Actor Deepika Padukone’s charitable trust launched a nationwide campaign to raise public awareness on mental health issues here on Monday, coinciding with World Mental Health Day.
The campaign ‘#DobaraPoocho’ (literally, Ask Again) is by The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF), which she set up exactly a year ago. The actor was diagnosed with depression in 2014, and while addressing the gathering the actor broke down and thanked her parents and sister for helping her overcome the ailment.
“Two years ago, my parents came to visit me. They were about to leave when my mother asked me if I am okay. I told her I was fine. When she asked me again, I felt myself choking and broke down. If it wasn’t for my mother, I wouldn’t be here. I want to thank my sister, my father, my friends and family for helping me,” a teary-eyed Padukone said.
The stigma attached to mental ailments is the main reason why society is struggling to address the problem, and the day we bring awareness to mental health, we will “win this battle,” Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone said Oct. 10.
The 30-year-old actress, who herself has battled depression, was speaking here at the launch of a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of psychological disorders on World Mental Health Day.
“It is important to realize that the kind of society we live in on Monday… We have become very competitive and drilled into it, which is a good thing, but, I also think we have become a little less sensitive to people around us… No one should feel that they do not belong to society,” she said.
