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Celebrities who opened up on battling depression in 2019

It’s a tough time to live in!

Celebrities who opened up on battling depression in 2019

Depression is a mental disorder which has been on the rise over the years. In 2017, World Health Organization (WHO), ranked Kenya as the most depressed country in Africa with 4.4% of the population suffering from it. The report also indicated that majority of the victims were men.

With the challenges that life gives forth, many people have found themselves victims of depression, our celebrities included.

You may think their life is perfect, but they are humans too and some have been battling with issues that we know nothing about.

Being in the limelight comes with a lot of pressure, from people having high expectations of you to everyone meddling with your life since you have no privacy and you have to keep up with rumors and negative stories.

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Here is a list of celebrities who opened up on battling the monstrous illness in 2019.

Betty Bayo

Gospel artiste Betty Bayo, who was married to controversial pastor Victor Kanyari, disclosed her struggles on battling with depression.

Through her YouTube channel, the singer disclosed that she knew she was depressed when she attended a wedding in slippers.

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Someone might ask if I have ever been depressed, I would say yes I have. I knew I was depressed after I attended a wedding only to realize that I had worn slippers. I had not combed my hair nor had I applied lotion on myself. In my mind, I knew that before I left home, I had planned on attending a wedding but I did not plan on attending while looking unkempt.” She said.

Thankfully, she overcame the cruel illness.

Kimani Mbugua

In November, Citizen TV Journalist Kimani Mbugua opened up on his struggle with depression saying that at a certain point, he almost took away his life.

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In an interview with pulse live, Kimani disclosed that his struggle began in 2013, when he cleared High School. During that time, he shut everyone out of his life and he never spoke to anyone. His family was going through such a difficult time since his father had lost everything after poor investment decisions, something that worsened his anxiety.

He then contemplated suicide and took to Facebook where he wrote his own eulogy.

After the well-crafted post, I contemplated three options to take my life; to jump off a waterfall on my campus, jump off the fourth floor of my hostel or starve myself. Fear took control of me and I dismissed the first two options while settling for the final one. Nothing mattered and I began starving myself. During my quest to end my life, on the third day when I was frail and weak and almost succumbing in, my cousin visited me.” He said.

He also revealed that he was seeing a therapist and he has known how to manage his depression. The journalist advised victims to seek help and find a therapist.

Kenzo Matata

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Early this year, singer Kenzo came out to reveal that he had been struggling with depression for a long time. The singer confessed that depression was the reason why he had stayed away from his friends and the reason his music career was crumbling.

For the longest time, I have hidden this but I guess, it’s time to come out and try to encourage people undergoing the same. Friends, depression is real, only that people don’t want to come out openly because of the judgmental nature of human beings. It has driven me to think of doing things that in my entire life I never thought I would actually think of doing,” Said Kenzo.

He went ahead to urge people to address the ‘silent killer that was destroying people's lives. The singer even advised people to check up on their loved ones since a phone call could really change a lot.

Annitah Raey

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Hot 96 presenter, Annitah Raey, sunk into depression after a rape ordeal at Jevanjee gardens when she had run away from home because of the harsh nature of her mother. After the horrifying incident, she returned home a very different person.

I became a different person, I stopped talking a lot. I became a weird person. I smoked weed, did work and didn’t talk. So my mum was like something must have happened to cause the change. I became very reserved and I tried suicide 5 times. I was so wishing to die,” Revealed Anita during an interview with Pulse live.

Annitah added that she still struggled with depressive episodes and sometimes she had bad days where she didn’t want to wake up.

Njambi

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Real Househelps of Kawangware actress, Njeri Gachomba, popularly known as Njambi came out to share about how she sunk into depression when suffered a miscarriage last year.

“So, about this photo, I wanted an illustration of what I had gone through last year. The darkness I was living in because of a severe depression, I previously had a miscarriage and that also gave me the anxiety of sharing this news of this pregnancy....” Said Njambi as she talked about one of her photos.

The gorgeous beauty also opened up on how the tough times were when her baby died.

And it felt like when our baby died, she went with all our blessings. That was the time TRHK went on a long break, and after that no doors were opening, no opportunity was coming our way. I felt like I was being punished, like God had forgetten about us. I was jobless, stressed, dying inside and lonely.” She said.

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Ciru Muriuki

In September, media personality, Ciru Muriuki opened up struggling with her mental health and her depressive moments which made her take a long break from social media.

“I’ve been struggling a bit with my mental health; I’ve had moments of great anxiety; I’ve had a couple of depressed moments…Okay, I’m understating it, when I say depressed moments it sounds like I felt down for 4 minutes and that’s not the case. I’ve had periods of days and days turning into weeks that I’ve just not been Okay. And because I’ve not been Okay, I’ve not had the motivation to do much else other than work and sleep, and social media has had to take a backseat.” Said Ciru in one of her videos.

The gorgeous Broadcast Journalist also opened up on her struggle with self-image issues after gaining a lot of weight. She even likened herself to a rhino.

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I’ve put on quite a bit of weight and I’m not really loving myself physically right now because I’m at the absolute biggest I’ve ever been. You know when you can just be walking past your mirror and I’m like, ‘what is that rhino? I have a rhino in my room…oh, No, it’s me,’” she said.

Anita Nderu

In February, media personality, Anita Nderu opened up on her tough battle with depression last year.

The beauty revealed that she battled with depression for five months, a moment that was a mental torture for her.

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Anita disclosed that at one time she contemplated blowing her brains out.

I cried myself to sleep and cried every morning. My eyes were puffy. I would RSVP yes to events, hire gowns etc then not go cause I did not want to be around people plus my eyes were puffy. Said Anita.

The people who caused all this still slept soundly at night, I don’t get how they but they do. To each their demons, right? Above all even the one night I cried so much I contemplated to blow my brains out” She added.

We are happy that she overcame the dark phase and has continued to soldier on.

Other celebrities who opened up on going through dark episodes in their life were Vanessa Mdeee and Comedian Eric Omondi.

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Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: news@pulselive.co.ke

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