World Mental Health Day: Celebs who have battled issues in the past talk about how they coped with 2020

Actors such as Chahatt Khanna, Ridhi Dogra, Mandana Karimi and Shama Sikandar talk to us on the occasion of World Mental Health Day about how they coped with the stressful year that 2020 was, considering they have battled mental issues in the past, too.

2020 has been a stressful year — the Covid 19 crisis locked us inside our homes, livelihoods got impacted, and we couldn’t even meet our near and dear ones. And naturally, it led to a rise in the number of mental health problems people face. What about those who already had problems? How did they cope with this period?

Actor Shama Sikandar had battled bipolar, while Chahatt Khanna has fought with depression.

We talk to a few of celebs about it:

CHAHAT KHANNA (battled depression)

Earlier, it was only me, now the entire globe is under depression because of the crisis. I am still coping with my mental issues. It is a journey, where you have to deal with it like any other disease. You have to recover, cope, there are weak days, good days. My counsellor has been chasing me, but I don’t have time. She is like ‘you need to get back to me’, but I have been working. In the kind of lives we lead, we sort of neglect mental health problems, because they are not like a stomach ache or fatigue. And yes, the crisis situation basically aggravated the whole scenario. Of course, I was lucky that I started working from June 1 onwards, that has kept me going till now.

SHAMA SIKANDAR (battled bipolar)

The year has been the nicest for me in terms of spirituality, self learning, in terms of self awareness. Nothing from the outside world distracted my attention or overwhelmed me, stop me from going within. But no it was not easy. There have been times and moments... we are people of habits, and like to go to parties, interact with people, the physical proximity and touch is extremely important to us. of course, it was difficult in the beginning, was were told to do something different from what we have been conditioned to. it took me little time. For a couple of days, I was actually lost and didn’t understand how I am going to survive. I couldn’t even meet my mother or brother, and I am a very physical, warm person towards the people I love.

MANDANA KARIMI(battled anxiety)

The one thing I did was stay away from social media in the past few months. It’s a very dark space, and as much as I understand the importance of this space to my work, it started affecting my family. I had couple of stalkers call my family, and send them emails. We don’t have perfect lives, and there will be good days and bad days. And the one thing I want to say about mental health, not just for celebs but kids, younger generation too, it’s important to address what’s bothering you. You try to work on it, and make sure you have support. Sometimes, it got really tough, I couldn’t communicate with friends and family.

RIDHI DOGRA (battled depression)

I remember when the lockdown began, the first thought I had was of mental health. I was aware that we were getting into isolation, and it would be terrible for people. It’s not good for anyone. As much as we enjoy our own company, we thrive when we are with other people. I coped a little better because when you go through anything to do with mental health issues, there is a sort of inner work that is done in the past. I got some tools, like I did a lot of meditation, saw television far less, didn’t watch news. In a nutshell, I focused on things that made me happy, and didn’t judge myself whether there were five or fifteen other things, and you don’t need to do every small thing.

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