Bachelor's Daisy on Past Depression: ‘Some Days I Don’t Want to Be Here’

Daisy Kent opened up about the previous mental health struggles she faced amid her health woes.

“I had those moments of happiness but it was also really, really dark,” Daisy, 25, said on the Wednesday, April 17, episode of “The Squeeze” podcast. “And the only people that knew that were my closest, closest friends and my family. And it was just a time where, honestly, if I didn’t have the people in my life, the family I do and the friends I do who were pouring love into me, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through it.”

Daisy was diagnosed with Lyme disease at the age of 21. Daisy, who now has a cochlear implant, explained on season 28 of The Bachelor that her hearing loss was likely a result of the disease.

“Now I’m so happy but when I think back to it, it still makes me really sad because I wasn’t living for myself, I was living for the people who loved me because they were pouring so much love into me and I was like I have to figure out a way to want to live for these people because they love me so much,” she said to podcast hosts and spouses Taylor and Tay Launter.

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Daisy recalled moments where she was home for college and her little sister would encourage her to get out of bed, but she wouldn’t want to leave. “I think everything just flipped upside down when that happened. It was a time where nothing made sense to me,” she said.

“Looking back at it, do you think you were depressed?” Taylor, 32, asked, to which Daisy replied, “Yeah, for sure.”

“My surgeon, about two years ago when I met her, when I first walked in and had a conversation with her, she knew that I was depressed,” Daisy said. “I was with her – we have a really close relationship – after the show, I remember talking to her and I was like, ‘You know, I’m happy and I haven’t been happy in a long time.’ And she was like, ‘When I first met you, I was worried because you were depressed.’”

Daisy mentioned filling out a questionnaire at the doctor’s office which asked her yes or no questions about depression symptoms. While she replied no to “every question,” she recalled thinking “yes, yes, yes, yes.”

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“I don’t think I wanted to admit it too, because I have so many amazing people in my life and so many people that I love. And I was in my head and I’m like, ‘How do you tell the people that have poured so much love and support into you and given you everything, and my parents, my very first breath, how do you look at them and say, ‘I’m not happy and there are some days I don’t even want to be here.’”

With encouragement from her parents and family members, Daisy ultimately went to therapy. “It was just them helping put the pieces of me back together when I couldn’t,” she said. “It’s really special because I know how love can heal and love can help.”

“I don’t think I realized until the last year of my life, when I’ve seen that happiness change, how sad I was,” she continued.

Bachelor Nation met Daisy when she vied for the affections of Joey Graziadei on season 28 of The Bachelor. Joey, 28, ultimately got down on one knee and proposed to Kelsey Anderson during the series finale, which aired in March.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.