'When the wave of depression hit I felt numb to the world around me'


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DK, 31, has battled serious depression for the past 16 years.

He cannot identify exactly what brought it on, but believes it was triggered by a series of life-changing and traumatic incidents.

While in his early teens, his parents divorced. Shortly after, he was involved in a car accident and spent time in hospital. Both incidents stirred deep emotions, but he avoided talking about them.

"When you're part of a large family you feel like you don't want to be a burden, so you shy away from talking about these things … it becomes a habit," he said.

Things exacerbated when his father's friend attempted suicide in the basement of the family's home.

"I heard a gunshot and I didn't know what happened," he said. "I went downstairs and found him drunk and crying. I had to take the gun out of his hand. It was like an out-of-body experience."

The American expatriate buried his feelings, never realising they might manifest some other way.

"I was very active - I was into sports, theatre, community service and was part of the student council," he said. "But when the wave of depression hit I started to get withdrawn. I felt like I was a bother to everyone - you almost become numb to the world around you.

"It reaches a point where you feel comfortable in that state - you don't want to go out or do anything, you'd rather feel sad. You try to do something different - meet people, go to new places - but you only feel worse. It's like quicksand, the more you try to fix things, the more you sink."

It never crossed his mind that he might be depressed but his parents read the signs and took him to a therapist. His depression was diagnosed when he was 15.

"I would go for counselling and the psychiatrist put me on antidepressants," he said. "It takes some time to find the medicine that's right for you. It changes you, alters your cognitive state … you lose a little bit of who you are. But it's still better than the alternative."

DK, a primary-school teacher in Abu Dhabi, said his experiences had prompted him to seek a support system for children with depression or any mental illness.

"We try to work with the counsellors to bridge the gap," he said. "Every school should try to identify students going through this and provide the emotional support they need to deal with it."

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Persuasion
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Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)

TV: BeIN Sports

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

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MATCH INFO

Champions League quarter-final, first leg

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Match on BeIN Sports

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How to wear a kandura

Dos

  • Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion 
  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
  • Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work 
  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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