Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone mainstreamed the discourse around mental illness by opening up about her battle with depression in 2015. It was unheard of for a successful movie star to admit that she wasn’t feeling well mentally. Six years later, Deepika shares that the decision to speak about her mental health in public wasn’t immediate.
During a Clubhouse session, the actor said she and people around her were conscious of not letting her health issues become public and hence were “scared” about which therapist to trust.
“At that point, when I went through the entire experience, I felt like we were being 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,” Deepika said.