Kristen Bell doesn't want to stay silent about depression anymore.
In a recent personal and emotional essay for Motto, the 35-year-old "Frozen" actress writes candidly about growing up with depression and finally getting help.
"For me, depression is not sadness. It’s not having a bad day and needing a hug. It gave me a complete and utter sense of isolation and loneliness. Its debilitation was all-consuming, and it shut down my mental circuit board. I felt worthless, like I had nothing to offer, like I was a failure," she wrote. "It’s important for me to be candid about this so people in a similar situation can realize that they are not worthless and that they do have something to offer. We all do."
Bell also touches on the stigmas surrounding mental health and how 20 per cent of American adults face some type of mental illness in their lifetime. In Canada, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association, the number is the same.
Bell adds, just like visiting the doctor or dentist, mental health check-ins should be just as routine.
"Yet if you tell a friend you’re feeling depressed, he will be scared or reluctant to give you that same advice. You know what? I’m over it," she writes.
In May, the actress spoke to “Off Camera with Sam Jones,” about her struggles with anxiety and depression. In the interview, she briefly talked about how her mother, who was a nurse, opened her eyes about mental health as a whole.
“[My mom] is a nurse and she had the wherewithal to recognize that in herself when she was feeling it and when I was 18 said, ‘If you start to feel like you are twisting things around you, and you feel like there is no sunlight around you, and you are paralyzed with fear, this is what it is and here’s how you can help yourself,’” Bell said in the interview.
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