Professional Comedian Jessica Holmes Talks About Her Struggle With Depression

Today's special guest, celebrated comedian and author, Jessica Holmes, has always applied humor as healing balm for life's scrapes and bruises. Since childhood, Holmes has kept a "funny journal," recording bizarre moments that remind her life is, most often, more comedy than tragedy.

Holmes shot to stardom on her own Carol Burnett style sketch series The Holmes Show and then Royal Canadian Air Farce then started booking high profile gigs such as opening for Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres.From the outside it seemed like Holmes had it all. But on the inside, she was suffering in silence: after recovering from post partum depression years earlier,

Holmes entered a familiar slump. When she wasn't glued to her couch surrounded by junk food, she was avoiding her agent and yawning through gigs, even when emceeing for one of her idols, Oprah Winfrey.

Her book Depression The Comedy describes how Holmes eventually came to terms with depression: "the cold sore of the mind." Writing with self deprecating insight and emotional vibrancy, she speaks candidly about her condition, musing on everything from sex and marriage counseling to the bittersweet reactions of her kids to the funny (and scary) side effects of medication.

After battling both post partum depression and regular, run of the mill garden variety depression (her words), Holmes became a Life and Career Coach, and now tours regularly on motivational speaking circuits in addition to her work as an in demand comedian. She has performed wellness keynotes for such companies as 3M, Allergan, Carstar, Deloitte, Genworth, Atlific Hotels, and Habitat for Humanity. In the spring of 2018 she became an ambassador for the #BellLetsTalk campaign for mental health, and started a comedic online photo campaign to help others feel less isolated.