My name is Lydia Caesar. I am a singer and a recording artist. And that's my passion, that's what I love to do. 25.

Depression is unheard of in the church. You can't be saved. You can't love the Lord and be depressed. That's not right. Something's wrong there. That's the stigma. And so many people in church are suffering. That's a fact.

The Bible tells us it rains on the just and the unjust. So we're supposed to experience normal emotions like everyone else. Weeping only indoors for a night but joy comes in the morning. Those scriptures wouldn't exist if we aren't supposed to experience pain as well. And it's more of a façade that because we go to church, because we love the Lord, we shouldn't be sad. Nothing should be wrong with us. Everything should be okay all the time. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.

I personally know people in my church, people who I'm close to … that they're humans, so they suffer. They suffer from depression, they experience pain, just like everyone else. And what better place to talk about it, than in the house of God.

Four years ago I went through something that was very difficult for me. I got pregnant. And I'm young now, so I was a lot younger then. I was 19. And I was very afraid. Like deathly afraid. Here I am, a young girl. First of all, being 19, unmarried and pregnant is bad enough. Being 19, unmarried and a Pastor's daughter and pregnant, is not good.

So, I was faced with a very big challenge at a young age. And it was very difficult for me. I didn't want to tell my parents. I really didn't want to tell anybody. And I didn't.

I had never ever experienced a panic attack before. I couldn't breathe. I was gasping for air. And it felt like my throat had closed. And it was a teeny tiny hole and I was trying desperately to get the air out. And I dropped the phone because I didn't know what was happening to me.

I shut down. And it was a very difficult time for me. Eventually of course, I told my parents. And it was hard. I disappointed them and I let them down. So I knew that I had upset them, and I knew that I had let them down. And I felt that I had let the church down. And that's not a burden that any young person should have to carry, at all. But I carried it. Alone. Alone, please, alone.

Once I reached out to my sister, it got a little better. Once I told my mother, it got a little better. The more I talked about it, I felt it coming off. And I decided to make a really big decision. I didn't want to be the pregnant Pastor's daughter that everyone whispers about. So I decided to make a public announcement. Stand in front of the church and tell my story.

And I did that. And the way I know that this is something that needs to take place in church is because of the tears that I saw in the congregation. The faces. People stood up. People applauded me. People came up to me afterwards and told me … that was me! People who I had no idea. They seemed so holy and so perfect. Their kids who I'm friends with were born out of wedlock. They were pregnant and young also. And I didn't know that.

And everyone's story just came, overflowing. And it was such an experience for me. It really changed my life because I was young and it showed me that everyone, every single face in that congregation that I saw every Sunday that seemed to have it all together, had something. Something was plaguing them. Some kind of pain. Some kind of silent suffering that it took for me to say something.