One step at a time

Actor Deepika Padukone launches depression awareness campaign

MUMBAI: Bollywood beauty Deepika Padukone — who opened up about dealing with depression last year — will now be launching an awareness campaign to take her fight against the condition forward.

The actor hopes to spread awareness about depression through her NGO The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF). The NGO was launched in June 2015, after Padukone came clean about her personal fight against the disorder.

The programme, titled You Are Not Alone, was launched on Wednesday. It focuses on educating high school students and teachers on stress, anxiety and depression and aims to reduce the stigma that surrounds mental health. “Last year, I spoke about my own fight with depression as I felt I could not just sit by and watch people who were going through what I had gone through,” said Padukone in a statement. “So we decided to launch You Are Not Alone with an idea to raise awareness and enable students and teachers to identify signs of anxiety and depression.”

The awareness campaign will cover over 500 schools through the year, starting with Padukone’s own alma mater Sophia’s High School in Bengaluru. “We believe that schools can be the first line of defence for emotional and mental health disorders in our youth. We could also help connect the schools to counselling organisations and independent counsellors if they need such help,” claimed the 30-year-old. “Our aim is to bring the issue of mental health from the shadows; from being spoken off in hushed tones to included in drawing room conversations,” Padukone added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2016.

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