A short personal testimonial (YouTube video) emphasizing that depression is a brain disease rather than a moral failing. The speaker—Joy Kong, MD—describes being diagnosed with major depression as a medical student and likens it to a physical condition (kidney stone) to reduce stigma and encourage people not to feel alone.
I want people to realize that they're not alone. You don't have to feel bad. When I first talked to the psychiatrist as a medical student, when he asked me all these questions, and he said, oh, clearly you have major depression, I said, are you sure? Are you sure I'm not just a weak person? He was like, joy, if you think that you can control your depression, then you're very mistaken. It's like having a kidney stone. It's very physical. There's physical basis to it. If you think you can just whale your kidney stones away, then good luck. This is no different. So that really helped me to take the stigma out of it. Just think of it as a brain disease. This is a brain disease that we're trying to help.
