Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Tamara R. Jackson.
Founder of Hopeful Therapy and Consulting, she provides holistic mental health care with an emphasis on trauma-informed support for individuals living with autoimmune diseases.
🔑 Key Themes & Highlights
-
Understanding Autoimmune Diseases
- Autoimmune diseases occur when the body mistakenly attacks healthy cells. Common examples include lupus, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), and Crohn’s disease.
- Over 80 types of autoimmune diseases exist, yet public awareness remains low.
-
Tamara’s Personal Journey
- She has worked in mental health for over two decades.
- During the Covid lockdown, she experienced worsening symptoms, eventually leading to her rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.
- With limited resources available during the pandemic, she relied on her professional expertise and personal resilience to navigate her new reality.
-
Symptoms & Daily Impact
- Inflammation & Mobility Issues – Tamara experienced extreme stiffness, particularly in her hands, making basic tasks difficult.
- Chronic Fatigue – Unlike normal tiredness, this type of exhaustion can cause sudden body shutdowns, resembling narcolepsy.
-
Mental Health & Autoimmune Disease
- Growing Awareness in Black Communities – The last five years have seen significant improvements in mental health advocacy, especially post-Covid.
- Cultural Stigma – While progress has been made, stigma around seeking help still exists in communities of color.
- Safe Spaces Matter – Tamara emphasizes the importance of therapy and open dialogue for individuals managing chronic illnesses.
-
Diet & Lifestyle Adjustments
- The anti-inflammatory diet plays a critical role in managing symptoms.
- Avoiding processed foods, excessive sugar, and farm-raised meats can reduce inflammation.
- Each person’s dietary needs differ based on their autoimmune condition.
-
The Invitation Documentary
- Tamara directed an award-winning documentary, The Invitation, which educates the public about autoimmune diseases.
- Available for rent on Vimeo, the film includes testimonials, expert insights, and screenings with interactive discussions.
📘 Resources & Contact Information
Tamara’s work is accessible through:
🔗 Instagram: @TheInvitationDocumentary
🔗 Website: TamaraJackson.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the show. I'm Rashwan MacDonald, the host of
Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with non profits who are making
(00:25):
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My guess is a licensed clinical
social worker, certified critical trauma professional, and passionate advocate for
auto immune disease awareness. As the found of Hopeful Therapy
(00:47):
and Consulting, Tomorrow provides holistic mental health care for individuals
living with autoimmune diseases, emphasizing trauma informed care, stress management,
and emotional wellness, which is all very important. Please welcome
the Money Making Conversation master Class Tomorrow. Are Jackson, how
(01:07):
you doing? My friend?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Hello? Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Now, I said a lot. Okay, so let's break it
down to my audience so they can they can hang
in there with us. Okay, First, well, let's start with
autoimmune diseases, What exactly is that? Sure?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So, autoimmune disease is when the body mistakes healthy cells
for invaders and begins to fight itself. And so some
of the popular ones that we know about are like lupus.
You hear about rheumatoid arthritis, multiple carosis, are as it's
recurred determined as ms, you know. So those are some
(01:45):
of the kind of ones, even chrones. Right, these are
some of the ones that we hear about often, but
in actuality they're over eighty autoimmune diseases.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Autoimmune How did you get into this line of thought
process or care.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Let me first say I've been a mental health professional
for over two decades, right, and so in the process
of you know, me working with families sometimes individuals, I've
worked with people who have dealt with chronic illness, not
even specifically auto on mute, but auto mune was sometimes
part of it, right. And so as far as how
(02:24):
I get to where I am today, during the lockdown,
I was again still weren't working as a mental health professional,
and you know, proliferated we know COVID and all of
those things. But equally alongside with that, I was dealing
with some symptoms that I had started exploring even before
(02:46):
the lockdown. It wasn't into that following like November, that
I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. So it came from
a very personal place. And when I was diagnosed, we
also there was no one to really reach out to
because everything was shut down, like literally right, And so
(03:07):
I will say in my personal journey, the work that
I had already been doing with individuals throughout the span
of my career informed how I was able to respond
in even kind of my next steps.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Now I know you're not a doctor, you know, no, right, right,
little something, because I got to ask exactly what some
of these symptoms are, so it can help me be educated.
Because first let's start with something that is personally attacking
your body. Rumatall? Do you said rumatoid? Or what exactly
(03:42):
is that?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So just think inflammation when we're talking about on our
immune disease across the board, just think of always inflammation
as part of it, right, And so like your body,
there's different organs or systems are in your body where
inflammation is stored. Right, So it far as far as
(04:05):
ouray is concerned, I deal with chronic inflammation. And for
me in my personal journey, because again each person is different.
Just like you said, my initial symptoms was my hands
were sticking. I literally at times in the morning, I
will wake up and couldn't open my hands, or it
(04:25):
took a lot of force opening my hands for instance. Also,
something that is really common across the board with autoimmune
disease is fatigue. And I'm not talking about a little tired.
I'm not talking about the push through I'll get through it.
