What is Mental Health?
The term ‘Mental health’ refers to the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being of individuals. Mental Health is just as important as physical health but unfortunately, people aren’t aware of that. Recently, many Indian Celebrities have shared their experience with mental health to create more awareness among people.3
1. Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone is a world-famous actress; she recently worked in a Hollywood film with Vin Diesel for which she was well praised. Her film career started in the year 2007 with the film ‘Om Shanti Om’. Since this, she has seen a lot of highs and lows in her career. She was diagnosed with Clinical Depression in the year 2014, the actor has openly talked about how it affected her on daily basis and that she was also seeking treatment from the best Psychiatrists and Psychologists in the country.
In 2015, Deepika founded a mental health centre called the ‘Live Love Laugh foundation’ to spread mental health awareness. The Foundation brings together expertise and information to raise mental health awareness, remove the stigma associated with mental illness, and provide reliable mental health resources. While launching the foundation she shared her experience with Depression and Anxiety, she shared that on 15th February 2014 as she woke up she felt a hollow feeling in her stomach. She was feeling irritated and felt directionless which was completely unlike her. Her mother felt that something was amiss and that she needed professional help. Her experience with Depression and Anxiety made her feel motivated to at least save one life; this led to the development of her foundation.
2. Shaheen Bhatt
Shaheen Bhatt is a screenwriter who wrote a book on her experience with Depression. She said that mental illness has been part of her life since she was 12 years old. Initially, she felt that she was just a typical teenager who was irritable most of the time and didn’t want to get out of bed. She didn’t seek help for 6 years as she didn’t want to seem weak or crazy. She spoke about what she was going through after feeling suicidal and underwent treatment for depression.
Shaheen was bullied by her friends in her childhood due to her weight and skin colour, she was even made to opt-out of a photoshoot with her sisters Alia Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt as she didn’t look similar to them, this incident impacted her mental health as she felt ashamed of who she was. When she opened up to her family about what she was growing through, they were very supportive. She launched her book called ‘I have never been Unhappier’ in the year 2019. She also started her foundation called the ‘Here comes the sun’ on World Mental Health day. The foundation aims towards spreading mental health awareness and reducing the stigma around mental health.
3. Hrithik Roshan
Hrithik Roshan, one of the leading stars of our country who started his journey as an actor in the year 2000 with the film ‘Kaho naa Pyaar hai’, completed his 20 years journey in the industry. In this 20 years journey, he has been through a lot of ups and downs not only in his professional life but also in his personal life. In the year 2016, he opened up about his experience with mental illness during a campaign called #Everydayheroes. He admitted to experiencing Depression and experiencing ups and downs in life. According to him, it’s normal to experience ups and downs in life, and one should not feel that experiencing Depression makes you weaker. Instead being vulnerable is what makes us human.
He talked about reducing the stigma around mental illness; he said most people are not even aware that they are going through a clinical illness as there is an extreme lack of awareness and stigma around mental health. He even shared that he knew a lot of people who were close to him suffering in silence but not seeking treatment for depression or anxiety. According to him, just like one seeks professional help when experiencing problems in the knee, back or any other body part, it is equally important to seek professional help when experiencing mental and emotional health issues.
4. Ileana D’cruz
Ileana D’cruz started her career as an actress in the year 2006 in a Telugu film called ‘Devdasu’, after which she worked in a lot of films in both Tamil and Telugu languages and eventually did her first Hindi movie with Anurag Basu in the year 2012 for which she even won the Filmfare award for Best Debut as well. She has always been open about her experience with Mental illness. She was suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder at the start of her career. Body Dysmorphic Disorder is also known as BDD is a mental health disorder in which one can’t stop obsessing about one or more perceived flaws and defects in the body.
In the year 2017, she opened up about her experience with Body shaming; she said since she turned 12 she has been body-shamed by people around her because of how her body changed due to puberty. The constant comments made her feel extremely self-conscious of her body and all she wanted was for everyone to accept her. It became her life goal when she turned 15, but she never got that. She said that the comments made on her left a deeply ingrained scar that she has been carrying for years. After experiencing suicidal thoughts she realized that she needs to seek professional help. She has been undergoing treatment for depression and anxiety. She is now on a journey of Self-acceptance.
