{"id":270507,"date":"2019-04-02T12:26:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T18:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1028981"},"modified":"2019-04-02T12:26:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T18:26:04","slug":"taraji-p-henson-opens-up-about-her-struggles-with-anxiety-and-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/taraji-p-henson-opens-up-about-her-struggles-with-anxiety-and-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Taraji P. Henson Opens Up About Her Struggles With Anxiety and Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"photo-txt-0\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"38.865671641791\">\n<div class=\"column post-content__image--left post-content__image\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image--full\" src=\"https:\/\/akns-images.eonline.com\/eol_images\/Entire_Site\/201932\/rs_734x1025-190402103425-taraji-p-henson-cover.jpg?fit=inside|900:auto&amp;output-quality=90\" title=\"Taraji P. Henson, Variety, Cover\" alt=\"Taraji P. Henson, Variety, Cover\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"image__credits\">CLIFF WATTS FOR VARIETY<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-photo-text\" readability=\"22.153846153846\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/taraji_p_henson\">Taraji P. Henson<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;is getting candid&nbsp;about mental health.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Empire<\/em> actress&nbsp;headlines <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/tv\/news\/taraji-p-henson-boris-lawrence-henson-foundation-mental-health-1203177514\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Variety<\/em><\/a>&#8216;s Power of Women New York issue, released Tuesday, along with&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/bette_midler\">Bette Midler<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/gigi_hadid\">Gigi Hadid<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/kacey_musgraves\">Kacey Musgraves<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;and <strong>Christiane Amanpour<\/strong>. In her cover story, Henson&nbsp;opens up about her struggle with anxiety and depression,&nbsp;sharing&nbsp;that she regularly sees a therapist to help her through it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[Fame]&nbsp;was fun at first, but the older I get, the more private I want to be,&#8221; Henson tells <em>Variety<\/em>. &#8220;I think there&#8217;s a misconception with people in the limelight that we have it all together, and because we have money now and are living out our dreams, everything is fine. That&#8217;s not the case. When they yell &#8216;Cut&#8217; and &#8216;That&#8217;s a wrap,&#8217; I go home to very serious problems. I&#8217;m still a real human.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"text-2\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"63.5\">\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-text-only\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\" readability=\"17\">\n<p>The 48-year-old star also shares that fame has contributed to her mental health struggles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I suffer from depression,&#8221; Henson says. &#8220;My anxiety is kicking up even more every day, and I&#8217;ve never really dealt with anxiety like that. It&#8217;s something new.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As a way to help her manage, Henson&nbsp;meets with a therapist, sharing with <em>Variety<\/em>, &#8220;That&#8217;s the only way I can get through it. You can talk to your friends, but you need a professional who can give you exercises. So that when you&#8217;re on the ledge, you have things to say to yourself that will get you off that ledge and past your weakest moments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"block-3-img\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\" readability=\"31\">\n<div class=\"post-content__image\" readability=\"32\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image--full\" src=\"https:\/\/akns-images.eonline.com\/eol_images\/Entire_Site\/201932\/rs_1024x759-190402105331-1024-Taraji-P-Henson-GettyImages-1137217213.jpg?fit=inside|900:auto&amp;output-quality=90\" border=\"0\" title=\"Taraji P. Henson\" alt=\"Taraji P. Henson\" data-width=\"1024\" data-height=\"759\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"image__credits\">Paras Griffin\/Getty Images for STX Films<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"photo-txt-3\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"44.553711790393\">\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-photo-text\" readability=\"30.993886462882\">\n<p>In 2018, Henson, hoping to end the stigma around mental illness in the black community, founded <a href=\"https:\/\/borislhensonfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation<\/a>&nbsp;in honor of her late father, who struggled with mental health challenges upon his return from the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n<p>About 15 years&nbsp;before starting the foundation, Henson&#8217;s&nbsp;high school sweetheart and father of her child,&nbsp;<strong>William Lamar Johnson<\/strong>, was murdered. Then, two years later, Henson&#8217;s father passed away. After losing two loved ones, Henson wanted to find a therapist for her son to talk to.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we started doing research and I started looking for a therapist that at least looked like him, so he could trust them, it was like looking for a unicorn,&#8221; she tells <em>Variety<\/em>. &#8220;We&#8217;re walking around broken, wounded and hurt, and we don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s OK to talk about it. We don&#8217;t talk about it at home. It&#8217;s shunned. It&#8217;s something that makes you look weak. We&#8217;re told to pray it away. Everyone was always asking me, &#8216;Do you have a charity?&#8217; Well, dammit, this is going to be my calling, because I&#8217;m sick of this. People are killing themselves. People are numbing out on drugs. Not everything is fixed with a pill.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"photo-txt-4\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"37.571120689655\">\n<div class=\"column post-content__image--left post-content__image\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image--full\" src=\"https:\/\/akns-images.eonline.com\/eol_images\/Entire_Site\/201932\/rs_734x1025-190402111417-gigi-hadid-cover.jpg?fit=inside|900:auto&amp;output-quality=90\" title=\"Gigi Hadid, Variety, Cover\" alt=\"Gigi Hadid, Variety, Cover\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"image__credits\">CLIFF WATTS FOR VARIETY<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-photo-text\" readability=\"17.323008849558\">\n<p>Model Hadid is another star to get personal in their <em><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/biz\/news\/gigi-hadid-unicef-refugees-bangladesh-social-media-1203177483\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Variety<\/a><\/em> cover story, sharing what it was like to march alongside sister <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/bella_hadid\">Bella Hadid<\/a><\/strong> in protest of President <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/donald_trump\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s Muslim travel ban in 2017. In her interview, the 23-year-old UNICEF ambassador explains that it was important to take a stand because of her parents,&nbsp;<strong>Mohamed Hadid<\/strong> and <strong>Yolanda Hadid<\/strong>, who immigrated to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I saw two people that came from nothing and were given the opportunity to come to this country and be great,&#8221; Hadid tells the outlet. &#8220;This country was built off immigrants. It&#8217;s great because of immigrants. I think that the march was so special to me because New York is such a melting pot of so many worlds in one. That&#8217;s what America should be, to me. It should be a place that&#8217;s shared with whoever wants to explore and learn and grow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>You can see <em>Variety<\/em>&#8216;s complete Power of Women New York list <a href=\"https:\/\/feature.variety.com\/power-of-women-ny-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HERE<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/1028981\/taraji-p-henson-opens-up-about-her-struggles-with-anxiety-and-depression?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&#038;utm_source=eonline&#038;utm_medium=rssfeeds&#038;utm_campaign=rss_topstories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CLIFF WATTS FOR VARIETY Taraji P. Henson&nbsp;is getting candid&nbsp;about mental health. The Empire actress&nbsp;headlines Variety&#8216;s Power of Women New York issue, released Tuesday, along with&nbsp;Bette Midler, Gigi Hadid, Kacey Musgraves&nbsp;and Christiane Amanpour. In her cover story, Henson&nbsp;opens up about her struggle with anxiety and depression,&nbsp;sharing&nbsp;that she regularly sees a therapist to help her through it. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-270507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 15:34:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}