I'm tired. This is like literally almost like a narc
knock or elepsy, where like the body literally shuts down
(04:49):
without warning. You can't even pretend to try to stay up.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Here's the thing about the last five years has been
incredible as far as awareness, especially in the when mental
health area, especially in the African American community or community
of color, which has always been in denial or didn't
have the information or the train or lanes where you
could go if you had issues, and COVID exposed that
(05:14):
to all of us, and I think there was a
willingness to be able to seek help. I know personally
I'm dealing. I'm doing some virtual therapy with stress, trying
to get my life back down to normal because it's
never been normal. You know, I've always bragged about my
stressful life. I almost was a champion because of it.
(05:36):
But something's not right. You got to have time for yourself. Okay,
anybody's listening. Something that has to be done so you
can have a calm, normal, everyday life. With that being said,
Black people, that's me. Do we get it now or
we're still struggling to get there tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I think with everything that is happening in our society,
people expect us to just sit back and almost like, Okay,
well we're gonna hint, We're just gonna take it right.
But what we've seen you mentioned the last five years,
even when if we think back to the shutdown where
people came out of their houses and was protesting, like, no,
we're not gonna have it. You're not gonna be whipping
(06:22):
on us. You're not gonna be shooting our children down,
our husband's, our brothers, uncles, et cetera, right, our daughter's nieces, etc.
And so much is happening, yes, and I think we
are getting it. I think no, have we arrived now?
And there's still such stigma. But in my work, I
see I work with a lot of us, you know,
(06:45):
and when I say us, it can be black or
it could be another person of color. Absolutely, people are
showing up. More people are understanding it's okay not to
be okay, And I think equally it helps when they're
opposite someone that looks like him.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Let me just update everybody who we're talking to. I'm
talking tomorrow. R Jackson. She's a licensed clinical social worker
and certified clinical trauma professional with a deep passion for
autoimmune disease awareness. Now, well, we when I asked at
the beginning of the show, she said lupa's rheumatad arthritis,
which she is. In fact, I have a personal crisis
(07:20):
and she deals with MS. And but she said, you know,
Sir Richel, despite the grower preference of these autoimmune diseases
are underrepresented, underrepresented mainstream health discussion. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
So yes, right, kind of like the usual suspects of
autoimmune diseases, we're very familiar, we're very familiar with. But
when it really comes down to education, I would ask you,
what do you really know about rheumatoid arthritis? What do
you really know about lupus and how it shows up? Right?
And the limited and even more than how it shows
(07:56):
up the limitations. Right. So this is kind of where
I work with client and individuals about right, because now
I can't show up the same and you as my
friend or you as my partner may be empathetic and
know my status or whatever situation is, but you don't
even know how to help me sometimes from day to day.
(08:16):
To know to live with a chronic illness, all all
immune or otherwise is to know that from day to day,
for the most part, you're not gonna know what that
next day is going to bring. So there's good days
and there's bad days, and there's days that you got
it and it feels like you can run the world
like the back the old days, but there's a lot
(08:36):
of days that you just can't. You just can't, mister McDonald.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
If so, if a friend of yours say they're dealing
with something, asked what they're dealing with and how is
impact in their lives so you can be there for them.
That's the step, Pardicatar. Don't just walk away thinking you understand,
because my simple thing is the word arthritis has been
around my vocabulary the most. You know, talk about your
(09:01):
knuckles and your knees, you know, creaking. You know, nobody
wants to deal with any formal authoritis as you get old.
But then you tell me rumatald author brush. I can't
open my hands sometimes, you know, wow, I.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Can't even open this. Times I couldn't even open my door.
You know how you press down? If you do the
press down, I couldn't even open my door.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I had to go to pt So with that being said, mentally,
that's where you come in and you help right absolutely
walking through the steps, walking through some of those steps.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I say the biggest part of my job is active
listening because if I don't listen, I don't even know
what questions. And usually I'm a person of questions, right
because my my remedy is not gonna help you, right,
even if a person has already like me, it's gonna
show up differently. So I just have to make safe
(09:56):
space for you to explore the possibilities. And I think
that's that's the biggest thing that I can say, The
biggest gift that I have been able to do in
my work is create safe space for people to understand
that we can put a semicolonto this diagnosis as opposed
to a period because when we get these news, right,
when we get the name to the situation, it's such
(10:19):
so matter of fact. And as you said, fifty million
people are affected with autoimmune diseases, right, And it's almost
like the doctor that gives you the news is reducing
you to a statistic. But I'm not a statistic and
I still need to now figure out how I show
up in my own life, right, what does this mean?