5. Hirdesh Singh
Hirdesh Singh, also known as Yo Yo Honey Singh is a Music Producer, Singer, and Rapper. He started his career in the year 2003 as a session and recording artist and later on became a music producer. He rose to fame in the year 2012 but took a break for 18 months and completely disappeared from the limelight. There were rumours that he had gone to the best Rehabilitation centre or a De-addiction centre as he was suffering from Alcohol Addiction as well but in reality, he admitted that he had shifted to his Noida home as he was suffering from Bipolar Disorder and Alcoholism.
In the year 2016, on his birthday he revealed what had happened to him, he was on medication but wasn’t responding to them for a year until he contacted one of the best psychiatrist in Delhi, he shared that he feared that he would never be able to get out of this darkness, he had locked himself inside the room and didn’t even get a haircut done in a long time. He used to once perform in front of thousands of people but he was afraid to even be seen in front of 5 people. He is still undergoing treatment and insists that everyone should take more care of their mental health and seek professional help if needed.
6. Manisha Koirala
Manisha Koirala, a famous actress who has been working as an actor since the year 1991, opened about getting diagnosed with Clinical Depression cause of which was her ex-husband. Not only did she battle with Clinical Depression but also battled with Cancer. She spoke about her experience with Depression in her book called ‘Healed’ which majorly talks about her battle with Cancer.
7. Anushka Sharma
Anushka Sharma started her acting career with the movie ‘Rab ne bana di jodi’ in the year 2008. Since then she has been one of the top actresses in the film industry. She recently started her venture as a Producer as well. She spoke about her Anxiety in an interview. She said that she does have anxiety and is on medication from the best Psychiatrist in the city. She even shared that her family has a history of depression and it’s not something to be ashamed about.
She even stated that she wants to make her mission to reduce the stigma around mental health. She believes that just how one goes to the doctor when experiencing stomach pain it’s also necessary to seek professional help when experiencing mental and emotional health concerns.
8. Kapil Sharma
Kapil Sharma is one of the most famous comedians of our country. He participated in a reality show called The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and went on to win the show. Later on, he had his television show on Colors TV Channel called ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’. His show quickly became extremely famous in no time but the show later got shut down.
Kapil Sharma opened up about battling with Depression and his overindulgence with Alcohol in the year 2017, during this time he said that it was difficult for him to even smile. He started another show in the same year with Sony Tv called ‘The Kapil Sharma Show, he would cancel the shoots and drink a lot. He had hit rock bottom, he would lock himself in his office and spend time with his pet dog. One of his friends suggested he shift to a seaside apartment but whenever he looked at the sea he felt like jumping in it. In his Netflix special, he spoke about his experience with depression, alcohol abuse and how seeking treatment for depression and alcohol helped him get out of that phase in his life.
9. Varun Dhawan
Varun Dhawan started his acting career with the movie ‘Student of the year’ in the year 2012. He quickly rose to fame as a Comedy actor but when he did the movie ‘Badlapur’ it was quite different than what he was used to doing. During the shoot of ‘Badlapur’, he experienced Depression. Although he was not clinically declared with Depression, he had to take medication as he was heading that way. He also said that the term ‘Depression’ is used very loosely in today’s time which is not right as it is a serious illness.
10. Karan Johar
Karan Johar is a famous filmmaker; owner of Dharma Productions has been a major part of the film industry for more than a decade now. In an interview he opened up about his experience with Clinical Depression, during that phase he felt like he was going to get a cardiac arrest, he even left a meeting that he was attending and saw his doctor, realizing that it was an anxiety attack.
He took treatment from the best psychiatrist and psychologist in the city to resolve the internal issues causing anxiety. While doing therapy he realized he realized he didn’t completely process the death of his father and certain relationships due to which he was carrying a lot of baggage. Now, he is in a much better place emotionally and for that he gives full credit to the therapy and medication treatment.
In a country like India, for celebrities to accept that they have suffered from mental illnesses and have undergone treatment for it as well as a huge step forward towards the importance of mental health awareness in our country. A lot of stars in the 70s and 80’s also suffered from mental health issues but nobody came out in public and accepted it as the stigma around mental health was at a very high level during times. The stigma around mental health still exists but we are moving forward in the right direction.
By Janhavi Mehta
Psychologist
Veda Wellness and Rehabilitation