Shama Sikander urges people to be vocal about mental health: We’ve forgotten how to be normal human beings

The actor, who has been vocal about her battle with depression in the past, says it is important to have conversation about mental health.

Actor Shama Sikander feels that people should talk more openly about mental health issues amid this lockdown. The actor, who has been vocal about her battle with depression in the past, says things aren’t that bad as people are making it to be as long as there is a conversation about it.

Actor Shama Sikander says she is enjoying this basic life in this lockdown

“I’m enjoying this basic life. I never thought this can be enjoyable. We’ve forgotten how to be normal human beings. We are always running behind some weird dreams we have no idea about. We just want to achieve something, without knowing whether it’s what we want to achieve. People normally want to achieve things more because others are, not because they want to,” Sikander shares.

With reports indicating how several people have slipped into depression during the ongoing crisis, Sikander feels it’s also people’s inability to accept their present situation that drives them to depression and mental instability.

She explains, “When I was in depression, I used to look at people, normal housewives and I used to wonder what purposes can this woman have? She’s just doing normal chores, taking care of her husband, is that all her life? I thought if you want to live your life you need to achieve more and be something but God knows what. I’m learning that being a normal human being is of great value. It’s not something that is lame as we think it is.”

The actor further condemns the rise in the number of domestic violence cases in the last couple of months. While she agrees that the lockdown and people losing their mental stability has been a major reason behind the spike in the numbers, she asserts that the problem is extremely deep rooted in the society.

“No human being has the right to beat another. People are now staying at home and a lot of people have anger issues and it’s a result of all that. Unfortunately this is a deeply engraved problem. It’s because of generations of wrong training,” she opines.

As a celebrity, Sikander is aware of her responsibility to talk about such issues, and therefore, she has been using social media to raise as much awareness as possible. She also urges that it’s time to fight the mindset and conditioning of people.

“You can fight it, I fought it. I had to fight a lot of conditioning, too. I still do. It’s something not easy to remove, I completely understand that. I’m surprised to see the society wants to see change but doesn’t want to change. When I post some video on domestic violence, many women praise me but that’s no longer enough. Women need to realise that they should not let it happen at all,” the actor says.

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