(10:39):
You know? How what does the alterations that I need
to have mean for me? And that's usually not the
conversations that you get with doctors. Honestly, that becomes with
your own research, that comes with you know, working with
a therapist or you know, are having a confidant that
gives you again safe space. I know I keep saying that,
but safety is very important because so much is going
(11:03):
on of what can bubble up when you hear this
diagnosis and what people associated to me tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Like I stated several times in the show, and I'm
gonna keep stating it because you need to understand we're
talking to a professional. She's a licensed clinical social worker
worker and certified clinical trauma professional with a deep passion
for auto mune autoimmune disease awareness. Now this conversation is
leaning more to empowering the community through conversation because and
(11:33):
education and education. Now you let's let's let's let's get
even deeper into tomorrow. You had an award winning documentary. Okay,
how can we Is it on YouTube or can we
access that?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yes, it's actually on Vimeo. You can actually if you
go to Vimeo and you put in the invitation that
is the name of it, it should come up and
it gives you opportunity to rent it. No one can
can buy it. But because I'm still doing screenings, and
I do screenings whereas I do talkbacks and education, and
even there's a version of it where I will bring
(12:11):
a chef along and we'll will have you sampling food
because food is medicined. And yes, sometimes we have to
use medication, and I do use medication. But everybody that
is featured in the documentary also has incorporated what I
call lifestyle management, making intentional decisions whereas we can thrive
(12:34):
in spite of having whatever autoimmune disease that is, and
for a number of us, that includes food for a
number of us, that includes how you know what we
say yes to and what we say no to is
very is moving with extreme intentionality.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So you're saying, Rajan is on vimeo. My award winning
documentary is on Vimeo. Just go to Vimeo in this
search bar, type in the invitation and one can rent that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
This is a that is correct, or you can go
to IG. Here's another like, sure she's fired up now
she finally got to act together. Well, yeah, because if
we go through social media, there's a couple of ways
that you can do it. So do the meal, but
also on IG there's an impact campaign because it's all
(13:20):
about awareness, like you had said in education. So there's
an impact campaign page that I have created for the film,
and it's called the Invitation Documentary and that link also
even attached all over that. All over that page you
will have different resources, inspiration testimonials, you know. All of
(13:41):
that is on that page. But in the in the
profile is a link and it has doing the link tree.
It has where you can go hit and rent the video.
Also my website Hopeful Therapy and Consulting or even tomorrow
r Jackson dot com.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money making conversations Masterclass. Welcome back, to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(14:23):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Okay, let's talk about this tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I'm sorry, y'all have a lot now, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I'm letting you get your worried out because we got to.
I don't know. This episode is about education, It's about
pushing us beyond. Oh yeah, yeah, I got you, I
got you. I got you because one of the most
compelling things you mentioned on this show is that autoimmune disease.
You can be great on Tuesday, be bad on Wednesday. Absolutely,
(14:53):
you can be great on Monday, Tuesday, window, Thursday, Friday,
and band on Saturday. You can't make the party or
you can't make the wedd right and I can't get
up and go to work on Monday morning. And what
happens in that old situation is the word embarrassment. Not
wanting to tell people what's going on in your personal life,
not wanting to feel like baggage. You don't want to
(15:16):
walk in a room with people staring at you. If
you stumble I'm all you know, because you know how
people are. If they don't understand something you cough, they
think it's contagious even though it's not contagious. So something
you mentioned earlier is the word diet, because that's so
important what you eating, how you eat. Let's stick with
(15:36):
you because you know you're my personal subject matter expert.
You have ari As she's shouting it to me. Now,
I'm like, like, I know what I'm talking about, all right,
I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
No, go ahead, I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I love it. What did your did change? And what
did you do? Did you fight your diet change or
how did did y'all die change? For you?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
When I when we say diet here, we're not talking
about of latest trend, you know. No, we're talking about
a lifestyle change. And really what that looks like is
an anti inflammatory diet. For me, I was already plant based, right,
so I didn't have to It wasn't too much pivoting,
(16:18):
not saying that a person has to be plant based
on an ANSI inflammatory diet. Well, what it does include
is making sure you're eating wild caught foods like wild
caught salmon. I think Macro was on the list year.
It was like those white fish, right, and salmon equally,
(16:39):
it's the wild gain as far as meats, so it's
not beef, but it's like buffalo and absolutely so anything
that you ingest, it's not promoting more inflammation. Remember I
said at the beginning, will all auto I mean disease,
(17:00):
you know that. Excuse me? Inflammation is involved, right, So
any means necessary. We're trying to reduce inflammation. So that's
reducing sugar. Now here is where there's some nuance, right, So,
and where it becomes particular me as a person with
RA it's okay for me to eat avocados. I'm gonna
(17:23):
use avocados because I avocados, by the way, exactly, I
love avocados. It's a healthy fat. Right. However, one of
the participants in my film who has lupis nephritis, which
means the lupis attacks her kidneys and she's on dialysis, right,
so yeah, there's extreme dialys yeah yeah, and so she
(17:46):
can't have avocados. So she has a very specialized diet
and it also is anti inflammatory. But there's things that
she can't eat. She can eat, like a halo arnt,
like the little clementine, but she can't have an actual orange.
So it's the It's also not only what you eat,
but the makeup of what you eat, if that makes sense.
(18:09):
But if you're a meat eater, it definitely means wild court.
It definitely means more chicken turkey type of thing. Again,
is that wild court. You don't want the farm raised stuff.
It is more of the wilder games meats, like I said,
like elk and things in buffalo and things so that
(18:30):
things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Well, you know when I talk about you know, I
try to personalize some of that stuff so people can
understand that. You know, I'm engaged in the whole process
because as you get older, you're dying has to change
because you're trying to you know, you you know, you're
not in the rush to get to the finish line.
