Here are some of our local celebrities who confessed that they also experience depression.
Nicco Manalo, Pepe Herrera, Jasmin Curtis Smith, Ricci Chan, and Teresa Herrera have come out to reveal their own struggles with depression and anxiety disorders to help raise awareness about mental health.
Nicco revealed, “I was diagnosed in 2009, clinical depression.”
Ricci said, “Officially, I was diagnosed bipolar II in the early 2000s.”
TV actress Jasmine disclosed, “I was diagnosed with early depression and anxiety.”
Pepe added, “I was diagnosed with bipolar I and clinical depression.”
Artist and art consultant Teresa admitted, “I experienced extreme anxiety. And I did reach out and ask for help. And I was seeing a therapist for a couple of years, really helped me so much, pieced my life back together.”
The five personalities shared the measures they have undertaken to overcome their conditions.
Ricci said, “Ever since then I’ve been very vigilant in seeing and talking to people with my personal mental health.
“And I’ve been very religious with my medicines.”
Pepe, for his part, revealed, “Dun ko nadiskubre yung iba’t ibang katumbas ng mga gamot.
“Therapy sessions at mga support groups.” Meanwhile, Nicco and Jasmine have found alternatives to the medications prescribed to them.
Jasmin said, “I was immediately prescribed with medication. But I didn’t take it well.
“I didn’t like it. My body didn’t react to it properly. I just found ways to cope.
“I just found books to read and I found the proper therapists to talk to here.”
Nicco explained, “I mean, I’m sure it works for other people.
“I remember my doctor prescribing another kind of medicine that would help me work more. But that didn’t work out for me.”
Mental health problems, from the most common to the more serious ones, can happen to happen to anyone from all walks of life.
Teresa shared, “Globally, there’s about 450 million people affected by mental health conditions.”
According to Ricci, “The term itself mental health, it has to be taken seriously first.
“I am not any less of who I am in the real world when I suffer. So that’s what we want to tell people. The only way we’re gonna solve it, is if we accept that the reality is here.”
Nicco also underlined, “I guess there are guidelines to deal with it.
“Like to deal with it, this is what you have to do. But where’s the empathy?”
Jasmin emphasized, “People are becoming more afraid to share their journey or to be open about it.”
Meanwhile, Pepe added that any show tackling mental health is relevant.
He said, “Any show on mental health is important.”
Clinical depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar I, bipolar II are just a few of many mental illnesses that can affect anyone.
Clinical depression is a different form and is more-severe compared to situational depression, while anxiety disorder is when a person worries and gets stressed excessively for little or no reason at all.
On the other hand, bipolar I is when someone experiences a full manic episode, while a person with bipolar II gets into hypomanic or major depressive episode.
