With the news about celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade’s suicide, Alia Bhatt’s older sister, Shaheen Bhatt (30), has once again shared how she overcame her suicidal thoughts and fought the darkness within her.She wrote about battling depression in her recent column for a popular magazine. “I’ve lived with depression since I was 12-years-old and since then I’ve been suicidal on more than one occasion. I’ve experienced the sheer terror of contemplating a life filled with unrelenting anguish, and I’ve been consumed by the terrifying thought of having but a single means of escape from a bleak, unbearable future,” she wrote.
Shaheen further added, “A year and a half ago I chose to talk about my own experiences with depression on social media and even though I had never hidden that facet of my life, I was concerned about the judgement I would receive. Social media has given rise to a dangerous tendency to airbrush and filter our personal lives. There is so much value placed on false ideas of positivity and emotional prosperity that we present our lives as immaculate highlight reels entirely devoid of substance, and altogether devoid of the aches and pains of what it means to be human. We don’t like to talk about depression because there is nothing romantic or glamorous about feeling like you’re losing your mind; no attractive selfies are waiting to be taken when you’re curled up crying on the floor, no witty one-liners are floating around your mind to tweet for likes.”
Later, star sister Alia tweeted about the same and supported Shaheen for openly taking about an issue like Mental Health. Alia wrote, “Shaheen you are brilliant! My sister has battled and lived with depression since she was 12. She speaks her heart out and without any hesitation addresses the giant elephant in the room – Mental health and the LACK of our understanding & acceptance.”