You know, I'm trying to. I'm trying to push that
gold post, as I say, move a gold post. Roshall
wasn't moving those gold posts at twenty. Now I'm pushing
(18:55):
that gold post as far out the one't even want
to see it tomorrow now. So when you start getting
these symptoms, let's talk about your business that you've developed
and how people get in touch with you because again,
sometimes we can blow off what really is an auto
(19:15):
immune issue that you're dealing with, but we don't. You know,
you know, people google stuff AI stuff because technology is
really proving to be a bad doctor now because it
talks back to you. It talks back to you, and
you know, it used to be just you Google and
you just read. Now, oh you have this time I
go home and do that, you know, and that's not
(19:36):
good because you actually think somebody's talking to you. And
that's not fair because voices nowadays don't sound like computers
like they used to. They sound like human beings are
talking back to you. Now when you're dealing with this
new technology tomorrow, does that scare you?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
No, it doesn't scare me. Let me be fair. I
don't use it, and you googling symptoms will have you
thinking you have everything. So let me simplify in saying this.
If you are experiencing discomfort in your body, whatever that
means for you, please go see a doctor. It's in
(20:17):
particular you're dealing with chronic fatigue like I was saying, handsticking,
or you're dealing with kind of like that irritoboo type
of thing that may be like crones or colitis or
you know, are something in that you need to see
a professional. So for anything dealing with the GI track,
that's kind of a gastro entrologist, right For a person
(20:39):
like myself, whether it's ara psoriasis, even lupists right, Really,
a rheumatologists can diagnose all of this. They do this
whole panel and they're able to omit what's not happening
and they're able to identify what actually is happening. So
I would say, and usually these these are additional referrals
(21:02):
that you got to get from your primary But equally
I'll say this is that if your doctor is not
listening to you about your symptoms, that is not your doctor.
Change your doctor. So I also want to empower people
to know that you know, whoever they're being working with,
that is not the end all to be all. If
(21:23):
they're not answering your questions, if they're not respecting your person,
if they're treating you just like a statistic or diagnosis,
then it's time to start exploring where you can develop
a treatment team, because you need a treatment team with this,
there's no magic in it. Just like I say, we
need doctors, you need a mental health professional. You know,
(21:44):
I I just have to say it. Your friend will
be well intentioned, your family member well intentioned, but you're
gonna wind up getting annoyed because they're not equipped. They
don't have the tools to help you navigate this diagnosis
and the nuances of it. They just don't It doesn't
mean that they don't love you, they don't care, they're
(22:06):
not concerned, they just don't have it. So to avoid
you getting upset and them getting upset, there's already gonna
be strains in relationships. So let me also say that.
And I'm sorry. I don't want to overtalk, but I
just want to manage expectations. There's always, there's always with
chronic illness, you're going to deal with changes and dynamics
(22:27):
in relationships, both intimate and friendship, and otherwise it is
no way else that it can happen. And I tell
you this, you can't fight for your life and fight people.
So it's just one of the other things that's gonna
become part of your grief process. Know that grieving is okay,
it is actually healthy, but have support in that process. Girl,
(22:53):
I know I said a lot, well you.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Know you said all the right things. I was kind
of like going there when I was just talking about
how they're going to be changes tied to the other. Life, embarrassment,
not want to acknowledge everything going on. You're in a
relationship that you're excited about, you want to don't want
to acknowledge, and sometimes you go, I'm not making an
excusees why you don't want to be seen that day
(23:15):
because you don't want that person to see you uncomfortable
and watching them react to you being uncomfortable. Truth is
when you've got an auto immune disease. And I'm talking
to Tomorrow. She's a full named Tomorrow R. Jackson. She's
a licensed clinical social worker. She's an award winning documentary.
(23:36):
It's called The Invitation. You can go to Vimeo, type
in the search line. The Invitation pops right up. You
can rent it there and it talks about things that
you've heard about. You know. Our a is what she's
dealing with. Personal rheumatad arthritis. Have friends, a couple of
friends who have lupus, And I can tell you this.
I'm aware of the name. I don't know their symptoms,
which is not good because guess what I've called them
(23:58):
My friend, I should know more because they're a crisis.
I should understand what exactly those symptoms look like so
I could be there for them. But again, when you
we all know the number one thing we do is
avoid information. We don't want to be engaged in information.
Nobody wants to walk into a dark room. What we
do we turn on the light. So nobody wants to
(24:20):
walk into a situation where they are confused because there's
no life switch to turn on. You got to sit
there and hear that person, and then you have to
make a decision is this something I want to be
engaged with on a regular basis. And that's what people
with autoimmune disease, all fifty million plus of them are
dealing with, dealing with a mental world of acceptance. And
(24:43):
so that's my soapbox moment because I feel that when
I put together this show, but people go, why are
you talking about this? Well, guess what. There are people
out there that the number fifty million, That means you know, somebody,
this is money making conversations. Money making conversations that if
they suffer, it's going to impact you. They might not
go to work, they might not buy something, they might
(25:05):
it might be a key person to engage in your
life that you don't even know what bottom line is Tomorrow,
how do we get in touch with you, my.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Friend Tomorrow Jackson dot com. Okay, everything that you need
will be there. You will find the documentary. Naturally, you'll
find more than one, even though this is the one
on autoimmune disease. You will find a one sheet that
I created part of the Impact campaign on autoimmune disease,
(25:37):
where you will get tips and the resources when if
you've been newly diagnosed and you know even how you support,
if you want to book me and you want to
book a screening and have me have a talk back
or conversation or even you know, we have a tasting
attached to it, right because people always think changing food
(26:01):
means nasty, and I promise you it's not our tasteless.
