The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Dr. Alfiee Breland Noble On Discussing Mental Health In Safe Spaces, Therapy Benefits + More

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God.

What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. We need help! That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast

Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay.

Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best. And you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows, and it's going to be devilishly good. We've got chills, thrills, and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you?

Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Marie. And I'm Sydney. And we're Mess. Well,

not a mess, but on our podcast called Mess, we celebrate all things messy. But the gag is, not everything is a mess. Sometimes it's just living. Yeah, things like J-Lo on her third divorce. Living. Girl's trip to Miami.

Mess. Breaking up with your girlfriend while on Instagram Live. Living. It's kind of a mess. Yeah. Well, you get it. Got it? Live, love, mess.

Listen to Mess with Sydney Washington and Marie Faustin on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. We got our special guest host, Jason Lee, with us. And we got a special guest in the building. She's back. She just reminded me that she had her HU bag outside that she didn't bring in. And I'm so glad you brought your Hampton University bag with you today. We have Dr. Alfie Breland Noble. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you for having me. How you feeling? I'm good. What did Char say? Bless black and highly favored. There you go. Bless Black and highly favored.

We fresh off the third annual Mental Wealth Expo. How did that go? Oh my God. It was phenomenal. One of the highlights for me was at the end when you took the video of all the people out in the audience. I just felt like the energy was really there for those thousands of people who showed up to get some healing and get some positive energy from you and all your celebrity friends and the influencers and just so many good words. Michelle Williams words stand out to me a lot. She was just phenomenal. So I think it was highly successful. Each year gets bigger and better.

And it was a joy and an honor to be there. Now, let's talk about the weather, too, because the weather was disgusting and people still showed up in that weather. This shows how much people really needed it and wanted it they need it they want it i think everybody appreciates char as a black man coming out and talking about his own mental health and his own journey and having people like carson daly i don't want to name check everybody but you know uh tamika mallory all these amazing people from all these different walks of life talking about their mental health and like just uplifting it and being open and transparent you know so the people really came out to get that learning and that love and they got it yeah i always say uh you know the thing i love

about this event is i want people to come to this event and learn early what i learned late and also say i want this to be the start of somebody's healing journey so what would be the next steps for somebody that came out to them into love I think first of all what I was telling a lot of people is you go to the workshops if you went to the workshops or the breakout rooms and if you went to any of the vendors you already have some ideas about where your journey can go next right so following up with some of those folks like the coma project was there the mental wealth Alliance had a booth. Lulu Lemon helped us out a little bit.

So following up with those folks that you met who are providers, who run organizations, I think that's the next step is just following up. And the other thing I will say is make a commitment. Right. Remind yourself that you have the passion, the energy and you want to keep the momentum going. Because if you don't have the passion and energy and you don't have the investment in taking care of, as you say, your mental wealth, it's not going to go anywhere. You can have the interest, but you really need to be ready to take the next step. So that's what I would tell people to do. Go look these people up. Find them on the Web. Take some of the advice, things that you learn from some of the people who are on the main stage and really make a concerted effort to act on what you learn every day. See, I'm disappointed that I wasn't invited to participate. I'm in therapy.

I'm happier now. You walked in with a whole light. I mean, mental health, going through your mental health journey in therapy, does it just make you a happier person, a lighter person? Because I feel like one of the things that made me a little nervous going down this path was my career is based on being a little snarky at times and having high opinions and being critical. But sometimes now that I'm in my journey, I consider, I reconsider what I'm going to say and do because of the work I'm doing. I think it's beautiful. And I do think it helps you maybe not necessarily be happier because,

you know, it's not a happy pill. It's not like a happy trip. It really is about helping you find what's deep down inside of you and bring out the best parts of yourself. And I think sometimes what happens is the best parts of who we are get covered up with so much muck through trauma, right, through negative experiences, through watching people in our lives who aren't happy themselves or who aren't, you know, they don't know who they are. And so I think what therapy does is it just brings out what's already down in there. And I think every single one of us has a light in us, but we can't see the light if our mental health is not good. I don't know. What do you think,

Char, about that, about that question? Um, I do think it makes you happier if you do the actual work and you do get to a place of healing. I don't think you're ever completely healed. You know what I mean?

