Depression- A Taboo

“We need to talk”

Yes, these are the scariest words in your teen life when received in a text or over a phone call especially from your boyfriend/girlfriend. But right now, in this present age, these four words are the need of hour. According to a ET reported data, 80 people killed themselves due to loneliness and fear of being tested + for COVID-19 and also, Suicide was the leading cause of over 300 non-COVID deaths in India during lockdown. THIS IS SERIOUS! If not the disease itself, the fear of getting infected is enough to kill the people!

We need to talk about MENTAL HEALTH!

We need to talk about DEPRESSION!

We need to talk about The Evil that keeps on popping!

We need to talk about the rights & the wrongs of our Society?

We need to talk about the Ache going down the spine!

We need to talk about a Disturbed mind!

We need to talk about a Crying heart but dry eyes!

We need to talk about that Laugh, hiding away from the limelight!

 

I am not surprised that Late Sushant Singh Rajput, a promising actor working in the world of broken dreams called ‘Bollywood’ had to take such a drastic and most unexpected step. Truly, this is a demanding world, where words of peace, enlightenment and salvation look true only in textbooks but in reality, we are left to feed on as a survivor. Now, we don’t know the reason behind Sushant’s suicide and maybe we have no right to know the truth. The truth has died with the man and so has the charm! It is such an irony that the last big film Sushant did was on how ending your life is not an option!

Sorry Brother, We the Society failed You!

Another such shocking incidents for me from the recent past are- in May 2018 Former ATS chief or ‘Supercop’ Himanshu Roy shoot himself dead, because he was suffering from Cancer and in 2019 successful businessman CCD founder Mr. VG Siddhartha’s body was found in Netravati river, Karnataka. If you are of the thought that only an empty stomach can push a man towards such an end then remember these two men were of power, fame and money.

         

Now, as the dust has settled and tears have dried, what can we take away from the recent tragic incident and advocate to the public is- Why? And How this issue can be solved?

Talking in technical terms, depression can be of many types, can vary in range and is definitely a multi-fold journey.

-        The basic seed to depression in sown in our life from a failure. One failure and game over.

-        Pregnant women go through initial phase of depression but this depression arises because of hormonal changes.

-        Soldiers deployed in a war zone suffer from mid-high level of depression which is a result of fear for own life, away from family and uncertainty.

-        Even patients suffering from life threating diseases surrender to life because they reach a point where they see no hope for betterment.

-        Even doctors especially doctors suffer from depression because of the nature of job. The same applies to police personnel.

(For more kindly read here- https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression)

 Now, I am not psychologist and a mental health expert but here is something that many of my near ones are not aware of. So back in 2013-2014, when I was preparing for Government Jobs exams, I was also trying my luck to enter into the glamorous-10000W bright world of Hindi Film Industry as a writer. In collaboration with one more dreamer like myself Mr. Ajit Jagtap, we wrote one script as the third part of a famous/mainstream 2-parts Bollywood film. We must have taken approx. around 8-9 months, brainstorming over each and every dialogue/scene and then we went ahead meeting the content head of a Production company. It was a heavy monsoon day in Mumbai and the office was located somewhere in Andheri. No doubt, we were respectfully rejected, reason being, “The director is right now more focused on his acting career and hence there is no room for Part 3” (True to his words, there is no news of Part 3 to this day). After much requests made from our end, the content in-charge asked us to deposit the script with him. No prize for guess, we never heard back from production house. Afterwards, I focused all my energies into prep for exams and luckily, I kept this blog alive too. That one day, that so called ‘Bollywood’ rejection of mine was a great teacher for me to understand that, it is definitely an industry full of challenges, rejections and as we know from tabloids, compromises.

But then, which industry across the sectors is not demanding? The cunning men/women at top either want to sleep with you (Yes there are male escorts too) or the pimps want your hard-saved money!

Note: Watch Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich on Netflix to better understand the concept of power abuse!

In this time of fast-forward life, we need to make ourself so strong that we don’t hesitate to ask for help (Yes it gets very hard sometimes to even Ask!) and shall be able to get over those few dark seconds when such acts of suicide are committed.

The least you can do to contribute towards eradication of this disease is-

• -        Accept and acknowledge the existence of this devil called ‘Depression’
• -        Even a 6 ft man or a woman with fair skin can suffer from depression. Provide such person with a passionate hug or even a smile will do.
• -        Be happy yourself. Because what you are becomes your aura and it reflects.
• -        Listen more and more.
• -        Judge less, appreciate more.
• -        Celebrate Failure. The final success is nothing but a result of multiple failures.

Lastly, Dear Parents, it is not only professional failure that kills. Each day we are losing brilliant minds to suicide because of excessive pressure created by you. Think for a moment, Is a engineering degree from IIT more valuable to you then your kid’s life? It is completely ok to be an average!

(For more kindly read here- https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/student-suicides-rising-28-lives-lost-every-day/article30685085.ece )

 

Jiyo Aur Jeene Do!