That is how you that is how you can get
in touch with me. We're gonna just simplify it Tomorrowarjackson
dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Love it Tomorrow. Thank you for coming on my show.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Thank you so much for having me. I truly truly
appreciate it. Especially this is so important because it is
mental Health Awareness Month and also on the twentieth is
auto inflammatory ausritus Day. So for all of those things
and more, not that we need especially month or day
(26:42):
to bring up these lift up these things. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, I guess what, I don't care about the days
because I'm educating people that the day starts today, the
day starts to do so the day starts to September.
And I based the show on education and information and
you've educated me. I'm telling you. So that means you're
winning because you because you supplied the right information to
make sure that guests were shaying. You have a large soapbox,
(27:11):
your big bullhorn.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
The more people to hear this story could save lives
and relationships, by the way, because like.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
You said, that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
My friend, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today, and thank you listening to the
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Joined us next week and remember to always leave with
(27:47):
your gifts. Keep winning,
Welcome to the show. I'm Rashwan MacDonald, the host of
Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with non profits who are making
(00:25):
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My guess is a licensed clinical
social worker, certified critical trauma professional, and passionate advocate for
auto immune disease awareness. As the found of Hopeful Therapy
(00:47):
and Consulting, Tomorrow provides holistic mental health care for individuals
living with autoimmune diseases, emphasizing trauma informed care, stress management,
and emotional wellness, which is all very important. Please welcome
the Money Making Conversation master Class Tomorrow. Are Jackson, how
(01:07):
you doing? My friend?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Hello? Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Now, I said a lot. Okay, so let's break it
down to my audience so they can they can hang
in there with us. Okay, First, well, let's start with
autoimmune diseases, What exactly is that? Sure?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So, autoimmune disease is when the body mistakes healthy cells
for invaders and begins to fight itself. And so some
of the popular ones that we know about are like lupus.
You hear about rheumatoid arthritis, multiple carosis, are as it's
recurred determined as ms, you know. So those are some
(01:45):
of the kind of ones, even chrones. Right, these are
some of the ones that we hear about often, but
in actuality they're over eighty autoimmune diseases.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Autoimmune How did you get into this line of thought
process or care.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Let me first say I've been a mental health professional
for over two decades, right, and so in the process
of you know, me working with families sometimes individuals, I've
worked with people who have dealt with chronic illness, not
even specifically auto on mute, but auto mune was sometimes
part of it, right. And so as far as how
(02:24):
I get to where I am today, during the lockdown,
I was again still weren't working as a mental health professional,
and you know, proliferated we know COVID and all of
those things. But equally alongside with that, I was dealing
with some symptoms that I had started exploring even before
(02:46):
the lockdown. It wasn't into that following like November, that
I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. So it came from
a very personal place. And when I was diagnosed, we
also there was no one to really reach out to
because everything was shut down, like literally right, And so
(03:07):
I will say in my personal journey, the work that
I had already been doing with individuals throughout the span
of my career informed how I was able to respond
in even kind of my next steps.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Now I know you're not a doctor, you know, no, right, right,
little something, because I got to ask exactly what some
of these symptoms are, so it can help me be educated.
Because first let's start with something that is personally attacking
your body. Rumatall? Do you said rumatoid? Or what exactly
(03:42):
is that?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So just think inflammation when we're talking about on our
immune disease across the board, just think of always inflammation
as part of it, right, And so like your body,
there's different organs or systems are in your body where
inflammation is stored. Right, So it far as far as
(04:05):
ouray is concerned, I deal with chronic inflammation. And for
me in my personal journey, because again each person is different.
Just like you said, my initial symptoms was my hands
were sticking. I literally at times in the morning, I
will wake up and couldn't open my hands, or it
(04:25):
took a lot of force opening my hands for instance. Also,
something that is really common across the board with autoimmune
disease is fatigue. And I'm not talking about a little tired.
I'm not talking about the push through I'll get through it.
I'm tired. This is like literally almost like a narc
knock or elepsy, where like the body literally shuts down
(04:49):
without warning. You can't even pretend to try to stay up.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Here's the thing about the last five years has been
incredible as far as awareness, especially in the when mental
health area, especially in the African American community or community
of color, which has always been in denial or didn't
have the information or the train or lanes where you
could go if you had issues, and COVID exposed that
(05:14):
to all of us, and I think there was a
willingness to be able to seek help. I know personally
I'm dealing. I'm doing some virtual therapy with stress, trying
to get my life back down to normal because it's
never been normal. You know, I've always bragged about my
stressful life. I almost was a champion because of it.
(05:36):
But something's not right. You got to have time for yourself. Okay,
anybody's listening. Something that has to be done so you
can have a calm, normal, everyday life. With that being said,
Black people, that's me. Do we get it now or
we're still struggling to get there tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I think with everything that is happening in our society,
people expect us to just sit back and almost like, Okay,
well we're gonna hint, We're just gonna take it right.
But what we've seen you mentioned the last five years,
even when if we think back to the shutdown where
people came out of their houses and was protesting, like, no,
we're not gonna have it. You're not gonna be whipping
(06:22):
on us. You're not gonna be shooting our children down,
our husband's, our brothers, uncles, et cetera, right, our daughter's nieces, etc.
And so much is happening, yes, and I think we
are getting it. I think no, have we arrived now?
