Shaheen Bhatt opened up about her depression a couple of years back in a heart-wrenching post on Instagram. Later on, she also released a book titled, ‘Never Been (Un)Happier’, where she spoke in detail about the difficult phase of her life. Shaheen has been suffering through depression since she was 13.
During a recent interview with Rajeev Masand, Shaheen recalled a few incidents from her childhood which were responsible for sowing seeds of depression in her life.
Referring to an excerpt in Shaheen’s book, Rajeev Masand said, “In the book, you talk about this incident and it’s just heartbreaking where you talk that once you and Alia, your younger sister went to a photoshoot with your elder sister, Pooja Bhatt and at some point the photographer asked you to leave the picture because the two of them (Alia and Pooja) looked similar, they were fair, cute and you were dark having spent too much time in the sun and you were a little overweight. And you said that till date, looking at those pictures cripples you emotionally.”
Shaheen admitted that this incident makes her feel uncomfortable even now and said, “It’s making me unconformable right now as you are talking about it. You know, women, in general, suffer a lot….Shame I think is the core of depression and it could be any form of shame, and with women, I think body image also tends to be one of the causes for shame. Shame is central and I wish I could make people understand that shame is central to any kind of negative feelings, depression, and sadness. It stops you from being vulnerable and you constantly fear that if you will show yourself as you are, you will be rejected by society. And my self-worth was definitely affected because I was at an age where the seeds of that were sown in me.”
Alia Bhatt has always been supportive of her elder sister Shaheen. After reading her book, she also released a video apologizing to Shaheen for not understanding her phase of depression despite staying under the same roof for years. “I know you hate the fact that we all are saying sorry to you, but take the apology because even though we love you, I don’t think we understood what you were going through, to this extent,” she said.
It must have been a really tough fight for Shaheen. We hope that she is blessed with the strength to work on her mental health and overcomes the difficult phase of her life soon.