In a post on Instagram, she revealed, “Hi, I’m depressed. I have been for more than four years now. I’ve been to a doctor and I’m clinically depressed. I’m doing much better now. For over a year now, I wanted to do something for mental health, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I have decided to take you on a journey – my journey – and see what happens. Hopefully, we’ll get to know ourselves and understand mental illness slightly better. I’ve thought of so many things to say. What should I say? Why am I doing this?”
It was followed by another post, which read, “A lot has been going on, a lot of people have a lot to say. Things are really confusing and stressful and simple and okay but not okay and… life all together. There’s no way to say it all in one go. But I’d like to think I’ve figured some stuff out, or at least figured out how to make it slightly more understandable. About mental health and mental ill-health. So come with me on this journey… in my awkward, quirky, sometimes-baby-voice-y, as-honest-as-I-can-be… way. Let’s start a conversation. Happy World Mental Health Day.”
Ira regularly talks about the importance of focusing on mental health. In another post earlier this year, she wrote, “There are lots of parts to me. This is conflict between two of them that very seriously effects my attempts at healing from my overall depression. But the burn outs are getting longer so now I have to try harder. The plan is to reduce the frequency and intensity of my burn outs. I don’t need to change my entire being and functioning. Working a lot isn’t a bad thing, trying to do a lot isn’t a bad thing – not always. There’s a point after which it gets unhealthy. That’s what I need to find. That balance. Because working also brings me joy.”