After Losing Films & Battling Depression, Deepika Padukone Talks About The Fear Of Relapse

Time and again Deepika Padukone has spoken about depression and how her life was affected by the whole phase where nothing felt right.

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Her experiences have been a major reason why she established The Live Love Laugh¡¯ foundation. However, in a first, Deepika Padukone expressed how her battle with depression in the past has been ¡°such a bad experience¡± that she always carries a fear of relapse.

(Also read: Deepika Breaks Down While Talking About Battling Depression, Thanks Mother For Her Support)

The 31-year-old actor was interacting on the stigma surrounding mental illness at India Economic Summit. She said,

PTI

¡°I don¡¯t think I can say that I¡¯m completely over it (depression). There is always a fear at the back of my mind that I might have a relapse because it has been such a bad experience for me."

Elaborating upon her decision of going public with her battle with depression, Deepika said, ¡°I didn¡¯t think about the repercussions. The idea really was to change the way people in India and the world see mental illness¡±.

She even expressed how depression affected her career and she lost several movie roles. Even though she was unsure but she claimed that there might be producers who didn't approach her because of the same reason. She added,

PTI

¡°Maybe there are people who haven¡¯t offered me films because they think I was depressed and I can¡¯t act. Maybe, I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m in a good space because I can choose the movies that I want to act in, but I don¡¯t think everyone has that luxury of where they want to work or when they want to work."

Deepika also said that it's important for school curriculum to have mental health. Batting for the introduction of mental health as a part of the curriculum in schools across the country, she said the idea will help do away with the stigma attached to it. She added,

PTI

¡°A large part of the stigma comes from the fact that we (just) talk about physical education in schools. I had physical education in my school, but we didn¡¯t have anything to talk about mental health. It¡¯s not a part of the curriculum. If we included that in the curriculum and introduced the idea or the importance of mental health at the school level, there will be no stigma."

Deepika further added that policymakers and people at workplaces need to recognize and normalize depression so that those suffering from such mental illnesses could come out and confide without the fear of losing their jobs.

(Also read: 8 Celebrities Who Spoke About Coping Up With Depression And Gave Us An Important Message)