And I don't want anybody to think that you're just always naturally happy either. Like, you know, I still deal with bouts of depression all the time. You know what i mean and i don't want anybody to think that you're just always naturally happy either like you know i still deal with bouts of depression all the time that's what i mean so i don't ever want nobody to think that any any of this just is going to automatically correct you now we're talking to dr alfie breland noble what do you think about uh programs like the breakfast club or like jason lee's hollywood unlock and the reason i ask is you know sometimes we take somebody's mental breakdown and we report it and we talk about it which could be traumatizing to the people who

it affects and not only that but their family and their friends as well so when you see the Breakfast Club reporting something or you see Jason Lee reporting something what do you think about? Let's just say when we see Tyrese and them go at it let's use that as a... It's all of the above

what is in promoted to yeah we talked about it we discussed those things okay yeah because we're gonna be real we're gonna keep it real real I think that you know everybody's different everybody has a different journey everybody has a different mechanism for coping I personally am a person where I have to try to keep everything around me, the energy positive. It can't always be light, but I'm always trying to seek the light, even in the difficulty. Right. But that's my journey for other people. They don't know how to find the light. Do you know what I mean? They can get stuck and they can get stuck in hearing things about themselves that don't portray them in the best light.

It can be traumatizing for, you know, I learned this from one of the young people I work with. Her name is Maeve. She has volunteered with the Acoma Project. She's a transgender young woman. And listening to her talk about people using what I've learned to call her dead name, her old name before she like really and fully embraced who she was. That's traumatizing and that's painful. And so I think what I've learned to do is anytime I'm in the room, I'm going to do my best to like I always say, spread love and light. That's my goal. That's what I'm put on this earth for.

Because maybe I can be a person who in that moment where somebody's feeling beat down or feeling like people are like piling on them. You know, you're never as bad as the worst thing that you've ever done. And we've all done awful stuff. So I think what I try to do is help people see, look, people can things I heard a young man's aunt say this a long time ago and it really helped me it's not what people say about you or what they call you it's what you choose to respond to and I try to carry that with me so to answer your question directly I think depending on the person it can be super traumatizing but I also think that if we can find the strength to I don't know go, go seek out like we were talking about earlier, therapy or seek out ways of taking care of ourselves and uplifting ourselves, maybe it can make that pain a little less. I hope I answered the question directly.

I think it can be traumatizing for people, but everybody needs to find some way to recognize that what people say about you is not the most important thing. It's what you think about yourself. Well, and you look at Britney Spears dancing with them little draws and the knives and the dogs running for cover. For us to not comment on it when you're a celebrity, putting out there to millions of people, that's what it is. If you don't want us to criticize or have an opinion, don't do it. It doesn't mean that I'm not doing the work or we're not doing the work. It means that you put this out here for public consumption. So, you know, I think sometimes when the celebrities feel like, you know, it's capped that we're working on ourselves so we shouldn't have an opinion. But what is that opinion though?

Because if you're doing the work on yourself and you see Britney Spears with the knives, you can look at that and say, man, something's wrong there. Yeah. You know what I mean? You can. Because you did get a wellness check. Yeah, you can. But also remember, sometimes when you see that stuff,

the reason it's out there is because the person isn't well. If they were well, they would never put that stuff out there. Like, you know what I mean? And having this conversation, there's people that may not be well that watch and go, oh, I'm not well, too. Yeah. I mean, so those conversations are helpful. Yes. Now, this weekend was the Mental Wealth Alliance, the expo that had so many people I seen on the video. I was actually in Alabama and I was so impressed because when I looked on the cameras, I seen the, it seemed like a monsoon in New York and the amount of people that showed up and showed out to show that, that they wanted it, they needed it and they respected it.

