How Tamar Braxton’s Sisters Weaponized Her Mental Health Struggles on ‘The Braxtons’

After vowing to focus their reality TV return on building a better bond as sisters, The Braxton sisters have shown that old habits die hard.

During Season 2 of WeTV's The Braxtons, sister Toni Braxton, Towanda Braxton, Tamar Braxton, and Trina Braxton started the new batch of episodes with a bang. The beginning of the season showed clips of a tense dinner scene between the sisters that resulted in them nearly coming to physical blows.

The intense screaming match happened after Tamar and Towanda disagreed over money and whether or not Tamar hooked up with one of Toni's exes in a previous life. As the sisters said things they likely wish they could take back, Tamar used the opportunity to get real about her mental health, though it was eventually used against her.

The Braxtons said a lot during their intense dinner fight in Season 2. Like, a lot a lot. But one of the most frustrating parts of the fight wasn't the allegations from Towanda about Tamar's "body count" or Tamar screaming to her sisters that they wished they looked like her at 48 years old, nor how Tamar and Towanda argued over whether Towanda used Tamar's credit card to pay a phone bill. What was the most unsettling about the argument was Tamar being scolded about her mental health battles by her sisters.

At one point in their argument, Towanda discussed Tamar's mental health challenges. Towanda told Toni during the fight that she doesn't "argue with sick people" then reiterated the same sentiment in a confessional interview.

"I'm not gon' sit here and argue with a sick person, I'm not gon' do it," Towanda said. "That's like going to the hospital and seeing someone in a hospital bed and they're saying something you know isn't true. I'm not gonna argue with them."

Tamar instantly took offense to Towanda's comments, stating that she and the rest of her sisters "need to be on the pills." The "Love and War" singer then shared that she's not ashamed of being diagnosed with depression and anxiety and confirmed she takes "20 mg of Lexapro" and it's done wonders for her mental health treatment.

"We're not going to use this as the 'coming out party to Tamar and her mental illness," Tamar declared in her confessional. "I've already said that I've had trouble with my mental illness in the past. I have a counselor now, not just on-set, but off set as well. And I'm perfectly OK."

Tamar added she didn't understand why anything regarding her mental health capacity came up when the argument was about the drama between the family that caused someone to send out a cease-and-desist on her. The legal doc came after Tamar reached out to the sisters' niece, Ashlee, to come on her podcast and discuss the allegations Ashley made about one of the sisters' husbands sending her inappropriate texts.

As Tamar mentioned, she has been candid about her mental health struggles in the past, including her 2020 hospitalization that happened after she admittedly tried to take her own life. Due to this, Towanda bringing up Tamar's illnesses were unnecessary and cruel. Far too often, Black women are told to keep silent about our mental health issues to appease others or out of fear of being judged. It was disheartening to see Tamar's struggles being weaponized by her family, whether she was wrong for the initial issue or not.

Catch new episodes of The Braxtons on Fridays at 8 p.m. EST on WeTV and ALLBLK.