Deepika Padukone has spent years speaking openly about her experience with depression and anxiety, helping bring conversations around mental health into the spotlight.
For more than a decade, the A-list Indian actress has been vocal about the issue, along with sharing her own battle with clinical depression, which caused her to struggle with several challenges, including persistent low moods, unexplained crying spells, and exhaustion.
The Om Shanti Om actress’s struggles with depression dates back to 2014, and she finally spoke up about her experience in a 2015 interview with NDTV.
How was her depression diagnosed and the symptoms
Speaking to the outlet, Deepika revealed that at the peak of her career in early 2014, one fine morning, she woke up feeling “different” than usual.
“In early 2014, while I was being appreciated for my work, one morning, I woke up feeling different. A day earlier, I had fainted due to exhaustion; it was all downhill from there. I felt a strange emptiness in my stomach,” she shared.
The actress continued, “I thought it was stress, so I tried to distract myself by focusing on work, and surrounding myself with people, which helped for a while. But the nagging feeling didn’t go away. My breath was shallow, I suffered from lack of concentration and I broke down often.”
Deepika revealed that while she tried distracting herself, nothing worked out in her favor instead it got worse over a period of time.
“When my parents visited, I would put up a brave front because they were worried about me living alone and working long hours. Then, once, while talking to my mother (Ujjala Padukone), I broke down. She realised the problem, and got in touch with a psychologist friend, Anna Chandy, to get to the root of the cause,” the Bajirao Mastani star continued.
She added, “Every morning, it was a struggle to wake up, and shoot for Happy New Year’s (HNY; 2014) climax. Finally, I had a word with Anna aunty. She flew to Mumbai from Bengaluru, and I talked my heart out to her. She concluded that I was suffering from anxiety and depression.”
What she did after depression diagnosis
After some counselling sessions, the psychologist suggested her to take medication. However, Deepika Padukone shared that she was hesitant and resisted the idea due to the social stigma surrounding mental health struggles.
“There were days when I would feel okay, but at times, within a day, there was a roller-coaster of feelings. Finally, I accepted my condition. The counselling helped, but only to an extent. Then, I took medication, and today I am much better,” she noted.
In the interview, Deepika Padukone shared that after wrapping up filming for Happy New Year, she took a two-month break from work before kicking off the shoot for her new movie.
During that time, she returned to Bengaluru and stayed with her family, which soon made her feel better.
“I spent time with my family in Bengaluru and was soon better. But, when I returned to Mumbai, I heard about a friend committing suicide due to anxiety and depression. It was a huge blow. My personal experience as well as my friend’s death urged me to take up this issue, which isn’t usually talked about. There is shame and stigma attached to talking about depression. In fact, one in every four people suffer from anxiety and depression,” she stated.
The Live Love Laugh Foundation
After publicly opening up about her struggles with clinical depression, Deepika Padukone launched the Live Love Laugh Foundation in 2015, a non-charitable trust that aims to raise mental health awareness and reduce social stigma.
