Megan Thee Stallion on overcoming Black stigmas around therapy: ‘You think, oh my gosh, I’m weak’
Megan Thee Stallion is making mental health a priority.
During the season premiere of Taraji P. Henson's Facebook Watch series Peace of Mind with Taraji, the 26-year-old, who took a social media break earlier this year, made it clear that she was taking her mental health very seriously.
“I feel like right now mental health is more important to me, more than ever, because I have more pressure on me than I feel like I used to have...when I was Megan and I wasn’t as criticized and under such a magnifying glass as I am now,” she explained.
Stallion admitted that losing her father when she was in the ninth grade and then her mother in 2019 made her take her prioritize her emotional health.
“It was never a conversation that was on the table," she recalled. "Now in this space, I’ve lost both of my parents. So now I’m like ‘Oh, my gosh, who do I talk to? What do I do?’ And I just started learning that it’s okay to ask for help. And it’s okay to want to go get therapy.”
The "Savage" rapper added that stigma in the Black community around getting help during moments of mental crisis also impacted her own attitudes.
“As a Black person and when you think of therapy, you think, 'oh my gosh I’m weak.’ Like you think of medication and you just think the worst. ‘Cause that’s kind of what you see on TV too. Therapy wasn’t even presented in the media as something that was good. Now it’s becoming safe to say, ‘All right now, it’s a little too much going on, somebody help me,'" she said. “When people start to see me a lot or when my schedule gets really full, I’m probably going through something because I want to keep my mind busy.”
Something else that is important to Megan during difficult times is having a supportive team, and for her that includes her rapper boyfriend Pardison Fontaine. She made their relationship public in February has been gushing about him ever since.
“My boyfriend does make me very happy," Megan told Taraji. "He definitely takes care of me emotionally. He makes my brain feel good. He makes my heart feel good. He moves me, he inspires me. We just feel like a real team.”
In addition to her mental health, Megan also talked about the impact that her mother Holly Thomas, who passed away in 2019, had on the person she is today, calling her mom her "biggest inspiration."
"That’s how I even knew to be this way. She had a 9 to 5 job, but on her days off, she would be at the studio and she would take me to the studio, thinking I’m in the lobby doing coloring books and stuff. And I’m at the door, really listening," she remembered. "‘What’s she in there singing?’"
She continued, "Eventually, I started getting older and I started stealing her CDs that had instrumentals on them. And I started writing in my room and then one day I just came to her and I was like ‘I can rap.’ She spoke all of this into existence. She knew I would do this. My dad, he didn’t get to see any of it. He passed when I was in the ninth grade, but he knew I was going to be something too, they just didn’t know what I was going to be.”