Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star Safaree Samuels is getting a better understanding of mental health and revealing how he plans to help protect his young children from negativity online.
Safaree addresses how rampant online bullying can lead to suicidal thoughts
The musician and reality star spoke out on the matter via his Instagram Story on Sunday. Safaree Samuels began by sharing that, to his shock, his friend’s little niece had recently contemplated suicide.
“Yo, I don’t know what’s going on in the air. I don’t know if it’s the food, but I just got a call from one of my close friends. He had to take an emergency flight abroad because his 12-year-old niece had just tried to kill herself.”
He took a moment to process the situation and said, “Yo, this suicide business, this is crazy.”
Safaree then went on to admit that the 12-year-old girl tried to take her life due to cyberbullying. As a result, Safaree made the decision to try to keep her children with Erica Mena off the internet.
“He said it was due to bullying and the internet. That’s why I don’t let my kids go online. I really try to keep that as much as possible.
Soon after, Safaree shared another Instagram Story where he reacted to a statistic about the suicide rate among Black men.
“Every 15 seconds a Black man commits suicide. That is crazy. So that means, [over] the length of his video, that just happened. OH.”
His words follow Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss to death by suicide
We must sadly note that Safaree’s commentary comes about a week after Stephen “tWitch” Boss was found dead by suicide.
His body was found at a hotel in Los Angeles last Tuesday. TMZ broke the news, and a suicide note was later found at the scene in which he is said to have alluded to past hardships.
Since tWitch’s death, we should also add that Tyler Perry has come forward and been candid about his own battle with mental health, like Shade room previous report.
After admitting that he had “attempted suicide a couple of times,” Tyler admitted, “If any of those attempts had come to pass, I would have missed out on the best part of my life.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline is available 24/7 by calling the three-digit number. In addition, many other resources can be accessed through Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
