Late Miss USA’s mom on mental health, high-functioning depression

Even the highest of achievers can struggle with feelings of loneliness and unbearable sadness behind closed doors — a state that’s commonly referred to as high-functioning depression.

High-functioning depression isn’t a clinical diagnosis, but the National Alliance on Mental Illness recognizes it as a term that can describe “anyone who is grappling with mental health issues while accomplishing their day-to-day tasks and upholding their responsibilities.”

Symptoms of high-functioning depression can present differently than the severe signs of major depressive disorder like diet changes, sleep disturbances, fatigue and feelings of hopelessness, says April Simpkins, mother of the late Miss USA winner Cheslie Kryst.

Following her daughter’s death at age 30 in 2022, Simpkins shared that Cheslie struggled with depression for years despite being an attorney, winning pageant titles and securing a spot as a correspondent for the TV show “Extra.” Though Simpkins isn’t a clinician or a therapist, she began serving as an ambassador for NAMI.

“For some people like Cheslie, it can feel like [it’s] normal to be in the state of feeling sadness or feeling loneliness. And speaking specifically of Cheslie, those were some of the things I noticed,” Simpkins tells CNBC Make It.

“I think the one I noticed the most was her feeling like the incredible, remarkable things she was doing were just okay. I didn’t see high signs of elation, and that doesn’t mean every single time, but most of the time when I would think ‘Wow, that was brilliant or beautiful. You did a masterful job.’ She would just see it as being okay.”

We spoke to Chase Cassine, a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist, about managing symptoms of high-functioning depression. Here’s what he recommends.

1. Allow your support system to be there for you: “High-functioning depression will tell you you’re in this world by yourself, and that is not true. So allow your support system to be there for you,” Cassine says.
2. Break up your cycle and do things outside of your home: It can be as simple as making a run to Target or as grand as going on a vacation.
3. Journal about how you feel
4. Create a safe space: Cultivate relationships with people in your life where you can communicate how you’re feeling and feel comfortable with sharing. For some, the people you share with may be friends; for others, it can be a therapist.
5. Practice yoga and mindfulness: If you find yourself “so busy, caught up in being an overachiever, thinking about what’s next, practice some mindfulness,” he says. “Mindfulness causes us to be present in the moment, identify what we’re feeling, and [realize] that emotions are fleeting, they don’t last, and that we can identify what we’re feeling and we can release those things.”
6. Seek professional help: “If it’s been persistent sadness, if it is beginning to affect their work, their ability to function,” then that’s a sign that you should seek additional support from a professional. “Speak to your healthcare professional first to just rule out some [medical] things, [and] consider doing some cognitive behavioral therapy.”

Cassine also has advice for people who suspect that their loved one is dealing with high-functioning depression. He suggests offering to buy the person a meal or asking them to come along with you as you run errands.

“I want the friends and family, that village, that community, I want them to first start with this: lead with compassion, and acknowledgement, that we all, we all, experience different stressors, we experience different adversities, different things that can impact us all differently,” Cassine says.

“What we all desire as human beings [are] these three things: we want to feel seen, heard [and] valued.”

One of Kryst’s final wishes was for her mom to publish a manuscript she’d been working on. “By The Time You Read This” published this April.

“She was my best friend, she’s my daughter, she was my person and if she leaves me a wish, something that she wants done that she can’t do for herself, I’m gonna go to the mat to make sure this gets done,” Simpkins says.

“I literally will move heaven and Earth.”

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