T.I.‘s daughter Deyjah Harris has never been one to love the limelight of being a celebrity kid and has gone to great lengths to stay off the grid. However, in recognition of “Self Injury/Self Harm Awareness Day,” she has taken to social media with a powerful message to those who may resort to the traumatic option of self-harm to express they are in crisis.
She took to Instagram and got transparent with her own personal struggles and expressed encouragement to those who may be in distress.
“Today is SIAD (self-injury/self-harm awareness day),” she started the lengthy caption. “I decided to leave some of you that can relate a little message. Obviously, if you cannot empathize with this then keep it scrolling/keep the rude comments to yourself because I will block you, but for those of you that can relate (unfortunately💔)… I see you.”
The 20-year-old beauty wrote, “Perhaps I had to experience this in order to be able to help someone else that is or will deal with this…”
“I mean we hurt so that we can help others heal from that same pain, right? I don’t need any sympathy, I don’t need any of you to try and guess why I did this to myself,” she captioned. “I don’t need you to tell me things like ‘oh, you shouldn’t do that to yourself, you’re too pretty for that’ etc. because that will change nothing.’”
According to the Crisis Textline, anyone can engage in self-harm. They share motivations that may trigger this reaction to stress, pain, and trauma.
The site is set up as a resource for young people and uses a text message modality to communicate quick messages about processing things that may cause them anxiety or stress. They helped explain “self-harm” this way: “When depression and anxiety lead to a tornado of emotions, they turn to self-harm looking for a release. Self-harm and self-injury are any forms of hurting oneself on purpose. Usually, when people self-harm, they do not do so as a suicide attempt. Rather, they self-harm as a way to release painful emotions.”
“All I need for you to do is simply speak and live in your truth like I always encourage you to do. I need you to see that if I can be brave enough to share this part of myself/my journey with the world, then you can too,” she vulnerably revealed to her 1.7 million Instagram followers.
She continued, “A lot of people don’t talk about the fact that there are multiple forms of self-harm, so for those of you that can’t relate to cutting but you can relate to other forms, I see you too and you’re not alone, TRUST me when I say that.”
Then she shared in her message for those going through this that they should not hide in shame, saying, “I don’t care if you think people will judge you if you think people will think you’re not right in the head, if you think it’ll make people love or like you less, or if you think people will say you’re doing it for attention, you deserve to share your story… when or if YOU’RE ready.”
Fans flocked to her comment section to celebrate her bold choice to share such a personal testimony.
Pettyy.Priincess said, “I don’t think there’s a celebrity child I appreciate more than you. How real you are, how humble you came to be! Through the trials and tribulations that women face, you came out as you! I love you, I thank you, and most of all I see you too.”
“So beautiful on the inside and out,” Introspectively.Me commented. “I admire and appreciate your courage and allowing to be so transparent because you never know who else you’re helping- so thank you, Queen!!! Love you.”
“Wow, Deyjah Harris is a strong Queen. Her truth definitely could help somebody, made me realize I need to do better on here, you never know what ppl are going thru and I really do have soo much love to give ❤️” tweeted, EnoughSaid646.
One relative, Bahja Rodriguez wrote, “Love you cousin💕💕💕 beyond proud of you for speaking your truth and helping others while doing it.”
Influencer Aanysa said, “We’re so proud of you ❤️ thank you for being BRAVE.”
An overflowing amount of support saturated her social media, and despite her early concern of people hating on her message, nothing of the sort could be found.
Harris concluded her wise counsel by sharing a charge to the Black community to push past their biases about therapy and getting support in areas of mental wellness.
According to research done in 2021 by The New York Times, Black kids may have “unique risk factors” connected to racism that adds to why they practice self-harm and placed a spotlight not just on the dynamic of hurting one’s self, but also recognized how data suggests that more children of color are considering death by suicide before talking to a professional.
“Every day is a good day to bring awareness to self-harm or mental health in general, especially in the Black community. I love you/you are loved, you are seen, you MATTER, and you deserve everything good in the world.”
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