Deepika Padukone breaks down on TV; battles illness, stigma

Earlier this year, Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone made a big revation about her battle with depression.

It takes lot of courage for a celebrity of her stature to come out in public and accept this aliment.

Deepika breaks the silence and stigma around depression sharing, talking about it in public.

In an interview with Indian TV channel NDTV, Padukone, along with her mother, counsellor and doctor, speaks up to help others struggling with depression.

While narrating her story and sharing the emotions she went through, Deepika breaks down few times during the show titled 'Let’s Talk Depression: Deepika's Story'.

When asked why she chose to speak about it, she said, "...if I can impact one life in this entire process of speaking up and letting people know that it's something I have been through and something that I could deal with because I had a fantastic support system."

The dimpled beauty shared that it all started in February 2014 when she woke up like feeling directionless and empty.

When Deepika revealed her battle with depression, she had said, "I thought it was stress, so I tried to distract myself by focusing on work, and surrounding myself with people, which helped for a while. But the nagging feeling didn't go away. My breath was shallow, I suffered from lack of concentration and I broke down often."

Deepika's experience prompted her to set up the 'Live Love Laugh Foundation' to assist those suffering from the disorder.

She urged those suffering from depression to ignore the social stigma surrounding the illness and seek medical help.

Deepika established herself as a leading Bollywood actress by taking on lead roles in 'Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani' and 'Chennai Express'.

Both movies rank among the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time.

The actress even broke down on screen at one point when talking about gossip in the industry relating to her depression.

"We need to be little more sensitive, you know, calling someone clinically depressed without even having picked up the phone and cross-checking.

"Just writing in the manner that they did, I think we need to become little more sensitive about how we write about these things," said Deepika, struggling to contain her tears on the screen.

The actress said she broke her silence and shared it with the public because she did not want others to suffer in silence.

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