Deepika Padukone on the moment she realised she needed help with her mental health

From Harper's BAZAAR

Deepika Padukone has opened up about seeking professional help for her mental health.

Speaking onstage at the World Economic Forum, the actress told the audience about the moment she realised she needed help professionally.

"My parents live in a different city and they had come to visit," she explained, "I was sitting in their room and they were packing up and getting ready to leave and I had one of those moments where I was watching her pack and I just suddenly broke down."

"She looked at me and asked, 'What happened? Is everything OK?' And I said everything was OK, but clearly everything was not OK."

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Padukone told the crowd how her mother started to question why she was feeling that way. "She asked me the routine questions like, 'Is it my relationship? Is it something at work?' But I just kept saying no."

She continued: "I didn’t know what was that one thing. I couldn’t point my finger at it and she immediately looked at me and said, 'Deepika I think you need professional help'."

"The toughest part in the journey was not understanding what I was feeling."

Padukone is an advocate for mental health and for ending the stigma around mental illness. The Bollywood actress has set up the Live Love Laugh foundation, which centres around depression and anxiety.

“I wanted to create an impact at a large level,” she told Bazaar. “There’s been a revolution in terms of physical health in the last 10 years but – at least in India – we aren’t necessarily aware of our mental health.”

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