World Suicide Prevention Day: Celebrities who opened up about their battle with anxiety, depression

Established in 2003 by International Association for Suicide Prevention, World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is observed every year on 10 September.

The day is marked to seek attention on the issue, reduce stigma and raise awareness among organisations, government and the public by giving out a singular message that suicide can be

prevented.

From 2021 to 2023, ‘Creating hope through action’ is the triennial theme for WSPD. While several believe that addressing the topic of mental health is a hush-hush matter, many celebrities

over the years have opened up about combating the same and struggling with suicidal thoughts.

Therefore, let’s take a look at some of the public figure, who have opened up about their battle with anxiety and depression:

Deepika Padukone is hands down one of the biggest advocates of good mental health. The actress created a huge stir when she opened up about her fight against depression, and that too at the

pinnacle of her acting career.

The Gehraiyaan actress recalled her battle during an event in the national capital in 2017. Deepika is an ardent supporter of the cause and has also founded The Live, Love, Laugh Foundation

to raise awareness.

In 2016, Hrithik Roshan revealed at an event in Mumbai that he has “experienced depression”. After coming out with his struggles, the actor believes that depression should be treated like a

“normal thing”, and time and again has stressed that it must not be stigmatised.

Back in 2006, the American singer-songwriter opened up that she suffered depression after her singing-rapping girl group Destiny’s Child broke up. Later in 2011, the singer in conversation

with The Sun said that she took a year off just to focus on herself.

Fifty Shades Of Grey actress Dakota Johnson is another Hollywood star, who spilled beans about having “full anxiety attacks”. The actress revealed that there are times when she panics to

such an extent that she doesn’t know what she is “thinking or doing”.

Dakota added that while she has anxiety “all the time”, it gets really “bad” when she is auditioning.

The Amazing Spider-Man actress Emma Stone in her conversation with Wall Street Journal in June 2015 revealed that she used to get panic attacks.

For the first time, it happened when she was sitting at a friend’s place, and while describing her feelings she claimed that she felt as if the “house was burning down”.