Michelle Obama admits 'low-grade depression' due to Trump's 'hypocrisy', George Floyd unrest and quarantine
Michelle Obama opened up about how she is suffering "some form of low-grade depression" this year due to how poorly the Trump administration has responded to the health crisis as well as the racial unrest in the country.
The former first lady made the candid reveal during a new episode of her podcast on Wednesday, August 5, adding that there were a number of reasons behind her mental health condition. "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," Obama said in the second episode of the season.
Obama addressed the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the countrywide protests against racial injustice and police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd on May 25, while having a conversation with Michele Norris, the former anchor of NPR’s 'All Things Considered'. She said that she held President Donald Trump and his government partially responsible for her depression.
"I don't think I'm unusual, in that," Obama said. "But 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. 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. And it has led to a weight that I haven't felt in my life, in a while."
She added that keeping to her daily routine at times as these has helped her stay mentally healthy, a practice she started back when she was staying at the White House and continues till today. However, it did not mean that she did not struggle with it at times.
"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.'"
She advised people dealing with "emotional highs and lows" to start "knowing yourself" and eventually figure out "the things that do bring you joy."
"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," she said. "I reach out to my family, and to my friends, even in this time of quarantine. 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."