Deepika Padukone: Does the media mean to inspire awe, not empathy?
Deepika Padukone woke one morning which she recalled was February 15 last year, invaded by a frightening feeling of blank anxiety in the pit of her stomach. Then, she said, came the bouts of crying, panic, feelings of directionlessness. She described it in babyspeak - a "pitty feeling", like a ditch, an elliptical empty thing; or a "pit" - the un-pulpable part of a fruit with a promise of foliage in the right conditions.
They say depression cannot be described, it has to be experienced to be understood. But a post World War I Austrian psychologist, Wilfred Bion, came close when he identified it as "a nameless dread", when babies, for example, cannot be appeased by their carers; they fear they are about to die. They suffer, in Bion's terms, a state of mind that is not thinkable.
Naturally, people devise, often desperate ways, of dealing with the nameless dread. Some may be driven to work harder like the Japanese known for their high rates of suicide and punishing capitalist work ethic, for whom the term "workaholic" was coined. It might cause people to make bad choices, max their credit cards, take risks or use drugs and alcohol to get from week to week. Or ingest pesticide, as farmers do all over the global South.
Is depression a molecule that a pill or two can manipulate, really? It has been proven repeatedly that drugs may give you sustenance, but they will hardly cure you. When the right drug is found - through trial and error - it will only give you the purchase to start your ascend to recovery, often alone, always difficult, with or without the help of family and friends. Your chances worsen if institutions or therapy fail to reach you. And it takes enormous personal effort and commitment to get better. If you are poor you may languish without making any improvements to your quality of life. Though there are those blessed exceptions with the resilience of gossamer.
One thing is certain: Medicine has not really made much headway in mental health, psychiatry especially - even in countries where care is more easily available and affordable, such as in Europe or the UK which have universal healthcare, still a distant dream for Indians.
If medical schools - and ours rate among the best in the world - were more attentive to this growing problem, the curriculum would dedicate more internship and lecture hours to psychiatry at the undergraduate level. Many general practitioners in India can deal with diverse ailments of the body, but there are few who are equipped to prescribe anti-depressants or offer continuous care to sufferers.
Was Deepika's appearance with three carers before, in my opinion, the world's most overrated broadcast journalist who does nothing but fawn over her Bollywood greatness, really empowering? For whom? What about for the men? They would consider such an admission emasculating as it is. Or that video about "choice" - like the right dress on the wrong girl, and Vogue, its producers should know. Deepika has the knack for screwing up every time she wants to be recognised for her "strength". She is beautiful, wealthy and at the peak of her Bollywood success and she is everywhere. She said repeatedly that her TV appearance was not for publicity, and I agree, who needs publicity if they are everywhere? The righteous objection at her cleavage being the centre of attention in a tabloid, the AIB boys who made her giggle at jokes that were a mix of kindness and sexism, the video - all kept her in the news constantly over the past year which is important if you have only two films set for release in 2015.
Was her coy mention of Ranbir Kapoor, as her "friend" (not an ex) as she described him a little obsequiously, coming from the same person who the following week appeared in a piddling video claiming it was her choice if she wanted multiple sexual partners? Is she taking the piss? Someone said that when she smiled, her eyes did not. That isn't depression, it's bad acting. If inspired by Barkha and Deepika, people pick up the phone to seek an appointment with a psychiatrist, they will discover two things - that there is a shortage of psychiatrists in India, and the treatments available are expensive (and frequently, inadequate). Also, psychiatric treatments fail, and medicines tend to work only for the most severely ill - those suffering from bipolar or schizophrenic disorders, for instance. This has confounded researchers around the world and made them question if depression is a purely medical illness.
Besides, there is diversity in availability of care across India. You are luckier in Delhi, Goa, Pondicherry or Chandigarh. There are further challenges when a patient achieves stability - how do they return to the real world with this new perspective on things and themselves? Frequently, a depressive's problems with the world is considered a part of their problem. What then? Recovery takes longer as the world comes to terms with you, too. Being crazy is no fun at all.
What was the aim of this unconvincing show of Deepika's vulnerability and strength, however, a wasted journalistic opportunity to really question health policy? Does the media mean to inspire awe or empathy? What is the stigma against mental health and what are its negative affects? How should we have a good, rewarding life when inequality is increasing, and migration to towns and cities for work is affecting our physical and mental health at a large scale? But for now there is the Live, Laugh, F*ck, sorry, Laugh Foundation and through it, this self-possessed girl in the pale pink top with the neck of a swan and vacant doe eyes is going to help sad people smile again which is nice because previously one thought it took drunk Bollywood stars running over several homeless pavement squatters before turning suddenly philanthropic.