So I appreciate both of you guys for, for what you guys have done to help people on their mental journey. You know what I want to talk to you about, Dr. Alfie Breland Noble, you run a mental health alliance, but you also run the Acoma project. Could you tell them, tell us the mission of the mental health alliance as well as the Acoma project? Absolutely. So I'm going to shout out my senior executive liaison, Lexi Fields,

who's in here with me with the Acoma project. And the Acoma project is a mental health organization that's founded on three key principles, raising consciousness, empowering people and changing the system of mental health for youth and young adults of color. What makes us unique is a couple things. One is we are intentional and unapologetic about focusing on young people of diverse backgrounds because so much of what we know in the field is, and there's nothing wrong with it, white kids need support too, but that's who we know about in the mental health field. We don't know about Arab, MENA kids, African American, and Black kids of all the diaspora, right? Because we come from

lots of different places, Latino, Latine, Native American, AAPI folks. And so at the Acoma Project, our goal is to generate research and knowledge. This year, we put out something called the State of Mental Health of Youth of Color, one of the first of this kind reports where our entire sample was kids of color, including kids who identify as multiracial. And so being able to uplift and amplify and help these young people see you need to be centered in these conversations too. That's what we're all about. And what about the Mental Wealth Alliance? Oh yes. So the Mental Wealth Alliance, we're all about train, treat, and teach, uplifting the mental health and wellness of black folks specifically because we know right there's so many things that impact us

uniquely as black people and the whole goal with the mental wealth alliance is to again Center those needs Center those those special ways unique ways of healing and making sure that everybody out there knows as Char always says that you need to invest in your mental wealth and to like provide a model and an image so people can see black men taking care of themselves, black women taking care of themselves. Like we have representation from Dr. Lassiter, who's all about the queer community and making sure that black queer people know that they are a part of the conversation too. So the Mental Wealth Alliance is really like a hub to bring all kinds of folks together to help people understand that black folks' mental

health needs to be amplified. If I can just go back to the Coma Project, recently we did a youth summit in my hometown for about 200 young people. Stockdale. Stockton. Oh, I'm sorry, Stockton. Listen, it's a...

Stockton. Somebody else called it Stockholm, we get it. But it's a community with a lot of folks that look like us that, you know, there was 200 kids there. And last minute, the team put a young white boy up there. And there were three young boys and girls of color and then the white boy. They gave their experiences with violence, death, drugs, despair. Then he was like this young savior.

And I don't even think he knew what he was doing. But he was saying, my colored colleagues, like he was, this young savior and I don't even think he knew what he was doing but he was saying my colored colleagues like he was this young man was he said that colored and I'm sitting there facilitating this trying to be respectful of youth but also being very present and saying that like our lived experience is very different our lack of resources or even knowing about the resources is different and then the people in the audience was listening to the young black folks tell their story then when it got to white clapping them on and i said there you go praising him and not really and i i just think it came natural to folks that weren't really understanding well what i walked away with besides knowing that like we're very clear in intention about who we're targeting which is people that look like us

how important is it for parents families mentors people like me or us that have audiences um to promote mental health awareness and access to care for young people? Well, I think a couple of things. One is important for our communities because there's so much trauma. And you know what I mean? There's historical trauma. There's like live trauma in the moment. You got intergenerational trauma. And so I think regardless of what your socioeconomic status is, because I want people to be clear. Right. We got a Hampton grad right here. Like you have so much different, like you all are like in the public eye.

That's all right though, but you're in the public eye and you're successful. And so we have so much variability in our communities. And that's part of what I want people to understand is that our experiences are not, it's not a monolith. We're super diverse. And so for parents and caregivers, right? Because not everybody who takes care of a child

is a biological parent, right? You've got aunties and uncles and all that kind of stuff who grandparents. So for us, I think it is helping our young people understand by modeling. We got to take care of our own mental health to model for our young people that they need to. And even in the absence of that, we have to really be willing to encourage our young people to understand that taking care of your mental health and acknowledging that mental health is a thing and that mental illness is a thing, it doesn't make you weak. It doesn't make you sorry. What it really does is it empowers you. Because like I was saying earlier, when you can pull out the best of you, right, everybody gets

to experience that. But you can't find that if you're not taking care of your mental health. You know, I want to go back to something Jason said about having a white person at an event centered around black people. I don't know if the Mental Wealth Expo was ever centered around just black people. Mental health is not just a black or white issue. And I was happy that Carson Daly wanted to be a part of it because, number one, it just shows that this is something that we're all dealing with and i think anybody who has the the issues of anxiety or depression or whatever you're going through if you can help point us in the direction of more resources i'm all for it yeah i agree and i think the other thing about uh having somebody like carson there is a big mental health advocate it echoes what you said it's like it demonstrates

