Miss International 2016 Kylie Verzosa revealed in an interview with GMA that she has gone through depression and spent about seven months trying to get back up.
Verzosa, who described herself as an outgoing ‘life-of-the-party’, shared that at one point, things got rough and her personality and outlook on life took a 180-degree turn.
“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I lost all the lust I had for life. Wala na akong ganang gawin kahit ano. Parang pag gising ko, [the] first thought in my head was: why am I still here? […] Why am I still alive?” she said.
The beauty queen opened up to her father, who was also suffering from bipolar disorder, and the one who suggested that she see a psychiatrist.
It took her seven months to recover, a relatively short time for someone going through depression, she shared.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), depression is caused by a combination of genetic, biological, psychological, social and environmental factors.
People who have a family history of depression and people with serious chronic diseases are at an increased risk of it. Major life changes, trauma and stress can also trigger it, although some episodes begin without any obvious external cause, APA added.
“It’s feelings of sadness, of guilt, of worthless, of darkness for more than two weeks. When you have depression, you are not able to do the things you were doing before. You’re incapable of doing them. You’re basically disabled from being the person you used to be,” Verzosa explained.
Depression is an illness that requires professional treatment. Antidepressant medications and psychotherapy are some effective ways to help people suffering them, APA said.
“It is a sickness that needs to be treated, and it needs to be addressed as a sickness,” Verzosa stressed.
