The Strong Black Woman Myth and Its Mental Health Cost | Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett | E57

What if the traits we've been taught to admire are the same ones preventing us from healing? Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett has spent nearly four decades researching anxiety in Black communities, particularly among Black women and girls. In this conversation, she joins JoJo to discuss the hidden ways anxiety shows up in everyday life, the pressure of always having to be strong, the difference between panic attacks and stress, Black maternal mental health, generational patterns of coping, and why healing begins with telling yourself the truth about what you're carrying.

In This Episode, JoJo and Dr. Neal-Barnett Discuss:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:56) How Anxiety in Black Communities Is Overlooked 

(09:14) The “What If” Thinking That Fuels Anxiety 

(14:41) The Hidden Cost of Always Being Strong 

(26:24) How to Change the Recipe for Anxiety  

(33:54) The Maternal Mental Health Crisis We Don't Talk About 

(48:07) Why Asking for Help Is a Form of Strength 

(51:43) Trust Your Intuition and Tell the Truth

Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett is a clinical psychologist, professor at Kent State University, and one of the country's leading experts on anxiety in Black communities. She is the founder of the Program for Research on Anxiety Disorders Among African Americans (PRADAA) and the author of Soothe Your Nerves: The Black Woman's Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety, Panic, and Fear.

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