Deepika Padukone Talks About Battling Depression, Shares She Didn't Feel Right About Hiding It

Deepika Padukone opened up about her struggle with mental health issues and paved the way for many others. Padukone battled depression and has time and again raised awareness around it in her own way.

Through her latest initiative, Padukone launched a clubhouse session called Care Package, a one-of-its-kind audio festival.

Deepika

The audio session took place on July 20 between 7 pm and 8:30 pm. During the session, Deepika Padukone bared her heart out about her life before and after depression.

Instagram

Here are some noteworthy takeaways from Deepika's insightful conversation:

1. She said that the 'celebrity' tag attached to her made it difficult to open up about her depression.

Deepika Padukone

She said she was conscious of not letting her health issues become public and didn't know which therapist could be trusted.

¡°At that point, when I went through the entire experience, I felt like we were extremely hush-hush about everything. We didn¡¯t want my name to go out. We were scared about which therapist to reach out to and who¡¯s going to keep this information confidential. At that point, I went with the flow because I wanted help."

2. Padukone further added that she didn't feel right about concealing it. She said it was only months later that she felt her handling of the issue wasn¡¯t convincing.

YouTube

She added, ¡°When I was reflecting on how this whole thing went by, I thought why did we handle it like this? And why were we trying to be quiet about it? Why can¡¯t people know? Why shouldn¡¯t people know that this is what I have been through? It also came from me wanting to try to be as honest and authentic as possible.¡±

3. Deepika didn't want people going through depression to ¡°suffer in silence¡±.

Instagram

¡°It was also about letting people know that mental illness exists and it¡¯s okay to seek help because most of us suffer in silence because it¡¯s not something you seek externally, so there is a guilt attached to it because you feel you are the only one going through it. You also feel like you are inconveniencing your caregivers and the people around you. Me coming out was really letting people know you are not alone and we are in it together,¡± she said.

4. Deepika is working on her mental health. She shared how she's working hard not to get trapped in the same black hole.

Instagram

Deepika added, ¡°Life post mental illness is a ¡®before and after. I had a particular life before depression, and I have a very different life after that. I keep saying that there¡¯s not a day without me thinking about my mental health. To ensure I don¡¯t go back into that space, I need to focus on the quality of my sleep, nutrition, hydration, exercise, how do I process stress, and my thoughts and mindfulness. These are the things I have to do daily, not because they are fancy words or it¡¯s cool to do this, but I won¡¯t be able to survive if I don¡¯t do all these things,¡± the actor concluded.

Apart from Deepika, the line-up of speakers for Care Package included Jay Shetty, Radhi Devlukia, Jovanny Varelan, Aarthi Ramamurthy (Head of International, Clubhouse) Sriram Krishnan, Paul Davison, and Raghava KK. Singer Prateek Kuhad also performed during the virtual event.