This year for Black History Month, we continue highlighting different mental illnesses each week and two prominent members in the Black community who have spoken out about their experiences with them. We aim to highlight that even though someone has a mental illness, they can still be successful.
Brandon Marshall was one of the NFL’s top wide receivers and best-known players during his 12-year professional football career. Success on the field didn’t translate to his personal life off the field, however, when something prematurely ended his NFL career, marriage, and nearly caused incarceration.
Drafted in 2006, Brandon played for Denver Broncos, going on play for the Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears, New York Jets, New York Giants, and finally the Seattle Seahawks in 2018. All the while setting numerous records and voted MVP at the 2012 Pro Bowl.
However, his life off the field wasn’t as successful. Year after year he was charged with numerous infractions, including DUIs, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, suspicion of domestic violence and assault. By 2011 friends and family told him he needed help and that summer he went to the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, where he was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
Learning about the disorder that had plagued him his entire life was a game changer. “When they diagnosed me, I just … exhaled — like the biggest exhale of my life. It was just a huge relief.”
“My emotions had been controlling me, and I was trapped — not by anything external, but by things that were inside me. But I couldn’t be the one to help myself. I needed to seek help.”
With football as his platform, Brandon aimed to show others that it’s okay to seek help for BPD. He spoke openly about his struggles with mental health, one of the first well-known athletes to do so.
“When I first heard the term mental health, the first thing that came to mind was mental toughness. Masking pain. Hiding it. Keeping it inside. That had been embedded in me since I was a kid. Never show weakness. Suck it up. Play through it. Live through it. Now, I realize that mental health means the total opposite.”
Marshall regularly addresses groups about how important it is for people to seek help with BPD. He and his wife Michi cofounded Project 375 to increase awareness of BPD and other mental health issues to combat the associated stigma and raise funds for treatment.
Well known Netflix series “Outer Banks” actress Madison Bailey has opened up in recent years about living with BPD in an interview Monday. She was diagnosed at age 17, but that did not stop her from becoming a successful actress.
“I got my diagnosis, and that’s what I needed — a word to call it other than ‘crazy.’ I started realizing my own triggers.” Now 23, Bailey told Entertainment Tonight that she manages BPD through meditation and crystals and by being aware of her own triggers. She also said there are some upsides to the diagnosis. “One of the main [pros] is that likes and dislikes change often, so my aesthetic changes often. My music taste changes often,” she shared. “I have a very broad personality, which allows me to connect with a lot of people.”
Though she’s still young, Madison Bailey takes her platform and the voice it gives her seriously. The TV star often uses her Instagram and other accounts to talk about issues that are close to her heart. As a Black woman and a member of the LGBTQ+ community herself, Bailey has spoken up about social justice for those communities.
According to the Mayo Clinic, borderline personality disorder, or BPD, is a mental health disorder that impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and others, causing problems functioning in everyday life. It includes self-image issues, difficulty managing emotions and behavior, and a pattern of unstable relationships.
Signs and symptoms may include:
• An intense fear of abandonment, even going to extreme measures to avoid real or imagined separation or rejection
• A pattern of unstable intense relationships, such as idealizing someone one moment and then suddenly believing the person doesn’t care enough or is cruel
• Rapid changes in self-identity and self-image that include shifting goals and values, and seeing yourself as bad or as if you don’t exist at all
• Periods of stress-related paranoia and loss of contact with reality, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours
• Impulsive and risky behavior, such as gambling, reckless driving, unsafe sex, spending sprees, binge eating or drug abuse, or sabotaging success by suddenly quitting a good job or ending a positive relationship
• Suicidal threats or behavior or self-injury, often in response to fear of separation or rejection
• Wide mood swings lasting from a few hours to a few days, which can include intense happiness, irritability, shame or anxiety
• Ongoing feelings of emptiness
• Inappropriate, intense anger, such as frequently losing your temper, being sarcastic or bitter, or having physical fights
If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
If you would like to speak to someone about better managing your stress and anxiety, or to make an appointment, please call (717) 782-6493 for more information.
Sources:
• Borderline personality disorder – Symptoms and causes – Mayo Clinic
• How Brandon Marshall Has Faced His Diagnosis of BPD (fherehab.com)
• ‘Outer Banks’ Madison Bailey Reveals Borderline Personality Disorder | The Mighty
• The Untold Truth Of Madison Bailey (thelist.com)