354: Let’s Talk About Suicide Honestly – Kelechi Ubozoh

[SpookyGhost]

The 32 year-old poet, mental health advocate and daughter of a Nigerian immigrant father and Brooklyn mother opens up to Paul about her emotional and mental turnaround after years of feeling suicidal and several times attempting it. She details the ways her depression, disconnection and fear of taking off her “mask” as the perfect, popular girl played in leading her to believe it was a good idea. She and Paul discuss possible ways loved ones can reach out to someone who is talking about suicide as well as how the person who is in pain can find help and potentially hope. Her relationship with her mother, who is a doctor, is a great example of how someone in the helping profession can still learn ways to communicate with and love someone who is hurting.

Follow Kelechi at

HTTPS://KELECHIUBOZOH.WORDPRESS.COM/
https://twitter.com/kubozoh

Check out the documentary she appears in called The S Word

The book about covert incest that Paul mentioned is called Silently Seduced.

http://mentalpod.com/archives/4633

[brownblob]

I thought it was a good episode on a subject nobody wants to talk about. It stirred up a lot of thoughts and feelings in me--not in a triggering way, just in opening up a door I keep closed out of shame.
I thought she had several great lines, so I'm hoping she makes it into the opening montage next year.