Alia Bhatt with sister Shaheen Bhatt (Courtesy shaheenb)
Highlights
- Shaheen discovered she's suffering from clinical depression at 16
- Shaheen is also writing a book describing her battle with depression
- "Even in our industry, a girl gave away her life," said Mahesh Bhatt
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who was recently interacting with media at an event, talked about his daughter Shaheen's battle with depression. The 69-year-old filmmaker told news agency PTI that his daughter Shaheen 'came to a point of considering suicide at the age of 12-13'. "My daughter Shaheen discovered she's suffering from clinical depression at 16. She also came to a point of considering suicide at the age of 12-13. This happened at home," PTI quoted Mahesh Bhatt as saying. Shaheen revealed about her battle with depression earlier this year. Alia Bhatt's elder sister shared how she has "lived with depression" since she was 13.
"I've lived with depression on and off since I was about 13 years old. This is not a revelation or a confession. Those who know me know this about me. It's not something I take any pains to hide, I'm not ashamed of it or particularly troubled by it. It's just a part of who I am. I have days where I feel good and then I have days where I don't. One minute everything's fine and the next it's like someone turned the light off inside my head. I go quiet and it's difficult to get out of bed. Like it always does the world around me loses focus and I struggle to make sense of it. Sometimes these bouts last an hour - sometimes they last days," read an excerpt from Alia Bhatt's sister Shaheen's article for Vogue magazine.
I've lived with depression on and off since I was about 13 years old. This is not a revelation or a confession. Those who know me know this about me. It's not something I take any pains to hide, I'm not ashamed of it or particularly troubled by it. It's just a part of who I am. I have days where I feel good and then I have days where I don't. One minute everything's fine and the next it's like someone turned the light off inside my head. I go quiet and it's difficult to get out of bed. Like it always does the world around me loses focus and I struggle to make sense of it. Sometimes these bouts last an hour - sometimes they last days. Today, I'm on day 4. I say I live with depression rather than I struggle with it because for me (and I speak only for myself here) I don't see why it has to be a struggle. I once read an idea by an American essayist called Richard Mitchell which stayed with me; it's now become how I try to approach the dips in my week or month. The idea is this: To be sick, or to suffer, is inevitable. But to become bitter and vindictive in sickness and suffering and to surrender to irrationality, supposing yourself the innocent and virtuous victim of the evils intentions of the world, is not inevitable. The appropriate answer to the question - Why me? is the other question - Why not me? *** Why am I writing about this? Well, I spend a fair amount of time on social media during the course of my day and today I found myself looking for something to post because it's been a few days since I've posted anything. I couldn't find anything so I figured I'd just talk about this - how I'm doing, instead of what I'm doing. It's as simple as that, and we could all stand to do a little more of it. P.S. That picture just seemed to work in this context.
A post shared by Shaheen Bhatt (@shaheenb) on
Elder daughter of Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan, Shaheen is also writing a book describing her battle with depression.
"Even in our industry, a girl gave away her life. She came to us for work once but we couldn't work together. I still remember seeing her body, the one who came here to work. I've seen this side of the city too," the filmmaker added.
Several Bollywood celebrities such as Deepika Padukone and Karan Johar have talked about their struggle with depression and mental illnesses. Deepika even founded Live Love Laugh, an organisation which aims to help people who need assistance to overcome mental illness.
(With PTI inputs)