Michelle Obama suffering ‘low grade depression’ due to COVID, racism, Trump

Michelle Obama has revealed she’s suffering “low grade depression” due to the pandemic, racism in America, and Trump’s “hypocrisy”.

Former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, has revealed she’s suffering a “low grade depression” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, racism in America, and the “hypocrisy” of her husband’s successor as President on her new Spotify podcast.

In a conversation recorded for The Michelle Obama Podcast with the first Black woman to anchor NPR Michele Norris, the wife of the 44th US President Barack Obama, said she’d been feeling “unusual”.

“I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression,” Ms Obama told her “dear friend and confidante” Ms Norris.

“Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting,” she added.

“In this moment of tumult and uncertainty a lot of people are feeling the highs and the lows,” Ms Norris said.

“I don’t think I’m unusual,” Ms Obama conceded, “but I’d be remiss to say that part of this depression is also a result of what we’re seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest that has plagued this country since its birth,” she added.

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Barack Obama was the first guest on his wife’s podcast. Picture: Scott Olson / Getty Images / AFP

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She said the way the Trump administration was reacting to the protests wasn’t helping either.

“I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanised, or hurt, or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting.

“It has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life in a while,” Ms Obama said.

She said having a regular routine, exercising and being outside helped but also acknowledged she sometimes needed to “surrender” to the feelings in order to not be overly hard on herself.

Ms Obama also revealed the pandemic downtime has given her a chance to learn how to do her own beauty therapy.

“Not to put anybody out of work, but this time has taught me how to do my own waxing, do my nails,” she said, adding that it reminded her of when she was growing up before she achieved her successes in life.

“I never went and got a manicure until I was a lawyer in a big firm making money,” she said as the pair reminisced on the rarity of seeing nail salons in their youth, where beauticians generally operated on an informal basis in people’s own homes.

The Obama’s entertainment production company Higher Ground signed a deal with Spotify for podcasts last year, joining a deal the company signed with Netflix in 2018.

Michelle Obama’s podcast is part of a larger deal with her and her husband’s production company.

The first episode of Michelle Obama’s podcast featured her presidential husband as guest when it premiered last month.

The podcast is one of several high profile programs Spotify is using in an attempt to capture even more ears around the world.

In February, Spotify signed a deal to buy The Ringer, a sports and entertainment site with several popular podcasts, founded by Bill Simmons following the closure of his previous effort Grantland.

In May, the company notably bestowed a deal the Wall Street Journal reported was worth more than $139 million on podcast pioneer Joe Rogan to make his popular and long-running Joe Rogan Experience podcast exclusive to Spotify.

The streaming service also paid nearly $US340 million ($A472 million), the bulk of which was cold hard cash and not just Spotify stocks, to acquire podcast studios Gimlet and Anchor last year.

If you’re also feeling “unusual” and don’t have a decorated journalist to confide in, you can confidentially talk to your GP about creating a mental health plan, which can cover up to ten free therapy sessions a year under Medicare.

There are also several mental health helplines available 24 hours a day.