I have had bouts of anxiety and feel low sometimes : Alia Bhatt on her mental health

No Bollywood actress has tasted success as much as Alia Bhatt has in the last few years with back to back success from Raazi to Gully Boy. Even though with so much success in hand and her chirpy, happy-go-lucky outside, she struggles with mental issues.

In an interview with Filmfare, the Kalank actress said that she has to deal with bouts of anxiety for the last five to six months, but that is nothing close to depression. “I haven’t been depressed but I’ve had bouts of anxiety. It comes and goes. It’s been happening quite a bit since the past five to six months. It’s not like an anxiety attack but I just feel low. Thankfully, I’m aware of it because of my sister Shaheen. She’s fought depression. I’ve read her book. No matter how bad it is, I just let myself feel it. Sometimes, I feel like crying for no reason. Then it passes. Initially, I’d be a little confused. I’d constantly give reasons that it’s because of work or maybe I’m tired or haven’t been able to meet anyone.”

However, she knows how to deal with this anxiety pangs as she is surrounded by great friends and family all the time and her sister's tale of suffering from depression has taught her a lot.“The kind of personality I have, I become a little on the edge. I spoke to friends about it. I spoke to Ayan about it, I spoke to my sister’s friend Rohan (Joshi). Everyone told me that you’ve got to realise that it will go away. What’s important is to accept it and not say that you’re fine. If you’re not feeling fine, then you should just say you’re not feeling fine.”

For the uninitiated, Alia Bhatt’s sister Shaheen Bhatt has been battling with depression for a long time. She also wrote a book titled ‘I’ve never been (un)happier’, in which Shaheen has talked about in detail about her battle and life.

Not just Alia, even Deepika Padukone has earlier come out to talk extensively about depression. "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."
Anushka Sharma and Alia's co-star Varun Dhawan in other interviews has also discussed how they often get anxiety attacks and want to educate people about the same.

Meanwhile, Alia is working on her upcoming big release Brahmastra along with boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor and gearing up for the release of Kalank co-starring Varun, Sonakshi Sinha, Madhuri Dixit in other pivotal roles.