Cape Town - American singer Keri Hilson recently revealed the reason she took a seven-year break from making music – she was battling depression.
The 35-year old singer shared her story at a Silence the Shame panel in Atlanta, US, in hopes of helping others with depression.
“When Pretty Girl Rock was at the top of the charts I was bearing the weight of some personal and professional mistakes and they just weighed so heavy on my spirit and I just wasn’t myself,” Keri said.
She also mentioned how the media and the internet can quickly damage one’s self-image. “When we are not okay, when we are a little low or a lot low, there is a protection mode that has to happen because you don’t know how much our subconscious is soaking in the criticism and the praise,” she said.
“For two and a half years, I went ghost from social media. I don’t need the false love or the unwarranted hate. I don’t want any of it so I just left.
"You don't understand some of the worst days of my life were from a lie, an attack on my character. And I am an amazing person. I say that because I've done the work to become that and all I ever wanted to be was just a great human being," she confessed.
Another triggering factor to Keri’s depression taking a turn for the worse was ending her relationship of 11 years.
“It all just kind of spiralled for me and became something I had never been through; I had never recognised myself as a person who can’t pick themselves back up. I mean, I was literally on stage crying.”
Even though she says she’s not completely in the clear, she’s getting better.
