Michelle Obama Opens Up About Dealing With Depression on Colbert: ‘Nobody Rides Life on a High’

Former First Lady Michelle Obama opened up about her low-grade depression while sitting down with Stephen Colbert — discussing how she copes with life’s “peaks and valleys.”

“This is a part of life,” Obama told Colbert on Tuesday night. “Nobody rides life on a high, and I think it’s important for young people to know that you know it’s like, no, you’re not going to feel great all the time.”

Obama highlighted how the pandemic, along with the racial unrest throughout the nation, has specifically impacted her mental health.

“You’re going feel a kind of way about it,” Obama added of the past year. “So give yourself a break.”

She suggested “turning off the noise” when upset or overwhelmed, adding, “I can’t keep reading all the feeds that are fueling my anxiety.”

“When I talk to my kids about that, I try to urge them to understand that the valleys are temporary, and so are the peaks,” she continued. “They have to be prepared to handle the highs and the lows.”

Obama encouraged young people to discover the tools they need to overcome the valleys, admitting that it took her decades to develop her own tools.

“The difficult thing for me is that I know the things that will actually make me feel better, and I don’t want to do them,” Colbert revealed. “When I’m depressed, I don’t want to do anything.”

Obama suggested using a schedule to help get out of bed and start the day, adding that it “gets you out of the funk.”

“I find if I spend the whole day in a sour mood, lights out, in bed, the next day I’ll feel the same way. But if I get up, I shower, something might happen in the course of my doing that that really knocks me into a positive place,” Obama continued. “Don’t wallow in your low.”

“Can I get that as my alarm in the morning?” Colbert cracked. “Can I get a copy of that and have my iPhone play that for me?”

Watch above, via YouTube.