And there's still such stigma. But in my work, I
see I work with a lot of us, you know,
(06:45):
and when I say us, it can be black or
it could be another person of color. Absolutely, people are
showing up. More people are understanding it's okay not to
be okay, And I think equally it helps when they're
opposite someone that looks like him.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Let me just update everybody who we're talking to. I'm
talking tomorrow. R Jackson. She's a licensed clinical social worker
and certified clinical trauma professional with a deep passion for
autoimmune disease awareness. Now, well, we when I asked at
the beginning of the show, she said lupa's rheumatad arthritis,
which she is. In fact, I have a personal crisis
(07:20):
and she deals with MS. And but she said, you know,
Sir Richel, despite the grower preference of these autoimmune diseases
are underrepresented, underrepresented mainstream health discussion. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
So yes, right, kind of like the usual suspects of
autoimmune diseases, we're very familiar, we're very familiar with. But
when it really comes down to education, I would ask you,
what do you really know about rheumatoid arthritis? What do
you really know about lupus and how it shows up? Right?
And the limited and even more than how it shows
(07:56):
up the limitations. Right. So this is kind of where
I work with client and individuals about right, because now
I can't show up the same and you as my
friend or you as my partner may be empathetic and
know my status or whatever situation is, but you don't
even know how to help me sometimes from day to day.
(08:16):
To know to live with a chronic illness, all all
immune or otherwise is to know that from day to day,
for the most part, you're not gonna know what that
next day is going to bring. So there's good days
and there's bad days, and there's days that you got
it and it feels like you can run the world
like the back the old days, but there's a lot
(08:36):
of days that you just can't. You just can't, mister McDonald.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
If so, if a friend of yours say they're dealing
with something, asked what they're dealing with and how is
impact in their lives so you can be there for them.
That's the step, Pardicatar. Don't just walk away thinking you understand,
because my simple thing is the word arthritis has been
around my vocabulary the most. You know, talk about your
(09:01):
knuckles and your knees, you know, creaking. You know, nobody
wants to deal with any formal authoritis as you get old.
But then you tell me rumatald author brush. I can't
open my hands sometimes, you know, wow, I.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Can't even open this. Times I couldn't even open my door.
You know how you press down? If you do the
press down, I couldn't even open my door.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I had to go to pt So with that being said, mentally,
that's where you come in and you help right absolutely
walking through the steps, walking through some of those steps.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I say the biggest part of my job is active
listening because if I don't listen, I don't even know
what questions. And usually I'm a person of questions, right
because my my remedy is not gonna help you, right,
even if a person has already like me, it's gonna
show up differently. So I just have to make safe
(09:56):
space for you to explore the possibilities. And I think
that's that's the biggest thing that I can say, The
biggest gift that I have been able to do in
my work is create safe space for people to understand
that we can put a semicolonto this diagnosis as opposed
to a period because when we get these news, right,
when we get the name to the situation, it's such
(10:19):
so matter of fact. And as you said, fifty million
people are affected with autoimmune diseases, right, And it's almost
like the doctor that gives you the news is reducing
you to a statistic. But I'm not a statistic and
I still need to now figure out how I show
up in my own life, right, what does this mean?
(10:39):
You know? How what does the alterations that I need
to have mean for me? And that's usually not the
conversations that you get with doctors. Honestly, that becomes with
your own research, that comes with you know, working with
a therapist or you know, are having a confidant that
gives you again safe space. I know I keep saying that,
but safety is very important because so much is going
(11:03):
on of what can bubble up when you hear this
diagnosis and what people associated to me tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Like I stated several times in the show, and I'm
gonna keep stating it because you need to understand we're
talking to a professional. She's a licensed clinical social worker
worker and certified clinical trauma professional with a deep passion
for auto mune autoimmune disease awareness. Now this conversation is
leaning more to empowering the community through conversation because and
(11:33):
education and education. Now you let's let's let's let's get
even deeper into tomorrow. You had an award winning documentary. Okay,
how can we Is it on YouTube or can we
access that?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yes, it's actually on Vimeo. You can actually if you
go to Vimeo and you put in the invitation that
is the name of it, it should come up and
it gives you opportunity to rent it. No one can
can buy it. But because I'm still doing screenings, and
I do screenings whereas I do talkbacks and education, and
even there's a version of it where I will bring
(12:11):
a chef along and we'll will have you sampling food
because food is medicined. And yes, sometimes we have to
use medication, and I do use medication. But everybody that
is featured in the documentary also has incorporated what I
call lifestyle management, making intentional decisions whereas we can thrive
(12:34):
in spite of having whatever autoimmune disease that is, and
for a number of us, that includes food for a
number of us, that includes how you know what we
say yes to and what we say no to is
very is moving with extreme intentionality.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So you're saying, Rajan is on vimeo. My award winning
documentary is on Vimeo. Just go to Vimeo in this
search bar, type in the invitation and one can rent that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
This is a that is correct, or you can go
to IG. Here's another like, sure she's fired up now
she finally got to act together. Well, yeah, because if
we go through social media, there's a couple of ways
that you can do it. So do the meal, but
also on IG there's an impact campaign because it's all
(13:20):
about awareness, like you had said in education. So there's
an impact campaign page that I have created for the film,
and it's called the Invitation Documentary and that link also
even attached all over that. All over that page you
will have different resources, inspiration testimonials, you know. All of
(13:41):
that is on that page. But in the in the
profile is a link and it has doing the link tree.
