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The Life of Jenifer Lewis

February is Black History Month. I am going to do blogs on the lives of two black celebrities who have mental illness.

Jenifer Lewis is a singer, stage and screen actor, cabaret performer, producer and memoir author. She has bipolar Disorder. Jenifer has more than 250 film and television appearances. Among them are movies like, Get to Do With It, The Preacher’s Wife, and television show That’s So Raven.

She is known for her unabashed comments, brash humor, and oversized personality. Jenifer breaks into uproarious laughter with a deep distinctive voice. She was the voice for two characters in two animated movies-Cars, as the character Flo and in The Princess and the Frog as Mama Odie.

Jenifer says the bipolar disorder is treatable with medication and talk therapy. She tells people that they need to accept their diagnosis and take appropriate action. “You can live a good life with this disorder-but it takes clarity, determination, and a sense of purpose.” “Every day you must make this a daily struggle or you can make a conscious choice to take care of yourself, she says. Her point is this: No one can fix your life but you. Her prescription: “Just do the work. There’s simply no other answer to this.”

Jenifer finds it easier to talk to audiences about her mental health challenges than to talk to the black community. Not too many people in that community will talk about their mental illness. It is because they have the ideas embedded in their minds of shock treatment and straightjackets, and an inability to afford treatment. In reality everyone can get help because there are low-cost clinics.

She had dark times when she would manifest manic behaviors like-crying episodes, eruptions of rage, occasional spending binges, using alcohol and sex to mute emotion. In time she learned how to tame triggers, which are events that precipitates other events.

In 1990, her father died three days after she lost her best friend to AIDS. It was when she sought help that she was told by the doctor that she had Bipolar Disorder. Jenifer avoided taking medication at the time because she feared losing her artistic edge. She began to engage in a comprehensive health program which included exercise, journaling, meditation and a cleansing diet rich in wheat grass. At first the program made her feel great but she began to spiral downward. It was then when she admitted that she needed to take medication. She called her psychologist and said, “I’m sick, and I’m ready to admit it.” She started to take medication at that point and never looked back.  She was ready to stick it out through the tedious process of dealing with unwanted side effects and experimenting to find the right medication and dosage.

Jenifer insists that people keep themselves healthy. She works with a trainer, she also has a nutritionist working with her who recommends healthy grains or eggs in the morning, fruits and vegetables throughout the day minimal olive oil for healthy intake, and plenty of water. She has not smoked in 16 years, and only rarely has alcohol.

For exercise, Jenifer walks, cycles, and does Pilates and strength training. Her creative outlet is abstract paintings with oil markers on canvas. She checks in with her therapist as needed.

Jenifer wrote a memoir about her mental health condition. The book is entitled: “The Mother of Black Hollywood” which gets its name from the myriad of roles in which she played mom- to Angela Bassett (as Tina Turner), Taraji P. Henson, Whitney Houston, Tupac Shakur and several other superstars. She is wonderfully candid about her Bipolar Disorder in her memoir. Jenifer said, “There ain’t no shame in my game.”

Signed Renee D. Warring

https://www.bphope.com/jenifer-lewis-that’s-how-a-diva-does-it/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/jenifer-lewis-of-black-ish-has-coped-with-bipolar-disorder-by-doing-the-work/2018/02/02/48b9ef94-f720-11e7-a9e3-ab18ce41436a_story.html