Tyler Perry is opening up to let you know that you’re not alone.
The 53-year-old actor and director shared from his own personal experiences battling suicidal thoughts, after being shocked and surprised by Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss’ tragic suicide.
“I just want to take you back to a time in my life when I tried to commit suicide, a couple of times,” Tyler said.
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“Because it was so dark I didn’t think it would get any better. I had endured so much pain, so much abuse, sexual abuse, it was all so hard to just move through that I thought the only way to make this better was to end my life,” he continued.
“Had any of those attempts happened, I would’ve missed the best part of my life,” Tyler said, encouraging others to look forward to the future.
“I know it may seem like there’s no hope, but please reach out to someone … call, ask for help if you are dealing with anything that is emotionally taking you to a place where you think you want to end your life,” he said as he implored others to share their burdens.
Tyler then added a key insight in understanding one’s pain.
“What I realize now, looking back on all those dark times is, sometimes the pain is a buy-in. I know that’s hard to understand. Not all the time — sometimes — the pain is a buy-in. That’s the way I had to learn to look at it to get through it. What I mean by that is, all that pain, all that hell, all that struggle, if I had given up, if I had stopped, I wouldn’t have seen the better part of my life. I was buying into something, I was paying for something,” he said, reframing pain as the beginning to something better.
“I know that doesn’t make sense to a lot of people but for me, it was the way I was able to rationalize it, to be able to move through the pain, knowing that if I could just get through this moment, there’s got to be something better,” Tyler said.
Ellen DeGeneres reflected back on some of her favorite memories with collaborator and friend Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss.
