“Depression feels like complete numbness,” starts Sheikha Majda Al Sabah. “The lack of feelings and a lot of dark ideas roaming in my head as if I’m trapped in a very dark room with no exit sign.”

Everyone has their own mental health journey, but few are as candid about their internal struggles in the Middle East as this Kuwaiti beauty entrepreneur. After experiencing a personal battle with depression, Al Sabah found her “purpose in life” by co-founding the ASAP Initiative, a private campaign committed to increasing mental health awareness and investing in related initiatives.    

 “I wish that I knew more about the symptoms,” said Al Sabah. “I wish that there was an awareness in society in terms of the types of disorders, the kinds of therapies, and that was the main reason why we started our initiative.”  

Providing access to regional resources, collaborating with designers, and publicly speaking out at events and in the media, Al Sabah is on a mission to correct misconceptions about mental illness and advocate for societal change, inspiring many others to join her in the movement to destigmatize mental health disorders in the Middle East.