Scarlett Curtis is a valuable voice in the conversation around mental health for one especially important reason, she speaks honestly about her own experiences.

Not only has Curtis tried to upend the stigma around mental health with her book It’s Not OK to Feel Blue (and Other Lies ), which brings together essays from a plethora of celebrities speaking openly about their own struggles, she consistently makes herself vulnerable and shares how her life has changed since encountering mental ill health.

Although mental health charity Mind’s research suggests that one in four people in the UK will have a mental ill health at some point, it’s still a topic that we as a society find difficult to talk about. That’s why it’s so important that people like Curtis continue to not only penetrate the shame often associated with it, but break down the misconceptions, too.

By doing this we all get a better understanding of how it feels to have an illness like depression, so that we can work together to create a more empathetic environment for those in need.

What does depression feel like? Scarlett Curtis on how the illness affects her