Hong-Kong-based LGBT rights activist Anshuman Das (AD) has recorded a TEDx talk about his successful battle to relinquish depression.

TEDx are unofficial talks designed to inspire communities to follow the ‘ideas worth spreading’ motto of internationally popular TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talks.

In AD’s talk he describes feeling suicidal ‘night after night’ after his partner died two years ago. He says that he wanted to talk about his partner all the time but ‘no one wants to talk about death’ and ‘in my case it was was worse – my love was same-sex love and people don’t want to talk about it’.

AD says he beat his depression using three steps.

‘One: by finding a hidden power inside me,’ AD says in the talk. ‘Two: by using that power to validate myself, my grief and what I was going through, three: by setting goals for myself’.

One of the goals AD set for himself was to write a book about his relationship with Mike Francis Mendoza, who he met at Mr Gay World in the Philippines in 2011, and Mendoza’s sudden death.

‘And when I finished the book and I published it I had this amazing feeling of having accomplished a task, even when I was really struggling,’ AD says.

‘Not everyone needs to write a book. Not everyone needs to do something creative. You can do something to help others…

‘You can go to an old age home and give an old lady a hug, you can help children learn.. because it makes you feel good about yourself. And in those days I wanted to feel good about myself. And those small goals really helped me come back.’

Watch AD’s talk here: