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DeMar DeRozan Opens Up About His Battle With Depression

Depression is an illness that should be take very seriously. It still is somewhat stigmatized, which results in many people not opening up about their illness.

But, it is a mental disorder ‘characterized by at least two weeks of low mood that is present across most situations’. It is often accompanied by low self-esteem, loss of interest in normally enjoyable activities, low energy, and pain without a clear cause. Between 2–7% of adults with major depression die by suicide, and up to 60% of people who die by suicide had depression or another mood disorder.

During this year’s All-Star break, DeMar DeRozan revealed that he’s been struggling with depression.

This depression get the best of me…

— DeMar DeRozan (@DeMar_DeRozan) February 17, 2018

After various rumors about his condition, DeMar now broke his silence and talked about his battle with depression with the Toronto Star’s Doug Smith.

“It’s one of them things that no matter how indestructible we look like we are, we’re all human at the end of the day,” DeRozan said. “We all got feelings … all of that. Sometimes … it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole world’s on top of you.”

“Sometimes you hear things from other people, such as doing something like that (the Saturday morning tweet). There could have been a better way to take that approach, but I got great words from a lot of people,” he said.

“It’s not nothing I’m against or ashamed of. Now, at my age, I understand how many people go through it. Even if it’s just somebody can look at it like, ‘He goes through it and he’s still out there being successful and doing this,’ I’m OK with that.”

DeRozan hopes that his honest talk on depression helps others.