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NeNe Leakes Opens Up For The First Time About Battle With Depression

She says medication “helped me out a lot.”

NeNe Leakes has had a tough year being her husband Gregg Leakes' full-time caretaker during his battle with cancer. Now, in a recent interview, she is revealing that she was suffering from depression throughout the ordeal but was able to come out the other side with the help of her doctor.

Speaking with HollywoodLife, the Real Housewives of Atlanta star said she felt overwhelmed with all of the couple's responsibilities falling into her lap once Gregg was in the middle of his treatment.

"Being a caretaker and doing something like caring for someone with cancer for the first time in my life, then to have to be the breadwinner for everything, it's a lot," she said. "The overseer of everything in our life, it was a lot of pressure and it really did feel like depression."

RELATED: NeNe Leakes Has Something To Say About Reports That She And Gregg Have Split

The reality star admitted that she was not aware that she was battling depression until she made an appointment with her doctor who made note of her symptoms.

"I don't really know what depression is, but I was speaking to my OBGYN and I was telling her a lot about how I felt and she said, 'I think that you're going through a depression,' and I didn't really know what a depression felt like except for what anyone said," she explained.

Leakes said, after the appointment, she began doing her own research and "learning things about myself that I saw in me."

"She gave me some medication and it really worked and it helped me out a lot," she added. "I don't think I really understood how serious that was for us and how much pressure I had on me."

While the Leakeses have experienced their respective struggles, the two are in a better place now with Gregg being officially cancer free and NeNe working on her personal health.

"We are doing well," she said of their marriage. "Gregg looks so amazing. He's doing so good. He did a PET scan and they see no cancer in his body anywhere. That was a blessing and we're super excited about that. Every day is a new day and every day is a step in the right direction. We've been able to communicate a lot better with each other."

We applaud NeNe for using her platform to shed light on an issue — mental health — that too-often goes ignored and undiagnosed in the Black community. 

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