How Gabrielle Union Copes With Anxiety
Anxiety is one of those emotions that you probably have felt at least once in your life...if you are lucky. It’s this weird mix of nervousness, panic, and stress that can make your stomach flip, prevent you from concentrating, and leave you feeling helpless in the moment. This has been ever more prevalent during a time like quarantine when the uncertainty, mixed media messages, and lack of political clarity can heighten the notion that everything is out of our control.
In the October issue of Women’s Health actress, mother, and all around boss Gabrielle Union discussed how her anxiety is rooted in trauma and how she has struggled to cope and heal in light of the pandemic. While she is an accomplished movie star, author, and entrepreneur in her own right, she made headlines in early 2020 after she was fired from America’s Got Talent and followed up with a discrimination complaint. She cited a “toxic work environment” which led to mass media coverage, interviews, testimonials, and a glaring spotlight on the allegations at hand.
"The combination of a pandemic and this racial reckoning, alongside being inundated with [images of] the brutalization of Black bodies, has sent my PTSD into overdrive. There's just terror in my body...How do I create a larger movement to address all this trauma and all this harm? I can't just swallow the information I now have."
As she has grown in her star power she continues to use this experience and her platform to advocate for women’s rights, the LGTBQ community, and social justice. She later discusses her 1992 rape which was the catalyst for her entrance into therapy when she was just 19.
“I am grateful I was raped in an affluent neighborhood with an underworked police department. And an underutilized rape crisis center,” she writes. “The fact that one can be grateful for such things is goddamn ridiculous…I know this now because I have spent time lobbying Congress and state legislatures about the treatment of rape victims. I’ve seen the worst-case scenarios, and they are devastating. Now, I can appreciate the care with which I was handled. Now, I know it rarely happens that way. And it really rarely happens that way for Black women.”
She later discusses how she is empowered to continue making space for Black women in each aspect of her business whether it’s through her haircare brand, clothing line, or keeping an eye out for latest Black feminist literature hitting the shelves. Gabrielle remains firmly in tune with who she has become as a woman and uses her platform to amplify voice in the Black community in a healthy way. We applaud her as she continues down her path of peace and prosperity!