Speaking On ‘Evenings with Cassandra Maria’ on Premier Gospel Radio, former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams opened up about having to ‘unlearn how’ she ‘coped with depression’ from her early teens.

Williams, who has a book ‘Checking In: How Getting Real about Depression Saved My Life and Can Save Yours’ coming out next month, didn’t get her depression diagnosed until she was in her thirties.

Asked how she was able to determine at such a young age that something just wasn’t right as opposed to how she was feeling being an integral part of her character, Williams said losing her love for things she cared about was a tell-tale indicator.

 “When you start losing interest in things that you’re passionate about, and my grades started dropping, and I prided myself, I had great pride in my schooling, that was a giveaway, that something was wrong, but I didn’t know it was depression,” she admitted candidly.

“I just thought maybe it’s growing pains. Maybe I’m going through puberty, I mean, women, as you’re going from girl to woman, you’re getting your period, you’re hormonal, I’m just thinking, maybe it’s just a phase.

“You know, that’s, that’s what I thought. And sometimes they can be, I don’t want to, I don’t want to minimise hormones and puberty. That’s a real thing.

“Obviously, we all have to go through it, but when it just lingers on a little too long, but now you’re 20 you’re not going through puberty, sounds like something else. Something is going on, you know, and then not getting the diagnosis until I was in my 30s.

“So I’ve been trying to unlearn how I coped with depression, you know, isolating although, I’m a homebody I love being home.

“I love being to myself. But at the same time, it keeps me from getting out and about enjoying nature. So I have to be intentional about, “Okay, go enjoy nature, go for a walk, go for a drive in nature.”

During the show Williams also touched on the abuse being aimed at Meghan Markle who recently came out and said she’d experienced depressive and suicidal thoughts.

Markle has faced accusations of being a liar and Williams says people should be more mindful of what they say about a person when they know very little about their circumstances.

She said: “Well, what I want to say is that let me make sure I look up the word trauma properly.

“The word trauma means a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. A distressing and disturbing experience can be waking up in the morning, you’re drinking your coffee and you get the newspaper and you see someone talking about your child.

“A racial slur is a disturbing experience. It is an experience that you’re having trouble coping with. Everyone has had trauma. We think trauma is just a blunt force trauma to the head from a car accident or a fall.

“No trauma is a word spoken to you or about you that you are now made aware of. So I hope that shuts it down. (People saying) She’s lying.”

She added: “Or if someone is coming to you or anybody listening, hey, I’m depressed. You’re lying. You just got married; you don’t know what’s happened.

“You don’t know what happened before marriage, you don’t know that something happened that triggered a thought, or something that’s gone on healed or processed. So we have to be really careful of what we say to people who bear their heart and say, this is what I’m going through, this is what I’ve been struggling with.”