Katelyn Marie Todd Shares Facebook Post About Self-Care and Depression

Depression can manifest in different ways, depending on the person. On Saturday, Katelyn Marie Todd, a young woman living with depression, shared her experience living with mental illness in a poignant Facebook post thousands have related to.

“I brushed my hair today. For the first time in 4 weeks,” Todd shared in her post. “It was matted and twisted together. It snapped and tore with every stroke. I cried while I washed and conditioned it, because I forgot how it felt to run my fingers through it.”

Beyond illustrating how depression can affect your ability to take care of yourself, Todd also uses the post to explain how depression can change the personal, social and emotional aspects of your life.

Depression isn’t beautiful. Depression is bad hygiene, dirty dishes, and a sore body from sleeping too much. Depression is having 3 friends that are only still around because they have the patience and love of a saint. Depression is crying until there’s no more tears, just dry heaving and sobbing until you’re gasping for your next breath. Depression is staring at the ceiling until your eyes burn because you forget to blink. Depression is making your family cry because they think you don’t love them anymore when you’re distant and distracted. Depression is somatic as well as emotional, an emptiness you can physically feel.

In less than four days, Todd’s post has been shared more than 242,000 times with thousands of people commenting, thanking Todd for her honesty and sharing their own experiences living with depression.

“Depression is a disease that can consume you so much,” one commenter shared on Todd’s post. “I rarely get out of bed staring at the same walls day in & out ppl say you’ll be ok, snap out of it, it’s not that easy it’s just like grieving but you don’t know what for.”

“I’ve been here many many times,” another shared. “Thank you for sharing this. Many people with depression also have so much guilt for abandoning the ones they love. This information is so important.”

Todd isn’t the only one to highlight how difficult self-care can be for people living with depression. In March, hair stylist Kate Langman shared a photo of a client who hadn’t taken care of her hair in six months due to depression. “I didn’t share the post because of the transformation. I did it because I wanted people to see that depression is a real serious thing,” Langman previously told The Mighty.