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Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star Safaree Samuels is getting real about mental health and revealing how he plans to help shield his young children from online negativity.
The musician and reality star spoke out on the matter through his Instagram Story on Sunday. Safaree Samuels started off by sharing that, to his shock, his friend’s young niece recently attempted suicide.
“Yo, I don’t know what’s going on in the air. I don’t know if its in the food, but I just got a call from one of my close friends. He got to get on an emergency flight out the country because his 12-year-old niece just tried to kill herself.”
He took a moment to process the situation, saying, “Yo, this suicide joint, that s**t is really crazy.”
Then, Safaree went on to acknowledge that the 12-year-old attempted to take her life as a result of cyberbullying. As a result, Safaree’s making the decision to try and keep his children with Erica Mena off the internet.
“He said it’s because of bullying and the internet. That’s why I’m not having my kids on the internet. I really try to hold that back as much as possible.”
Shortly thereafter, Safaree shared another Instagram Story where he reacted to a statistic regarding suicide rates among Black men.
“Every 15 seconds, one Black man commits suicide. That’s insane. So that means, [over] the length of his video, that that just happened. Wow.”
We must somberly note that Safaree’s commentary comes about a week after Stephen “tWitch” Boss was found dead by way of suicide.
His body was found at a Los Angeles hotel last Tuesday. TMZ broke the news, and a suicide note was later found at the scene, in which he reportedly alluded to past hardships.
Since tWitch’s passing, we should also add that Tyler Perry has come forward and gotten candid about his own battle with mental health, as The Shade Room previously reported.
After acknowledging that he had “tried to commit suicide a couple of times,” Tyler acknowledged, “Had any of those attempts happened, I would’ve missed the best part of my life.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by calling the three-digit number. Additionally, various other resources can be accessed through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
