It’s Cruel To Politicize Heidi Cruz’s Depression

When I heard reports of Heidi Cruz’s depression and how it’s being used to smear her husband’s campaign, I was very upset—not so much by the use of wives as pawns in political power plays, but by the exploitation of a woman’s dark night of the soul to gain political advantage.

Millions of Americans experience depression every year, with women facing the illness at double the rate of men. This fact alone should rouse our compassion, not our judgment, and certainly not our condemnation. Stigma for mental illness should be a thing of the past. Suffering with depression doesn’t mean you’re crazy or incompetent. To make that implication robs people of dignity and hope—the very things they need to find healing.

Broadcasting Cruz’s former struggle with depression, as if it is somehow a game-changer in her husband’s bid for the White House, perpetuates archaic notions about depression and heaps shame on people suffering from this terrible illness.

Cruz’s depression became fodder for the press when a police report surfaced about an incident in Texas more than a decade ago.

Here is the account from Buzzfeed: