What Jada Pinkett Smith Just Realized About Her Mental Health
Fresh off husband Will Smith's Oscars altercation, Jada Pinkett Smith got right back to her Red Table for Season 5 of her Facebook Watch show. The trailer for the new season of "Red Table Talk" promised enticing A-list guests such as Janelle Monáe, mother-daughter duo Kim Basinger and Ireland Baldwin, and the parents of late Miss USA Chelsie Kryst.
Mental health seems to be a main theme for "Red Table Talk" Season 5. Monáe, who was featured on the season premiere on April 20, touched on her journey to becoming a LGBTQIA+ champion despite a "super conservative Baptist" upbringing, per Deadline. Basinger and daughter Ireland, meanwhile, took to the Table on the April 25 episode to discuss how they grappled with anxiety in various situations in their lives. As Basinger shared, she experienced extreme agoraphobia after her highly publicized divorce from her ex-husband, Alec Baldwin. "I wouldn't leave the house... I had to relearn to drive," Basinger shared, per USA Today. As for Ireland, she delved into the subjects of abusive relationships as well as her cardiophobia. "I start panicking to the point where I'm convinced, no matter what anyone says, that I'm gonna have a heart attack," she divulged.
Basinger and Ireland's confessions were related to a larger discussion of anxiety led by Pinkett Smith, who revealed she only recently realized she suffered from anxiety as well.
Anxiety runs in Jada Pinkett Smith's family
Jada Pinkett Smith and daughter Willow Smith both admitted to dealing with anxiety throughout their lives, whether knowingly or not. On the April 25 episode of "Red Table Talk," the duo opened up about what Jada called a "cycle of generational anxiety," per the New York Post. Despite signs like habitually biting her fingernails, Jada never used to think of her symptoms as mental health-related — and neither did her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris. "I never identified it as anxiety," said Banfield-Norris, also present at the Red Table.
Ignoring her symptoms, Jada shared, unfortunately enabled her ignorance of Willow's as well. "It was rough," Willow admitted. "I feel like when I was growing up, she didn't understand my anxiety. Because she, growing up, had seen her friends die ... she had been through so much stuff that my issues, to her, kind of felt like ... [smaller]." Willow has been vocal about her mental health struggles in more recent years, even revealing she had an anxiety attack around age 10 while performing on a late night show (per Insider). Willow's symptoms, including shaking and screaming, did eventually "trigger" Jada, who realized she and her daughter shared this similarity.
Ultimately, the "Emo Girl" singer explained she "had to forgive [Jada] a little bit for being like, 'I get it, but it's really not that bad.'"
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.