All photos of Gorgeous Tina and her twins by Jade Beall. More images below.

The effects of depression has been on my mind a lot over the past few days. I think it has been on a lot of our minds as we mourn our beloved Robin Williams. And I think it is time we, or at least I, start talking about depression and redefining how we and those closest to us talk about and honor it. I have journeyed with depression since I can remember. Others called it "moody" ("moody Jade" was practically my nickname) and rolled their eyes when I was in such a state. Nobody wanted to admit that I might be a depressed 10 year old beautiful little girl living in a tropical paradise in a small village in Mexico. But I was depressed on top of being sexually abused for years, believing all the while it was my own fault. But guess what? I have lived to tell the journey, the painful and amazing journey I can proudly say has made me into a compassionate and phenomenal woman.

I only have ever shared my depression until this blog post with those closest to me: my mother and father, my sister and my past serious partners. And not one of them has been able to not take my depression personally, which is completely reasonable: they have not been taught how not to take my lows personally. When I am sad and paralyzed for no explainable reason, my sweet close ones think that it is because of them that I feel that way, and I have lost several partners because of it. No one has ever been able to offer to climb down into the muck with me and hold my hand as say, "Did you know I love you when you sit in your muck just as much as when you sit in your highest joy?" Perhaps my beloveds closest to me cannot do this and that is completely OK, because I have learned how to tell that to myself and this has been one of the biggest accomplishments of my life.

After giving birth to my beautiful little boy in early 2012, I hit my all time deepest depression. And still I was avoiding talking about it and admitting my shame for being a depressed woman, a failure, unworthy. I wasn't sleeping and I was breastfeeding my baby 24/7 ( and continued to do so until recently) and sleep is the way my body comes back to neutral ground. Ironically, this time also coincided with taking a self-portrait that circled the world and turned me into a body-love (s)hero. But in those early new-mother days, I was so deep in my darkness that I actually hoped that I would not wake up the next day because I simply didn't want to feel what it was like to be in my skin one more day. But then somehow I pulled myself up enough to photograph women in the name of redefining beautiful and I started "A Beautiful Body Project." My sadness was echoed by many of those gorgeous women that I was photographing and slowly I realized that even though I was still severely sleep deprived, I knew that I wanted to live so that I could be of service to my sisters! By wanting to help them, they helped me want to wake up each day!

Today I am a single mother. My partner broke up with me and my fantasy of a 'nuclear family' has been burned into ashes, or maybe it is more fair to say that it has turned into beautiful compost for new things to grow from. Because you want to know what? I am consistently the happiest I have been, maybe ever. My son's father and I are mastering co-parenting and friendship. I am sleeping for the first time in 2.5 years and I can be of service to women with rested eyes. And I am blessed to say that at least today I am still here to experience this day, filled with bits of depression, joy, doubt, fear, orgasms and laughter!

So can I nourish my son's mental health by wholeheartedly loving myself? I have to think that it will help, but I am no expert. What I do know is that because I know depression intimately and because I know I can turn it into art, I hope that at the very least I can show him that I am whole and beautiful in all of my states of mind and that I work hard to cultivate joy! And I won't bash and shame his superhero: me. I will also know, form experience, what depression might look like on my son and if I do see him journeying with depression, I will happily crawl into the darkness with him and tell him that I love him in all of his beautiful states of being.

From Tina:

Yes. Yes we CAN! Nothing to feel shameful about being depressed, my sisters. There is so much wonderful help for us out there, my favorite being empowered life coaches. But for now, please know that you are NOT alone. I will crawl into the darkness with you and lay with my hand on your heart. You are whole and beautiful and I love you.