Tamar Braxton is speaking out for the first time since being hospitalized following a possible suicide attempt. The reality star was rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles after she was found unresponsive by her Nigerian boyfriend David Adefeso in her hotel room on Thursday, July 16.
Adefeso called 911 to report his girlfriend had been drinking before she took an unknown amount of prescription pills following a possible suicide attempt.
He explained that she was having issues with the TV network (We TV) that airs her reality show, ‘Get Ya Life!’
The 43-year-old “Braxton Family Values” star has now taken to Instagram to issue a lengthy statement, where she addressed some of her personal problems and reality television’s impact on her mental health.
She began her post by thanking her fans for their support, writing :
“Thank you to each and every individual who has prayed for me, thought of me, sent me their love and has showered me with their support. In this present moment, it is my only responsibility to be real with myself and to be real with the ones who truly love me and care for my healing. I have without fail, shared with you my brightest days, and I know that sharing with you what has been my darkest will be the light for any man or woman who is feeling the same defeat I felt just only a week ago. “
She then opened up on the pressures of her career and her reality TV series.
“Every one of us has a desire, whether small or big, to make it out of where we come from to an ideal future place that includes, freedom to be who we choose, security for our children and families, and fortune to share with the ones we love. We believe these things can co-exist with just being happy. I believed that, that as a black woman, as an artist, an influence, a personality I could shape my world, and with whom I believed to be my partners, they could help me share my world.”
“Over the past 11 years there were promises made to protect and portray my story, with the authenticity and honesty I gave. I was betrayed, taken advantage of, overworked, and underpaid. “
“I wrote a letter over 2 months ago asking to be freed from what I believed was excessive and unfair. I explained in personal detail the demise I was experiencing. My cry for help went totally ignored. “
“However, the demands persisted. It was my spirit, and my soul that was tainted the most. There are a few things I count on most to be, a good mother, a good daughter, a good partner, a good sister, and a good person. Who I was, begun to mean little to nothing, because it would only be how I was portrayed on television that would matter.”
“It was witnessing the slow death of the woman I became, that discouraged my will to fight. I felt like I was no longer living, I was existing for the purpose of a corporations gain and ratings, and that killed me.”
Ending her post, Braxton declared that “Mental illness is real. We have to normalize acknowledging it and stop associating it with shame and humiliation. The pain that I have experienced over the past 11 years has slowly ate away at my spirit and my mental.”
The singer/actress then promised that she will now do “everything in my power to aid those from mental illness, including those of us who’s mental illness was only a result from the toxic systematic bondage that dwells television.”
