depression. Every African-American will find their story told over and over, informing them of where their variety of depression comes from, plays out and where they can go for effective help. For the non-Black reader this book will educate and illuminate for you not only the Black experience but in essence your own. I have just finished this amazing book and and now reading it for the second time. Read this book! Nuff said.

Terrie I applaud your mission, vision and precision in which you handle such a "touchy" subject in the Black community. You know how to bring people together for a cause and I was so awed by the information you researched in this book and the resources you shared. Thank you for stepping out and championing this topic and bring light on a subject that has kept many in the dark for so long. Excellent read - touching and motivating. A book for anyone who have ever known anyone who suffered from depression or any mental illness. A flashlight book!

Pam Perry
Chocolate Pages Reviews

Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting

When I was in medical school I was told that black people did not get depressed very often. But i knew better. I watched as others tried to spread the word but only ended up talking to other professionals. In a readable very personal book she has exposed to the world that there is a people with deep pain that was never expressed or treated. Terri Williams have done what professionals wanted to do she haBlack Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not HurtingCross Cultural Psychiatrys succeeded. She has gotten the word out, that we do become depressed and we have our own way of showing it. She shows that this unrecognized pain may account for much of the anger, hostility, community violence and and suffering that has led to the disparities that have puzzled many providers. She has given a voice for all of those that have suffered in silence.

William B. Lawson, MD, PhD, DFAPA
Professor and Chair
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Howard University College of Medicine and Hospital

Don't be afraid to seek help....We have been putting a band-aid over a gunshot wound for too long!

Author Of Black Women Deserve Better

We all spend so much energy doing all but maintaining and supporting our mental health.

Terrie Williams speaks for us when we are too ashamed or cannot speak for ourselves.

Why do we wait until things have spiraled out of control??!!!!

If you are a health professional.....read Black Pain.

If you are in law enforcement and work in a predominantly African American environment....read Black Pain.

If you are an education professional providing service to African Americans....read Black Pain.

If you have a family member or spouse who is angry, miserable, mean, abusing alcohol or drugs, and just suffering silently.....please read Black Pain.

If you are an African American...read Black Pain.

The break in silence is long overdue!!! Share and speak on the information.

Black Pain, the new book by Terrie Williams, is a crucial read for the Black community. Terrie has been criss-crossing the country for the last few years, telling her personal story of clinical depression and helping countless others recognize their own pain and begin the healing process. In Black Pain, she discusses how so many of our community's "visible" ills - crime/violence, obesity, abuse, coupling/relationship issues, anger - are tied to individual and cultural depression, but no one has called it what it was.

This book is so necessary and important - I've been giving it as a gift since winter, and everyone who received it has shown nothing but gratitude. Buy it, read it, gift it, then read it again.

LiRon K. Anderson-Bell
President | Crisis Contingency Partners [...]

This book was so powerful, that when sharing a few passages with my husband, it became clear that each of us had to have our own copy. We have since recommended this book to numerous friends. It is the book selection for my book club this month. Though difficult to read, with the staggering statistics, this book explains so many of the problems plaguing the African American Community. Each of us has family members that are recognized in these pages. This book is well written and goes in to so many avenues that affect people of all ages. Every educator of students of color should read this book. Those working in social services should make this a must in their professional library. Every member of my immediate family is reading the book.

Mental health issues are a source of embarrasment,and of a desire to stay under the radar in the Black American community. Williams's book may help families and individuals come to grips, and realize that there are sources of help and save lives and communities. Frequently, the sense of isolation that many people with a mental illness have is exacerbated due to a feeling that these illnesses will be viewed as less tolerable in found in a people still viewed by some in America as genetically, and socially inferior. If it helps people exhale and get help it will be valuable. I recommend it highly for families dealing with a mental illness who feel isolated and ashamed.