Michelle Obama Opens up About the ‘Low-Grade Depression’ She Has Faced During the Pandemic

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is sharing her experience with “low-grade depression” amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

During an interview with People on Wednesday, Obama described her feelings surrounding the pandemic and other challenges of 2020 as “low-grade depression.”

“That was during a time when a lot of hard stuff was going on,” she said.

The former first lady explained, “We had the continued killing of Black men at the hands of police. Just seeing the video of George Floyd, experiencing that eight minutes. That’s a lot to take on, not to mention being in the middle of a quarantine.”

She called depression “understandable” in these circumstances.

Watch her comments below:

Obama told the magazine she had to “acknowledge” what she was experiencing “because a lot of times we feel like we have to cover that part of ourselves up, that we always have to rise above and look as if we’re not paddling hard underneath the water.”

She recognized mental health is about having “highs and lows.”

Obama added, “What I have said to my daughters is that one of the things that is getting me through is that I’m old enough to know that things will get better.”

She stressed the importance of opening up the conversation about mental health, “Everybody deals with trauma, anxiety, difficulties, in different ways.”

During an episode of her podcast in August of 2020, Obama opened up about her struggles with mental health and shared how she was coping with her feelings, as IJR previously reported.

She discussed keeping up with a routine, working out, going outside, and having a regular dinner time.

Obama followed her episode with a post on Instagram to reassure her followers she was “doing just fine,” as IJR previously reported.