It has where you can go hit and rent the video.
Also my website Hopeful Therapy and Consulting or even tomorrow
r Jackson dot com.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money making conversations Masterclass. Welcome back, to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(14:23):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Okay, let's talk about this tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I'm sorry, y'all have a lot now, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I'm letting you get your worried out because we got to.
I don't know. This episode is about education, It's about
pushing us beyond. Oh yeah, yeah, I got you, I
got you. I got you because one of the most
compelling things you mentioned on this show is that autoimmune disease.
You can be great on Tuesday, be bad on Wednesday. Absolutely,
(14:53):
you can be great on Monday, Tuesday, window, Thursday, Friday,
and band on Saturday. You can't make the party or
you can't make the wedd right and I can't get
up and go to work on Monday morning. And what
happens in that old situation is the word embarrassment. Not
wanting to tell people what's going on in your personal life,
not wanting to feel like baggage. You don't want to
(15:16):
walk in a room with people staring at you. If
you stumble I'm all you know, because you know how
people are. If they don't understand something you cough, they
think it's contagious even though it's not contagious. So something
you mentioned earlier is the word diet, because that's so
important what you eating, how you eat. Let's stick with
(15:36):
you because you know you're my personal subject matter expert.
You have ari As she's shouting it to me. Now,
I'm like, like, I know what I'm talking about, all right,
I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
No, go ahead, I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I love it. What did your did change? And what
did you do? Did you fight your diet change or
how did did y'all die change? For you?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
When I when we say diet here, we're not talking
about of latest trend, you know. No, we're talking about
a lifestyle change. And really what that looks like is
an anti inflammatory diet. For me, I was already plant based, right,
so I didn't have to It wasn't too much pivoting,
(16:18):
not saying that a person has to be plant based
on an ANSI inflammatory diet. Well, what it does include
is making sure you're eating wild caught foods like wild
caught salmon. I think Macro was on the list year.
It was like those white fish, right, and salmon equally,
(16:39):
it's the wild gain as far as meats, so it's
not beef, but it's like buffalo and absolutely so anything
that you ingest, it's not promoting more inflammation. Remember I
said at the beginning, will all auto I mean disease,
(17:00):
you know that. Excuse me? Inflammation is involved, right, So
any means necessary. We're trying to reduce inflammation. So that's
reducing sugar. Now here is where there's some nuance, right, So,
and where it becomes particular me as a person with
RA it's okay for me to eat avocados. I'm gonna
(17:23):
use avocados because I avocados, by the way, exactly, I
love avocados. It's a healthy fat. Right. However, one of
the participants in my film who has lupis nephritis, which
means the lupis attacks her kidneys and she's on dialysis, right,
so yeah, there's extreme dialys yeah yeah, and so she
(17:46):
can't have avocados. So she has a very specialized diet
and it also is anti inflammatory. But there's things that
she can't eat. She can eat, like a halo arnt,
like the little clementine, but she can't have an actual orange.
So it's the It's also not only what you eat,
but the makeup of what you eat, if that makes sense.
(18:09):
But if you're a meat eater, it definitely means wild court.
It definitely means more chicken turkey type of thing. Again,
is that wild court. You don't want the farm raised stuff.
It is more of the wilder games meats, like I said,
like elk and things in buffalo and things so that
(18:30):
things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Well, you know when I talk about you know, I
try to personalize some of that stuff so people can
understand that. You know, I'm engaged in the whole process
because as you get older, you're dying has to change
because you're trying to you know, you you know, you're
not in the rush to get to the finish line.
You know, I'm trying to. I'm trying to push that
gold post, as I say, move a gold post. Roshall
wasn't moving those gold posts at twenty. Now I'm pushing
(18:55):
that gold post as far out the one't even want
to see it tomorrow now. So when you start getting
these symptoms, let's talk about your business that you've developed
and how people get in touch with you because again,
sometimes we can blow off what really is an auto
(19:15):
immune issue that you're dealing with, but we don't. You know,
you know, people google stuff AI stuff because technology is
really proving to be a bad doctor now because it
talks back to you. It talks back to you, and
you know, it used to be just you Google and
you just read. Now, oh you have this time I
go home and do that, you know, and that's not
(19:36):
good because you actually think somebody's talking to you. And
that's not fair because voices nowadays don't sound like computers
like they used to. They sound like human beings are
talking back to you. Now when you're dealing with this
new technology tomorrow, does that scare you?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
No, it doesn't scare me. Let me be fair. I
don't use it, and you googling symptoms will have you
thinking you have everything. So let me simplify in saying this.
If you are experiencing discomfort in your body, whatever that
means for you, please go see a doctor. It's in
(20:17):
particular you're dealing with chronic fatigue like I was saying, handsticking,
or you're dealing with kind of like that irritoboo type
of thing that may be like crones or colitis or
you know, are something in that you need to see
a professional. So for anything dealing with the GI track,
that's kind of a gastro entrologist, right For a person
(20:39):
like myself, whether it's ara psoriasis, even lupists right, Really,
a rheumatologists can diagnose all of this. They do this
whole panel and they're able to omit what's not happening
and they're able to identify what actually is happening. So
I would say, and usually these these are additional referrals
(21:02):
that you got to get from your primary But equally
I'll say this is that if your doctor is not
listening to you about your symptoms, that is not your doctor.
