G Herbo Addresses Mental Health With New Swervin’ Through Stress Initiative

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Mental health is a huge issue that, often times, goes unaddressed. Luckily celebrities and other public figures are becoming more open with their own struggles in an effort to help their fans.

Now, rapper G Herbo has teamed up with Audiomack to announce that they have partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and InnoPsych to create a new mental health initiative called Swervin’ Through Stress.

The Swervin’ Through Stress’ Dream Team Therapy Fund is going to provide 12 weeks of free therapy sessions to Black youth nationwide, all between the ages of 18-25. The initiative also includes a hotline that will be monitored by professionals–provided by NAMI–while InnoPsych will help match patients with adequate therapists. InnoPsych’s participation is important because the platform is focused on eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health in minority communities as well as specializing in therapy for people of color.

In his latest album, PTSD, G Herbo opened up to his listeners about his clinical diagnoses. Outside of his music, though, the rapper has been open about the anxiety he experiences and how it has impacted his life when talking to the media. He has also been vocal about seeking help and his personal experience with therapy.

“I think it was important for me to talk to somebody who’s never been through the stuff that you been through,” Herbo said when talking about therapy with MTV News. “Talking to my therapist, I was telling her certain stuff and she couldn’t believe it. I was so nervous during my first therapy session that I cracked my ID in half. She told me, ‘You have PTSD.'”

“I had to really, like, get naked with her in a sense,” he explained. “Every day I left out the house, I really felt like I was going to die or just go to jail for protecting myself. It’s important to just talk to somebody. A lot of times, we’ll block that intuition in the back of our head because we’re desensitized by it and we think its normal. She was there to tell me, ‘No, it’s not normal.”

Sign up for Swervin’ Through Stress initiative here on their website.