Deepika Padukone launches ‘Live Love Laugh’ foundation

Actress Deepika Padukone says depression is not restricted to glamour and film world alone and can happen to anybody irrespective of the economic background.
Deepika, who has personally been a victim of depression, launched her foundation ‘Live Love Laugh’ dedicated to addressing the issue of mental health

 ‘I don’t think mental health or illness has anything to do with any particular industry. I think it can happen to anybody. I think we all should realise that beyond the baggage of what we carry of being the so-and-so we all are human beings first. It can happen to anybody. It doesn’t matter what your economic background is or what your profession is,’ – said Padukone.

In January 2015, revealing her own battle with depression, the actress said that while she was earning accolades in the beginning of 2014, one fine day she woke up feeling different and empty. She refused to communicate this problem to her parents until one day when she couldn’t bear it and broke down in front of her mother, Ujjwala Padukone. Her mother referred her to a psychiatrist and after a few sessions and medications, she was back to her happier self.

Although Padukone chose to speak about depression through her foundation as she herself has been a victim of it, she did not reveal much in detail about her causes of depression. ‘It germinated from my own experience and mine was stress, anxiety and depression. As a foundation, we would like to focus on this first. There are a lot of NGOs doing excellent work across the field of mental health,’ she said. ‘As a foundation, since we are just starting up, we would like to focus on this first. We don’t want to take up too much. Also, this is our area of expertise,’ she added.

Coming to the event in itself and the stars Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Anupama Chopra, Kiran Rao, Nita Ambani and many more. The star studded launch was all they needed to get the word around that Deepika Padukone has indeed done what she had promised to do, that is, to reach out to people who are going through what she overcame.