Rhea Chakraborty found herself at the centre of one of the most prominent deaths in the history of Bollywood in 2020. Sushant Singh Rajput's tragic death in 2020 didn't just shake the nation, but made Rhea the target of intense public scrutiny. What began as a personal loss spiralled into a national spectacle, stripping her of privacy and peace.
The past five years have impacted both her personal and professional life, and Rhea Chakraborty recently opened up about her mental health struggles with Hindustan Times.
Rhea Chakraborty On Her Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
In the candid conversation, the Jalebi actor shared, "I suffered from PTSD and at the slightest things, like if a person even ran towards me to open a door, I used to feel so panicky. I used to get lactic acid build-up in my calves because PTSD activates your fight or flight response; you are constantly in that survival mode."
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It can affect a person in several ways.
Further explaining how PTSD affected her health, Rhea Chakraborty added that she faced gut problems which led her to become a vegetarian and only eat khichdi.
Rhea Chakraborty did not just endure, but acted. Along with changing her lifestyle, she took therapy to tackle the condition. "I have done therapy for three-and-a-half years and... Every Wednesday at 4 pm for two years and four months non-stop, I did not miss a single session. Therapy really saved me, so people who say that therapy is nonsense, I don't believe that."
Rhea Chakraborty On Raising Mental Health Awareness
Studies have found that there's still discrimination and negative ideas surrounding people with mental health problems. Emphasising this same idea, the Sonali Cable actor shared that mental health problems should be treated as "any physical ailment".
"I feel that the mental health crisis is a pandemic and everyone is going through it. I can tell you someone as young as 15-16 today will be like ‘I have anxiety' because of the hustle culture. There is a pressure to do so much all the time," she told the publication.
Going through it herself has made Rhea Chakraborty aware that there is still "stigma around mental health". She urges that there should be a shift in perspective when it comes to mental health problems.
"If someone has cancer, we don't judge it...this is a cancer of the mind," she shares.
Rhea Chakraborty's openness about her mental health journey highlights the urgent need to destigmatise mental illness and treat it with the same compassion as physical diseases.