Tamar Braxton Speaks Out After Hospitalization To Thank Fans For Support
is speaking out after being for an about the importance of removing shame and stigma regarding mental health.
On Thursday (Jul 30), Tamar Braxton took to Instagram to share an update on her current health status. While the reality star did not discuss specifics regarding her hospitalization, she did caption the post “Mental illness is real,” before giving fans a slight glimpse into what may have led to her hospitalization.
“We have to normalize acknowledging it and stop associating it with shame and humiliation,” Tamar Braxton wrote. “The pain that I have experienced over the past 11 years has slowly ate away at my spirit and my mental.”
During the lengthy post that opens with a picture of Tamar Braxton and her son, Braxton notes that the daily stress of being a reality star along with personal issues that have taken place over the last 11 years of her life led to her feeling overwhelmed and unlike herself.
“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,” Tamar continued. ” 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.”
While the singer didn’t specify which contract she was aiming at specifically, many fans are pointing to her WE tv reality series “Braxton Family Values” with her mother and sisters, including Grammy-winning singer, Toni Braxton after Tamar took to Twitter to call out networks for not paying the Braxton family fairly and for constantly making “villains” out the family, a problematic tactic that Braxton points out isn’t used on shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
“Are we going to talk about pay…. I 100 percent wrote the theme song… where is the coin… our show is on Netflix…. where is the coin… 10 years on The air… we make 75 percent LESS than the Kardashians. How come there are no villains on that show,” Tamar wrote at the time.
In addition to starring on the reality show centered around her family, Tamar also had her own reality show spinoff at the time, Tamar and Vince, in addition to appearing on Dancing with the Stars and a before ultimately winning the Celebrity Big Brother last year and and was reportedly set to star in a new WE tv series titled, “Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life.”
“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,” Tamar continued on her Instagram post. “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.”
Overall Tamar added that the ordeal has taught her how to work and grow from the pain that she experiences in her life versus looking for an “escape”, before noting that she is taking her time to get her self together mentally and taking care of her health, before concluding her message by requesting that fans and critics alike do more to help fight the stigma against mental health issues while encouraging those who feel overwhelmed with life’s struggles to remove their shame and seek help.
“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,” Tamar said. “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.”
Read the full statement below.
