We can’t overlook the impact it has on people when celebrities whom we love speak out on issues that are considered taboo. Actor Deepika Padukone has been our personal favourite for having opened up about her own struggle with depression and anxiety at the peak of her career so candidly.
Through narrating her journey, she has been strong supporter of raising mental health awareness and is a vocal champion of the cause. Elle India has posted a letter which she wrote in support of fans struggling with mental health issues just before her wedding to Ranveer Singh in November.
An excerpt from it reads:
To anyone who sees darkness, I would like to say that you are not alone and that help is always available. For in the words of Stephen Fry, ‘It will be sunny one day’.Deepika Padukone, Actor
Check out the letter here:
“As I began to read more about the subject, I realised that there were millions of others like me who were suffering in silence,” she wrote. Her experience led her to establish The Live, Laugh, Love Foundation to spread awareness about depression and anxiety and end the stigma attached to mental illness.
Deepika also shared a new initiative by the foundation titled #NotAshamed which is aimed at encouraging people to openly ask for help when facing problems with their mental health.
Earlier in the year, her foundation released a survey on mental health in India which revealed how awareness may have increased among Indians but the stigma against mental illnesses is still very prominent. And that is what we have to combat. Catch the findings of the survey here.
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