Depression is a disease that plagues a huge fraction of the world's population, and it doesn't matter how much you have achieved, how successful you are or how much money you earn. Stormzy is the latest star to put into words his own thoughts and experiences surrounding these dark feelings.

StormzyStormzy reveals his struggle with depression

After three years in the game, the Brit Award nominated grime star has finally unveiled his debut studio album, 'Gang Signs & Prayer', and on it he expresses some very deep ideas about suffering from depression. It was something that he thought it was important to address, given how he much he has learned about human nature in the past few years.

'For me, it was a realisation of how fragile we are as humans', Stormzy said in an interview with Channel 4 News. 'In the most beautiful way possible. In the sense where I always saw myself as this strong person who just deals with life, I get on with it - and if something gets me low, I pick myself back up. Like that happens, we march on. That's always been my philosophy.'

However, having that kind of positive thinking didn't always put him in great stead for feeling sympathy towards his less happy friends, and it took him a while to understand how potent depression can be. 'One of my closest friends who was suffering from it, I used to dismiss him', he confessed. 'It wasn't even in a harsh way, but I just used to think 'just be happy, just pull it together'. That was a world that was so alien to me.'

Eventually though, Stormzy ran into his own demons and started to realise that happiness doesn't always come quite as easy as that. But when it came to opening up to the rest of the world about it through his music, he was always a little hesitant. 'Even then I had another complex, where I thought 'OK, I went though this - but I don't even know if I want the world to know if I went through this', he added. 'What convinced me to talk about it was the fact that if there's anyone out there going through it, I think for them to see that I went through it would help.'

More: Stormzy raided by police?

Stormzy also wants people to know that even 'the bravest, the most courageous people' can suffer at the hands of depression, and while he always tries to 'come across confidently and happy', he thinks it's important for people to understand the truth. 'People will be looking at me thinking I don't go through nothing', he said. 'So for me to just let people know, no, I do. I do. I do go through that.'