Sanjana Sanghi: We are going through a silent mental health crisis, I myself lost people in my immediate family last week due to Covid

Actor Sanjana Sanghi reveals she herself lost people in her immediate family to Covid 19, stresses on why mental health is equally important today due to the grief around.

Mental health, according to Sanjana Sanghi, is one key aspect that needs to be focused on equally during the ongoing pandemic. With anxiety, panic and grief being constant emotions given the grim scenario, the actor says we are suffering “in so many different ways”.

Actor Sanjana Sanghi has come up with a campaign where people can avail free psychological help.

This has prompted her to start a mental health initiative, where people can avail free tech and audio sessions with qualified psychologists. The 24-year-old tells us, “As a community, we have to come together. We need to widen the areas as well. There is so much effort and amplification into raising funds and getting materials across. I felt I would be very happy doing that, which I have been, but still there were some gaping holes.”

And that, she asserts, was lack of emphasis on mental health.

“We are going through a silent mental health crisis. We don’t have the bandwidth to address it, we are all experiencing so much pain and grief ourselves,” says Sanghi, adding that she herself has lost people in her immediate family and family friends in the last week.

The Dil Bechara (2020) actor goes on to add, “Grief is not an emotion you are supposed to experience frequently. It is an emotion you deal with very rarely in your life. I have studied psychology in school, and wanted to do my bit to actually get tangible support from psychologists for people. The moment we announced it, our slots got booked instantly. It has been overwhelming. One is trying to amp up the services as well now.”

The actor has also been looking after her physical health, and went to get getting vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as it was made available for ages 18 and above.

She shares, “I have been a huge supporter of the idea of getting vaccinated. We have reached a point where it is the only kind of hope, so I didn’t need any coercion at all. The moment the slots opened up, my brother booked it as soon as possible so that we could get it. It was amazing to see it was well organised, at least in my experience. I hope that’s true all over the country.”