When I was coming out of depression, I made one random video. It wasn't funny or anything, but just the idea that people I didn't know were watching it made me feel less alone than I'd felt in a long time.
Interpretation
Creating content can foster a sense of connection and reduce feelings of isolation during tough times.
In this quote, Lilly Singh reflects on her experience of overcoming depression through the act of creating a video. Despite the video not being particularly entertaining, the act of sharing it with an audience gave her a sense of community and connectedness, highlighting the importance of reaching out and sharing one's experiences as a way to combat loneliness and emotional struggles.
In practice
This quote would be great to share in a mental health awareness event to show the importance of connection through creativity.
I was the first South Asian female to do comedy videos on YouTube. But at the same time, all races face their barriers, and I've learned through YouTube, if it's not race, it will be sexism, if it's not sexism, it will be homophobia. It will always be something, and all voices should be heard.
my brain had begun to endure its familiar siege: panic and dislocation, and a sense that my thought processes were being engulfed by a toxic and unnameable tide that obliterated any enjoyable response to the living world.
It can be difficult for people to talk about it, because there still is that stigma around mental illness. But I would encourage people to do that, because they'll be surprised once they do 'come out' how many other people have had similar experiences.
Just as our parents quieted us when we were noisy by putting us in front of the television set, maybe we're now learning to quiet our own adult noise with Prozac.
The depressed person was in terrible and unceasing pain, and the impossibility of sharing or articulating this pain was itself a component of the pain and a contributing factor in its essential horror.
Depression isn't just being a bit sad. It's feeling nothing. It's not wanting to be alive anymore.
I've never had a sustained period of medication for mental illness when I've not been on other drugs as well. It's just not something that I particularly feel I need. I know that I have dramatically changing moods, and I know sometimes I feel really depressed, but I think that's just life. I don't think of it as, "Ah, this is mental illness," more as, "Today, life makes me feel very sad." I know I also get unnaturally high levels of energy and quickness of thought, but I'm able to utilize that.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.