South African actress Sophie Lichaba has opened up about her battle with depression saying it changed the way she viewed herself and suffering diabetes made her an easy target of cyber bullying.
The actress made headlines after her struggle with diabetes was publicized and was rapidly losing weight. The Generations star says her loss of weight came at a time when she was in a dark space.
“I was at the deeper point of depression. I can’t even explain it. When I think about it, I am like ‘God, you saved me’ because I would look in the mirror and see the same voluptuous woman. You wear the same clothes, the same style at that size and you still think it is normal. That is how deep it was, I couldn’t see a thing,” said Sophie during an interview with Radio 2000.
Sophie says she discovered that she was struggling only after she saw her pictures on social media.
“It was like Who are they talking about? They are talking about me! I snapped out of it. Nobody came to me, no friends came to me, and said ‘I think you are losing weight too rapidly.’ Are you still on that diet?”
She also admitted that the hardest part for her in this whole situation as realizing that she was almost a ‘skeleton.’
Her health issues and rapid weight lose made her an easy target of several death hoaxes last year. She says the bullying affected her and her family.
“My kids, it affected them because sometimes they would be like ‘why would so many people say this? Is it true? Are you dying? Is there something that you are not telling us?’ People don’t realize that you are human and go through human pain, like anybody else,” she added.
Sophie is famous for playing the character of Queen Moroka on South African soapie Generations. She has also acted on several productions including Isidingo, Yizo Yizo and Mzansi Magic’s Lockdown.
