Episodes
Monday Sep 19, 2016
E.27 - Asante Haughton - Overcoming Adversity
Monday Sep 19, 2016
Monday Sep 19, 2016
Who is Asante Haughton?
Asante is a human rights and mental health advocate. He works for Pathways to Education and supports high-risk youth through high school to reach post-secondary education.
Asante had a challenging upbringing, battling with anxiety, depression, and addiction. Today he uses these experiences to guide kids through their own challenges and supports them in staying away from the streets.
He is a motivational speaker and has been on panels for mental health. He recently came back from Chile where he spoke about his life.
Why did I bring Asante onto the show?
I brought Asante onto the show because when I heard his story, I knew it would be beneficial for people to hear. I wanted him to share his experiences with mental health and the struggles he faced growing up.
We all battle our own issues, whether that be with anxiety, depression, self-confidence, addiction or however mental health shows up for you.
I wanted to get his point of view on how he was able to overcome all the adversity in his life and create a life that he is proud of today.
One Thing To Take Away
Normalize Your Human Experiences
Asante said one of his biggest breakthroughs came by sharing his story and pain points. Early on in life, he lived with his anxiety, depression, and addictions. He was uncertain about how to voice and articulate them.
He first started sharing his experiences with his therapist. In a short period, his therapist was able to make him see that the emotions he was experiencing, were normal because of the environment he grew up in.
As his confidence grew, he began sharing his experiences more publically and more openly. His mental issues slowly started to go away, and his relationships in life, including with himself, began to improve.
We all have experiences from our past that have shaped and influenced us, but when we can learn to accept these as part of being human, we can come to live in acceptance of how we feel.
In the podcast, I share my experience of living a bisexual life and how confused I was. Only by coming forward, sharing the experience with others, was I able to understand that it was perfectly normal to feel the way I did.
When we share how we feel, we being to normalize our lives and that feeling of being crazy, confused or different from others, begins to diminish.
Seven Things You’ll Learn From This Podcast
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Why Asante felt he wasn’t worth it to anybody @ 26:20
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What holds people back from opening up about mental health @ 30:45
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The social pressures that keep men back from expressing their feelings @ 36:08
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How bottled up emotions show up in our lives & Asante’s life @ 38:42 & 39:55
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How Asante’s life changed once he started expressing his emotions @ 40:44
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Normalizing our human experiences @ 42:25
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What kept Asante going @ 47:21
Connect with Asante
Twitter - @asantev
Mentioned in the Podcast
Jordan Gray
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