Nickie Vella de Fremeaux has opened up about her almost 22-year battle with depression, sharing a deeply personal message to remind people that mental health struggles do not always have a visible face.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere is the face of someone who has battled depression for almost 22 years: me \u2013 but I\u2019m still here and I\u2019m still standing,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
She stressed that she was not sharing her experience to seek sympathy, but to raise awareness about how easily depression can remain hidden from the people around us.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can smile, laugh, work, love and carry on while fighting a battle very few people know anything about,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes what looks perfectly fine on the outside is anything but.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vella de Fremeaux also challenged the idea that depression always presents itself as overwhelming or visible sadness.<\/p>\n
Describing herself as generally calm, happy, positive and someone who loves life, she said depression can nevertheless strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it just does. It doesn\u2019t discriminate! It can happen to anyone and to the very best of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her message also called for an end to the stigma surrounding depression and seeking help, stressing that struggling with mental health does not make somebody weak or less worthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepression is not madness. It doesn\u2019t make you weak or any less of a person. It is nothing to be ashamed of,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
She urged people who are struggling to speak up, while encouraging friends and relatives to trust their instincts when they suspect someone close to them may not be OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk \u2026 listen \u2026 and be there \u2026 lead your loved ones to seek help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vella de Fremeaux ended her message on one of hope, describing herself as \u201cliving proof\u201d that there can be light at the end of an extremely dark period.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf sharing once again my personal experience helps just one person speak up, then it was worth sharing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Photo credits to Nickie Vella De Fremeaux<\/a> on Faceboook<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789060329_926_Untitled-design-150x150.jpg\")
Gabriel Falzon is a social media executive at Lovin Malta, with a keen interest in digital media, local businesses, and the natural world. Outside of work, you\u2019ll often find him baking up a storm, diving into video games, or exploring the endless corners of YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nickie Vella de Fremeaux has opened up about her almost 22-year battle with depression, sharing a deeply personal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-843145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}