BENGALURU: In a recent conversation with Union Minister Smriti Irani, President Droupadi Murmu opened up about battling depression when she lost her husband and two children. Before that, Bengaluru girl Deepika Padukone shared her struggles with depression, all this normalising that icons also have imperfect times. As public figures, it is definitely not easy speaking up about something so intimate and personal. But most times, as city-based celebs tell us – the courage comes from a place of starting a conversation.
Actor Meghana Raj describes the passing of her husband-actor Chiranjeevi Sarja as ‘the lowest phase’ she faced. Which is when she decided to seek help to deal with the tragic loss. “The gravity of the situation struck me after giving birth to my son Raayan. I knew I needed help, and that there was nothing wrong in reaching out. I was also in the precarious postpartum stage,” says Raj.
People often have this perception that an actor’s life is perfect, an assumption that Raj says makes it all the more difficult to come out in the open and say something is wrong.
Opening up about feeling suicidal during a certain phase in his life, singer Raghu Dixit says was a conscious decision. Until I got therapy and benefited from it, I was apprehensive about being judged. But then I realised that eventually it’s your life and you have to do whatever it takes to get better. People don’t speak about it or approach a therapist when they need help. Since therapy helped me transform my life, I felt it my responsibility to reach out to as many people so they could seek help too,” says Dixit, who is working on setting up a mental health service. “The idea came when many people reached out seeking information of any therapist in regional language,” he says.
A lighter touch to a serious subject like mental health is an approach comedian Anand Rathnam feels helps deal with the issue. But at the same time, he points out that being a public figure, one has to be sensitive towards how they place the subject in the ‘skit’. “It’s important not to use serious and sensitive words casually,” Rathnam says.
Psychiatrist Roshan Jain says sometimes it is about speaking the obvious. “Mental health issues have always been there but what has changed is when ordinary folk see public figures – coming from a position of power, money; someone who is perceived to have all the happiness – struggling with the same issues as they are. It states the obvious that it is not an external problem but rather something internal, something that can be handled with help,” says Jain.