10 Things To Know About Deepika Padukone's Mental Health Foundation

On World Mental Health Day this year, Deepika Padukone shared moments spent In Tamil Nadu on her social media. The actor has bravely spoken about her experience with depression back in 2015, the same time when she announced her non-profit NGO The Live Love Laugh Foundation to raise awareness regarding mental health.

Mental health is still a taboo topic and celebrities talking about their own experiences with it, normalises the problems and helps to remove the stigma from it. Celebrities like Deepika Padukone, Shaheen Bhatt, Anushka Sharma and many others have taken their social media platforms to normalise mental health issues.

Suggested Reading: World Mental Health Day: 4 Films About Mental Health Issues You Need To Watch

10 Things About Deepika Padukone's Mental Health Foundation

1. Back in 2015, Deepika Padukone came out to the public about her battle with depression the year before. She spoke about feeling suicidal and slept for hours to escape her feelings. Padukone said to NDTV, "I woke up one morning just feeling empty you know like this pitt-ish feeling in my stomach that I was telling them that I get this pittish feeling in my stomach. I woke up like feeling directionless, I didn't know where to go, I didn't know what to do and I had these bouts of feeling so low that I would just start crying at the drop of the hat."
2. At the same time as sharing her own experience, Deepika Padukone announced the founding of The Live Love Laugh Foundation which will raise awareness and help people health with mental health issues.
3. Padukone said while sharing her story, "Through my journey to recovery, as I began to understand the stigma and lack of awareness associated with mental illness, I felt a deep need to save at least one life. It was this very need that motivated me to go public with my illness and set up The Live Love Laugh Foundation."
4. Recently on World Mental Health Day, October 10, The Live Love Laugh Foundation expanded their rural outreach program to Tamil Nadu. Padukone herself visited Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu and met the beneficiaries and caregivers there.
5. Deepika Padukone on her social media wrote about this program saying, "Since our inception, we have been relentless in our efforts to improve the lives of those experiencing mental illness, as well as the lives of their caregivers.Expanding our rural outreach program to Tamil Nadu is one more important step towards making mental health care accessible and affordable for all."
6. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and ASHA workers were also present in the session, who does the groundwork of providing help.
7. Deepika Padukone says in one of the videos shared by her and the foundation that mental health doesn't discriminate against anyone. and she can be seen telling that she herself is a patient and pointing towards her sister to be her caregiver, she says that there is no difference between the patients living there and hers.
8. It was a two-day visit to Thiruvallur and Padukone's second rural visit with her foundation. She shared moments of the visit on her social media.
9. Deepika Padukone visited Tamil Nadu along with her caregivers, her mother, Ujjala Padukone, sister, Anisha Padukone and psychiatrist Anna Chandy.
10. Padukone in an interview said that it was her mother who identified there was something she needed to address and Padukone says without her caregiver she doesn't know what would happen so she thinks hearing from the caregivers is important as they play a big role in the healing process and she said that the day people will take help without thinking about the stigma will be a success of the foundation.