Michelle Obama has revealed she has been suffering from a form of “low-grade depression” culminating from racial injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the “hypocrisy” of the Trump administration in dealing with the current matters affecting the nation.
The former First Lady of the United States made those comments during a discussion with radio journalist, Michele Norris, in the latest episode of her The Michelle Obama podcast. According to The Hill, the two touched on mental health during the coronavirus pandemic and the current protests against racial injustice in the United States.
“Spiritually, these are not, they are not fulfilling times,” she revealed. “I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression. Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.”
She also revealed the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and the Trump administration’s response to it, has also affected her mental state.
“I’d be remiss to say that part of this depression is also a result of what we’re seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest that has plagued this country since its birth,” she said. “I have to say, that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized or hurt or killed or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting. It has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life in a while.”
Obama, 56, said the current happenings have gone as far as affecting her sleep as well as exercise routine.
“I’m waking up in the middle of the night, ’cause I’m worrying about something or there’s a heaviness,” she said. “I try to make sure I get a workout in, although there have been periods throughout this quarantine, where I just have felt too low. You know, I’ve gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, where you just don’t feel yourself, and sometimes there’s been a week or so where I had to surrender to that, and not be so hard on myself. And say, ‘You know what? You’re just not feeling that treadmill right now.’”
That notwithstanding, the mother of two said she doesn’t dwell on that too much and focuses on the things and people that make her happy.
“So for me, my spirit is lifted when I am feeling healthy, when I am surrounded by good people, you know, so I reach out. I reach out to my family, and to my friends, even in this time of quarantine,” she said. “You know, I fought to continue to find a way to stay connected to the people in my life who bring me joy, and my girlfriends, my husband, my kids; it’s the small things … because you have to recognize that you’re in a place, a bad place, in order to get out of it. So you kinda have to sit in it for a minute, to know, oh, oh, I’m feeling off. So now I gotta, I gotta feed myself with something better.”
