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Mental health has always been ignored, especially in a country like India. The mental health awareness drive, carried by Deepika Padukone called The Live Love Laugh Foundation has been successful in reaching out to people with depression. It believes in helping people with mental distress. This is what Deepika Padukone brought forward recently in an event organised by TLLLF where well-renowned people from the field of psychology came together and had a very informative session. Deepika believes that stigma attached to mental illness is the main reason why the society is struggling to address the problem. The session was a very enlightening one which made us ponder on the fact how much we ignore mental health issues. One good news that came up from Dr K.K. Agarwal, president of IMG is, "Medical Council of India now mandates 10% of the credit hours must belong to mental health." However, he also brought forward the issues that doctors in India face. A special video and poster campaign, #DobaraPoocho (ask again), was also unveiled on the occasion, which you can find below:
In a nutshell, this whole event revolved around how important it is to bring forward depression as a major issue and consider the problems revolving around it, seriously. Unfortunately, India has only 6,500 psychiatrists. CEO, McCann Worldgroup India, Prasoon Joshi was also present and said, We decided to be a part of the campaign so we have volunteered and given our support. Deepika could have kept it all to herself, but she shared her struggle and turned it into a movement. The society s president Dr G Prasad Rao threw some light at the fact that India is home to the largest number of mental health patients in the world with at least 50 million people suffering from depression at any one point in time.(Read: 7 physical symptoms of depression you should be aware of )
Deepika Padukone broke down while sharing an anecdote from her own life, she began, "It was about two years ago, my parents and my sister were packing up to leave Mumbai ... and I was just curled up on the bed. My mother asked if everything was okay, I said yes. She asked again if it was work or something else that was bothering me, I said no. She asked me so many times that I felt myself choking and I burst into tears," She further continued, "In the times we are living today, we have become so competitive, which is a good thing, but we have become extremely insensitive too. I dedicate this campaign to people who have survived depression and are suffering from it and I urge society to become more sensitive." These words left everyone pondering about the current situation of mental health patients in the country. The concept behind the hashtag #DoobaraPoocho is that if one finds themselves around a person who seems depressed, they should ask them again and again if they are okay and make them feel secure. At some point, the depressed person will surely open up about their problems.
IMAGE: Deepika Padukone (Instagram)