Four years ago, actor Deepika Padukone first spoke approximately her struggle with despair. She defined how she constantly felt low and had the overwhelming urge to cry even though her profession was on an upward graph, and they had the support of her cherished ones. In contrast, she might not have been the primary to speak about depression.
She stays one of the maximum prominent names about Indian celebrities who’ve spoken approximately their struggles with mental health. In the years because Anushka Sharma and Ileana D’Cruz have also spoken about their journeys through anxiety and body dysmorphic sickness, and suicidal mind, respectively.
Even as public figures proportion their memories, have things modified on the floor? Are people virtually getting stimulated through those public admissions to open up and are searching for assistance themselves? We spoke to a few mental fitness practitioners to find out.
Better relatability, but stigma persists.
Vandhana, a medical psychologist, believes that celebrities speakme approximately their experience with intellectual illnesses has indeed helped. “We can strive to elevate as tons recognition as we need, but media has a higher reach and is extra effective. When human beings come to me, I am capable of supplying them examples of famous human beings who’ve long passed public about their struggles with intellectual health to put my patients comfy… to inform them that that is k,” she says.
Dr. U Vivek, a consulting psychiatrist at Renai Medicity in Kochi, also says that he attempts to encourage people, announcing that celebrities also have intellectual fitness issues. However, stigma is difficult to remove. “People still say things like it might be better if their daughter had cancer than Bipolar Disorder. Gajalakshmi, a Chennai-based medical psychologist, agrees. Her well-known shows that are going to a therapist remain associated.
With tons of extra disgrace than going to, say, a cardiologist. “I actually have had humans flip down medicine for mental contamination, but if a tension remedy is prescribed with the aid of a neurologist, they might eagerly take it. People nonetheless trust that going to a therapist and being on medication for mental fitness is akin to being ‘loopy,’” she says. Using celebrities’ memories works as soon as the person comes to the therapist. But that itself is a massive step for which we’re nonetheless dealing with reluctance,” Gajalakshmi provides.
How higher illustration can help
Practitioners additionally say that representation in a popular way of life can also make or damage the scenario about consciousness. On the one hand, Vandhana says that she has used examples from a popular way of life to make mental health greater available to her patients. For example, she used the Suriya and Amala Paul starrer Pasanga 2 to explain to a tense couple how Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affected their toddler. “After I mentioned the movie, I saw the comprehension sunrise on their faces right now,” Vandhana recounts.
On the other hand, incorrect representation, or one that romanticizes intellectual illness, can also harm. Vandhana gives the example of the debatable movie Kabir Singh, the Hindi remake of the Telugu movie Arjun Reddy. “We are proven that Shahid Kapoor struggles with substance abuse and anger management, but at no factor is it shown that he seeks to assist for the one’s problems. I without a doubt want they’d shown that,” she says.
