Depression is real. Cases of depression have been on the increase of late and for the first time, Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service and Gender Rachel Shebesh and her counterpart Nadia Abdallah Shebesh publicly talked about battling depression.

The former Nairobi woman Rep opened up on her struggles with mental health challenges, encouraging those going through the same to seek help.

'It wasn't easy. It almost took my life. I went into one of those very deep depression. I went into depression for more than a year. I couldn't communicate and do much. It was when I was elected as the woman rep and so when I disappeared many people thought I was just being lazy and I wasn't doing my work yet I had just sunk into depression,' she said addressing the youths in Isiolo county during the Kenya ni Mimi campaign.

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Shebesh also revealed that she has been battling bipolar and she is on medication.

'I suffer from Bipolar but bipolar has been there for a longtime running my life without me having any control over it and in that process, I became very depressed. I’m talking about this because there could be someone here sitting and wondering what we are all doing here. Believe it’s not that something is wrong with you, you could be going through depression and depression is treatable and it has medication. I take medicine for Bipolar and I take medicine for depression because when I went into depression, I took my family down, I lost my strength on the ground as a politician just because I did not know, I was not sure and I was not ready. But the day I took control of my mental health, bipolar doesn’t control me, it’s just part of who I am,' she shared.

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