to people to me that everybody goes through stuff. But it also demonstrates to young people that all different kinds of people care about you and are invested in you. Because for so many of our young people, their experience of people who come from outside their community is not one of love and support. Right. You think about what they call the school to prison pipeline for our young black boys and girls, right? And so what we need is to see more of people like Carson at these kinds of events, supporting all different kinds of people. So our young people can know if it's a safe adult, if it's a trustworthy adult, I can go to that person and get some help, right? They don't have to look like me. I always say it's not necessarily about a racial match, although that's important in therapy. It's about an empathy match. Can you empathize with my experience, right? Can you uplift me without falling into stereotypes or

treating me in stereotypical ways? And so having Carson there, I think was just phenomenal. And I don't want people to think that Mental Wealth Expo is celebrity driven too. The biggest thing that I like having at the Expo is the experts, like the Dr. Alfie Breland, because we're not experts. I'm not an expert.on daily not an expert right michelle williams not an expert we're just people who have experiences and we share our experiences i loved having dr rita walker and dr judah joseph yes yeah elliot connie it's like a therapist elliot connie um dr jay barnett rishon rishon yes you know so that that black men's panel was phenomenal oh i'm so glad and my buddy trent out loud from can. He's representing the Canadians.

And so, you know, Dr. I'm sorry, not Dr. Jason Williams, Jason Phillips. I'm sorry. Who was in one of the breakout rooms. I saw Fonz, the therapist, and they had a picture of the brothers. And he was saying, yes, no crabs in a barrel here. I saw it on Instagram this morning.

He was just saying all these brothers out here uplifting and supporting each other. And people don't get to see that. Right. Because there's so fewer men in the mental health spaces mental health professional and i just want to echo you and give you your flowers because you were clear don't just stick the influences and celebrities up there i want to see the mental health professionals highlighted too and so i'm proud to say that together we were able to put a mental health expert on pretty much every single one of those panels right because? Because that's important to you. And so we made it

happen. That's the only thing. That's the reason I have the expo. So people can come there, hear from the experts, and walk away with real resources to get started on their healing journey. Yes. Yes. It was awesome. We appreciate you for joining us this morning. Thank you. And tell them where they can donate to the Acoma Project and

Mental Wealth Alliance and all that good stuff. Yes. So you go to mentalwealthalliance.org. All one word. Make sure you say.org. And you go to Acoma Project and Mental Wealth Alliance and all that good stuff. So you go to mentalwealthalliance.org, all one word. Make sure you say.org. And you go to Acoma Project, A-A-K-O-M-A Project, all one word,.org. And follow us on Instagram, both of the organizations. And please, people, go donate because these organizations can't do the work if they don't have any resources. And thank you all so much for having me. One more question.

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day. Yeah. What should people be doing on World Mental Health Day? I think people should do three things. First thing is you got to make a decision that you're ready to take care of your mental health. The second thing is you got to decide what is your level of motivation

to take care of your mental health. Third thing is you got to come up with a plan. So notice I didn't say start with a plan. I said you got to start with where your head and heart are in terms of taking care of yourself. You got to be motivated and then you go get ready to do the work. All right.

So when we come back, Jason Lee, you got the rumor report. We talked about all that. Now we're about to jump into rumors. Yeah. Sorry about this. Kevin Gates spitting somebody's mouth and it has the whole internet in shambles. Well, that could be. No, there was mental health involved with that.

It wasn't a treatment. It wasn't. Does it make him happy? She probably needed it. Did it make him happy? Did it make her happy? She probably needed it. Did it make him happy? Did it make her happy? We don't know. Well, we'll get into it.

All right. Well, we'll talk about it next. Thank you so much, Dr. Alfie Breland Noble. Thank you for having me. This is Breakfast Club. Good morning. Rumors on the way. Wake that ass up early in the morning.

The Breakfast Club. Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete.

Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-a-stan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.

It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love.

I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best. And you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, my undeadly darlings. It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows and it's going to be devilishly good. We've got chills, thrills, and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you? Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show, Civic Cipher. That's right. We discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other. So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.