Change your doctor. So I also want to empower people
to know that you know, whoever they're being working with,
that is not the end all to be all. If
(21:23):
they're not answering your questions, if they're not respecting your person,
if they're treating you just like a statistic or diagnosis,
then it's time to start exploring where you can develop
a treatment team, because you need a treatment team with this,
there's no magic in it. Just like I say, we
need doctors, you need a mental health professional. You know,
(21:44):
I I just have to say it. Your friend will
be well intentioned, your family member well intentioned, but you're
gonna wind up getting annoyed because they're not equipped. They
don't have the tools to help you navigate this diagnosis
and the nuances of it. They just don't It doesn't
mean that they don't love you, they don't care, they're
(22:06):
not concerned, they just don't have it. So to avoid
you getting upset and them getting upset, there's already gonna
be strains in relationships. So let me also say that.
And I'm sorry. I don't want to overtalk, but I
just want to manage expectations. There's always, there's always with
chronic illness, you're going to deal with changes and dynamics
(22:27):
in relationships, both intimate and friendship, and otherwise it is
no way else that it can happen. And I tell
you this, you can't fight for your life and fight people.
So it's just one of the other things that's gonna
become part of your grief process. Know that grieving is okay,
it is actually healthy, but have support in that process. Girl,
(22:53):
I know I said a lot, well you.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Know you said all the right things. I was kind
of like going there when I was just talking about
how they're going to be changes tied to the other. Life, embarrassment,
not want to acknowledge everything going on. You're in a
relationship that you're excited about, you want to don't want
to acknowledge, and sometimes you go, I'm not making an
excusees why you don't want to be seen that day
(23:15):
because you don't want that person to see you uncomfortable
and watching them react to you being uncomfortable. Truth is
when you've got an auto immune disease. And I'm talking
to Tomorrow. She's a full named Tomorrow R. Jackson. She's
a licensed clinical social worker. She's an award winning documentary.
(23:36):
It's called The Invitation. You can go to Vimeo, type
in the search line. The Invitation pops right up. You
can rent it there and it talks about things that
you've heard about. You know. Our a is what she's
dealing with. Personal rheumatad arthritis. Have friends, a couple of
friends who have lupus, And I can tell you this.
I'm aware of the name. I don't know their symptoms,
which is not good because guess what I've called them
(23:58):
My friend, I should know more because they're a crisis.
I should understand what exactly those symptoms look like so
I could be there for them. But again, when you
we all know the number one thing we do is
avoid information. We don't want to be engaged in information.
Nobody wants to walk into a dark room. What we
do we turn on the light. So nobody wants to
(24:20):
walk into a situation where they are confused because there's
no life switch to turn on. You got to sit
there and hear that person, and then you have to
make a decision is this something I want to be
engaged with on a regular basis. And that's what people
with autoimmune disease, all fifty million plus of them are
dealing with, dealing with a mental world of acceptance. And
(24:43):
so that's my soapbox moment because I feel that when
I put together this show, but people go, why are
you talking about this? Well, guess what. There are people
out there that the number fifty million, That means you know, somebody,
this is money making conversations. Money making conversations that if
they suffer, it's going to impact you. They might not
go to work, they might not buy something, they might
(25:05):
it might be a key person to engage in your
life that you don't even know what bottom line is Tomorrow,
how do we get in touch with you, my.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Friend Tomorrow Jackson dot com. Okay, everything that you need
will be there. You will find the documentary. Naturally, you'll
find more than one, even though this is the one
on autoimmune disease. You will find a one sheet that
I created part of the Impact campaign on autoimmune disease,
(25:37):
where you will get tips and the resources when if
you've been newly diagnosed and you know even how you support,
if you want to book me and you want to
book a screening and have me have a talk back
or conversation or even you know, we have a tasting
attached to it, right because people always think changing food
(26:01):
means nasty, and I promise you it's not our tasteless.
That is how you that is how you can get
in touch with me. We're gonna just simplify it Tomorrowarjackson
dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Love it Tomorrow. Thank you for coming on my show.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Thank you so much for having me. I truly truly
appreciate it. Especially this is so important because it is
mental Health Awareness Month and also on the twentieth is
auto inflammatory ausritus Day. So for all of those things
and more, not that we need especially month or day
(26:42):
to bring up these lift up these things. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, I guess what, I don't care about the days
because I'm educating people that the day starts today, the
day starts to do so the day starts to September.
And I based the show on education and information and
you've educated me. I'm telling you. So that means you're
winning because you because you supplied the right information to
make sure that guests were shaying. You have a large soapbox,
(27:11):
your big bullhorn.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
The more people to hear this story could save lives
and relationships, by the way, because like.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
You said, that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
My friend, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today, and thank you listening to the
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Joined us next week and remember to always leave with
(27:47):
your gifts. Keep winning,
Hosts And Creators
Steve Harvey
Shirley Strawberry
Thomas "Nephew Tommy" Miles
Carla Ferrell
Kier "Junior" Spates
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