Michelle Obama suffers from “mild depression”

Former American first lady Michelle Obama (56) is suffering from a “mild depression”. She explained this on Wednesday in the second episode of her new podcast. She points to the corona pandemic, the racial problems in the United States, and the “hypocrisy” of Donald Trump’s presidency as causes for her gloomy mood.

Obama’s wife frankly says that she wakes up at night “because I am worried about something or because I feel a certain heaviness”. “I realize that I am dealing with a form of mild depression,” she says. “Not only because of the quarantine, but also because of the racial problems and the administration. When I see the hypocrisy day in and day out, it is discouraging.”

Emotional highs and lows

And she goes even further. “I experience emotional highs and lows that everyone probably has, a feeling that you are not yourself, and sometimes … I indulged in that for a week or so, and then I wasn’t too hard on myself.”

Michelle Obama says it is “exhausting” to wake up every day to news of what the administration is or isn’t doing and how African Americans are being treated. “It puts a weight on me that I haven’t felt in my life for a long time,” she says.

While still living in the White House, Michelle told The Washington Post newspaper that she was sticking to a schedule to counterbalance her “not so normal” life. She does that now.

“Barack is in his office, calling and working on his book,” she says. “I am in my room and the girls (the two daughters of the Obamas, ed.) Are on their computers. But around five o’clock everyone shows up and we do something together, like doing puzzles or just being together. After dinner, we then play a card game. Barack taught Malia (22) and Sasha (19) to spade.”