News /Victorious Black Women share tribulations, triumphs

In an effort to combat mental health stigma and discrimination within the African American community, five women shared their personal stories of struggle and recovery in an Alternatives presentation on Saturday.

Known as "Victorious Black Women," the group strives to create and promote culturally responsive peer recovery and support services, in addition to self-help tools and techniques for African American consumers, communities, and family members.

While the group represents a diverse array of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences, it is united by a shared history of and recovery from various mental health challenges.

In the presentation, co-founder Yvette McShan shared that she learned loving herself was essential to her recovery from substance abuse and mental health issues.

"My cycle of despair and self-hatred came from being hooked on heroin," McShan said. "My breakthrough moment came when I decided to be good to myself."

The first step in recovering, according to McShan, was going back to the lessons she learned as a kid.

"What separated me from the people on the street was that I was taught to work and educate myself," McShan said. "I went back to what I know. I am now victorious because I love myself."

Speaker Sedaria Lewis finds her wellness through job searching and maintaining her dream of re-entering the workforce.

Growing up on a farm in Oklahoma with no indoor plumbing or indoor water, Lewis was abused by her grandfather and ultimately moved to California to live with her mother, who was a practicing alcoholic. With her first marriage at 14 and six marriages in total, Lewis was also battered multiple times.

"Today, I'm looking toward the future and training to reenter the workplace," Lewis said. "I'm optimistic and excited."

The eldest of six children and a mother of four, presenter Renee Harris is a survivor of multiple traumas and suicide attempts.

"As a kid, I was told by a woman I was a special child and God had his eyes on me," Harris said. "But I felt unloved, unseen. I had no one to protect me."

Her first trauma occurred at the age of four when she spent seven hours locked in a refrigerator after playing a game with her little brother. Her cousin ultimately found and rescued her from the refrigerator, just as he later found her on a street corner many years later abusing drugs.

After overcoming multiple challenges, Harris is now a peer support provider and has been helping other consumers for five years.

One of eight children growing up in upstate New York, speaker Christal Byrd remembers how her father’s trauma serving in Vietnam was passed to the rest of the family.

Wounded to the point of being presumed dead, Byrd’s father didn't reenter his family's life until two years after his mother was notified of his death.

According to Byrd, no one ever talked with her father about what he went through. She surmises that is partially to blame for how he interacted with his children and the mental distress he caused.

"My father beat us children with our clothes off," Byrd said. "I was so desperate for attention and love that I tried to get it by overachieving in school and sports."

Byrd left home at 17, but wasn’t yet ready for the world and continued to struggle.

In 2006, she lost everything, including her children who were taken away. She found herself homeless in 2008. In 2009, she entered the Best Now program in Alameda County that trains consumers for a career in peer support.

"I didn't know I had mental health issues at the time; I didn't know there was a name for what I experienced," Byrd said. "Now, I try not to look back and be a victim, but learn and continue to move forward."

Victorious Black Women co-founder Yaffa Alter experienced trauma at a young age. Molested by her father from the ages of 3-8, no one — including her mother — believed what she was going through. As a result, she started to hurt herself at age nine up until a couple years ago.

"I would cut, burn, pull my hair, and bang my head until I was unconscious," Alter said. "I was in the psych ward for months at a time."

A breakthrough for Alter came during her last hospitalization, in which a mental health worker encouraged her to develop a skill he spotted in her, which was writing.

"[The worker] said I had a gift and a better life was possible; he believed in me," Alter said. "I had previously received a scholarship to UCLA that I had given away. But after speaking with that worker, I enrolled at San Francisco State, graduated at the top of my class with a degree in public health, and vowed to speak out for myself and others. I have finally found my voice."

To learn more about Victorious Black Women, find them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VBWSpeak