Quote Of The Day By Janet Jackson: 'Put It All Together And Depression Is A Tenacious And Scary Condition. Thankfully I ...'

Janet Jackson may have been the youngest member of the famed musical family, the Jacksons, but over her long tenure as a pop star and actor, she managed to rival her older brother Michael Jackson's career. Born in Gary, Indiana, in 1966, by the time she was 11 she began appearing on the groundbreaking TV sitcom "Good Times." She later appeared on "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Fame," before moving on to feature films as she got older. But it was as a singer that Jackson truly soared.

Jackson scored 10 No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits and topped the Billboard 200 seven times with a string of massive albums, from 1986's "Control" to 2015's "All for You." She also earned five Grammy Awards that solidified her standing as one of the most important female musical artists of the late 1980s through the '90s and beyond.

Even so, Jackson has faced many tragedies in her life. She had a strained relationship with her father, experienced a series of failed marriages, had a career-derailing wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, and dealt with depression in her 30s. Today, she's doing well, touring – including her "Control 40" concert in December 2026 — spending time with her son, Eissa, and living her best life in London, England, and that's why Jackson is today's quote of the day.

"Put it all together and depression is a tenacious and scary condition. Thankfully, I found my way through it."

In July 2018, Essence featured a letter Janet Jackson penned about her search for happiness and her struggles with depression (via ABC News). In the letter, she discussed having a sense of despair into her 40s, but that she'd managed to find happiness through her faith, friends, and raising her son.

She had touched on this years earlier in a November 1997 Newsweek interview, discussing her difficult relationship with her controlling father, Joe Jackson, and white school teachers who were cruel to her, which led to her questioning her self-worth later in life and whether she deserved her success. Such a startling case of imposter syndrome is one many can identify with, and thankfully, Jackson found peace through her love of music and family.

Janet Jackson was at the top of her game in the mid-'90s when her depression spiked. It began slowly sometime around 1995 with days when she felt "funky," she recalled in the Newsweek interview, but soon worsened. Over time, she was slowly able to recover. Besides her faith and friends, she found a deep sense of happiness from her son, Eissa, who was born in 2017 with her then-husband, Wissam Al Mana. "The height of happiness is holding my baby son in my arms and hearing him coo, or when I look into his smiling eyes and watch him respond to my tenderness," Jackson said in the Essence letter. 

As Jackson discovered, depression is a serious condition with many root causes that can easily overwhelm a person, whether they're a world-famous pop star and actor or a regular Joe. For the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer (inducted in 2019), she's finally found her way through. "Happiness is saying, 'Thank you, God, for my life, my energy and my capacity to grow in love,' " she said.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

"Because of what I was going through. I was very, very sad. Very down. Couldn't get up sometimes. There were times when I felt very hopeless and helpless, and I felt like walls were kind of closing in on me."

"I could still say not nice things about me to me, but in a joking way. It's still not good to do, because whatever you say, your brain is hearing it."

"The things I've gone through since the last album, there's been a lot of pain involved. I really don't want to get into it 'cause it's so personal, but a lot of it has to do with my childhood, things that happen in your life that you think you've gotten over but you never get over."

"It stemmed from my childhood, my teenage years, my adulthood. I was always the kind of person that could suppress my pain somehow, through escapism."

"Happiness came when people asked me to perform ... but I was happiest when I was pleasing others and not myself. An older and wiser Janet might have said, 'True happiness is knowing you're doing the best you can...'"

"When it comes to happiness, I'm no expert. I have only my life experience as a guide. I've known great happiness and great sadness. But I guess the key question is, what do I really know about happiness?"