Ileana D'Cruz wants to break all taboos around mental health: 'I have been a bit harsh with myself'

Ileana D'Cruz shared her views on the need to open up on mental health, the taboos around visiting a therapist and more in a recent interview.

Actor Ileana D'Cruz has said that taboos around mental health must be done away with and opening up on such issues will only make us healthier.

Actor Ileana D’Cruz rocks a striped black and white pantsuit

Ileana made her Bollywood debut with Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra-starrer Barfi!, six years after she started acting in films. Prior to that, she worked in Tamil and Telugu movies.

“I (have been) a bit harsh with myself as well. Sometimes, you get photographed when you are not in the right head space for it. It caught you off-guard and it is a really bad photo. I was really hard on myself. I was like 'Oh my God, what were you thinking, why did you wear that?'But I have realised you are only human and you may just get caught off-guard. And, it is okay,” Ileana told Bollywood Hungama in an interview.

Asked about taboos around mental health, she said, “I saw a therapist because I needed to. Initially when I went to her, I did not think I really needed it and I was like ‘gonna prove that person wrong, I do not need a therapist’. And, it was absolute nonsense, because I genuinely needed the help. It is not taboo to ask for help. It is not wrong to breakdown, to cry, to just loose it every now and then. It is alright. It is normal, it is human. We need to normalize talking about so many things, not just mental health. We would be a lot more sensitive and a lot healthier if we opened up and just listened to other people."

Ileana was most recently seen in Abhishek Bachchan-starrer The Big Bull where she featured as a journalist. Talking about losing a family member amid the pandemic, Ileana told Hindustan Times on Tuesday, "The pandemic (last year) was a bit hard only because I was away from my family. Losing a member of my family who was so close to me hit me very hard. It made it especially harder because I was away from them all. So now I try and spend most of my time with them and I made a point to spend a little more time over Christmas and New Years."