Wasabi Stories vol.248: “Somebody Will Offer a Helping Hand Unless You Give Up”


coffee breakToday’s story-teller is musical actress Nana Kinomi. Her story is about “depression”.

In 2000, a full-page ad regarding Kinomi became a subject of conversation.

 

“I am suffering severe depression.”

 

It was just an ad for a drug company. However, since Kinomi gives an image of being cheerful and it was unusual for celebrities to speak out about their sickness in public back them, it created a sensation.

In her case, she suffered from menopausal depression. So she started feeling depressed when she was about 46 years old.

In the beginning, she started sweating a lot, having ringing ears, getting palpitations and so forth. The symptoms got progressively worse and it caused her to avoid people and taking off from work.

Even though she tried many different hospitals, every hospital diagnosed her as a different sickness. Showing no sign of recovery, she started remembering sad experiences such as a memory of getting bullied by other kids when she was a child, bitter memory of the early years of her career and so on. She became more and more negative.

In the end, she tried to kill herself by banging her head against the window by fits when she was staying at a hotel.

Just then, she noticed a book called ‘Soranonamae (Name of the sky)’ which was a present from her fan. She found a business card attached on the last page of the book.

It was a business card of a psychosomatic medicine doctor’s. She called the doctor.

The doctor went to see her at the hotel right away. When she told the doctor about her problems, the doctor said to her, “It is just menopausal symptoms. You will get better soon.”

She told the doctor all the problems she had. By getting prescribed right medicines, her symptoms improved quickly.

Remembering the bitter experience, she says, “It must have been a message from the God that you grow up by overcoming difficulties throughout your life.”

She also remembers what her mother used to tell her; “You will see the light at the end of the tunnel if you keep smiling.”

After the scandal of the full-page ad, a lot of male fans started discussing about their problems with her. She was surprised to learn that a lot of people were suffering depression.

 

Through such experiences, in a magazine’s interview, she said, “You cannot become an attractive woman unless you overcome depression and menopausal symptoms.”

 

The NIKKEI 11/26/2010 by Nana Kinomi (musical actress)

 

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