part 1 ted-depression.mp4 On July 4, 2013, my world came crashing in on me. That was the day I got a phone call from my mom telling me that my 22-year-old nephew, Paul, had ended his life, after years of (1)_______________ depression and anxiety. There are no words that can describe the devastation I felt. Paul and I were very close, but I had no idea he was in so much pain. Neither one of us had ever talked to the other about our struggles. The shame and stigma kept us both silent. Now, my way of dealing with (2)_______________ is to face it head on, so I spent the next two years researching depression and anxiety, and what I found was (3)_______________. The World Health Organization reports that depression is the (4)_______________ cause of sickness and disability in the world. While the exact cause of depression isn't clear, research suggests that most mental disorders develop, at least in part, because of a chemical imbalance in the brain, and/or an underlying genetic predisposition. So you can't just (5)_______________. For black Americans, (6) _______________ like racism and socioeconomic disparities put them at a 20 percent greater risk of (7) _______________ a mental disorder, yet they seek mental health services at about half the rate of white Americans. One reason is the stigma, with 63 percent of black Americans mistaking depression for a weakness. Sadly, the suicide rate among black children has doubled in the past 20 years. Now, here's the good news: seventy percent of people struggling with depression will improve with (8) _______________, treatment and medication. Armed with this information, I made a decision: I wasn't going to be silent anymore. With my family's blessing, I would share our story in hopes of sparking a national conversation. A friend, Kelly Pierre-Louis, said, "Being strong is killing us." She's right.