8 Bollywood Celebs You Didn't Know Suffered From Mental Illnesses...

1. Deepika Padukone

Everybody knows about Deepika's on-going battle with depression, but this inspiring actress, took it a step ahead, and established a centre for mental health to help people going through the same.

Here's what she had to say, "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."

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2. Anushka Sharma

Believe it or not, Anushka Sharma suffers from anxiety and was brave enough to speak about it.

"I have anxiety. And I'm treating my anxiety. I'm on medication for my anxiety. Why am I saying this? Because it's a completely normal thing. It's a biological problem. In my family, there have been cases of depression. More and more people, should talk openly about it. There is nothing shameful about it or something to hide. If you had a constant stomach pain, wouldn't you go to the doctor? It's that simple. I want to make this my mission, to take any shame out of this, to educate people about this."

3. Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh suffered from depression, post his shoulder surgery in 2010. Here's what he said, after his long battle.

"Due to the shoulder injury, and the suffering, I had got into a depression mode, but now I am out of it. I feel happy and boosted with energy."

4. Varun Dhawan

This one comes as such a shock! Varun was battling depression, while shooting the movie, Badlapur.

He said,"I was depressed. I was not clinically declared depressed, but I was heading there. I was very sad to a certain degree. I don't want to use the term 'depression' loosely, because it's a serious illness. It definitely affected my mental health. I was prescribed, and did see a doctor for it, as well."

5. Ranveer Singh

Yes, not just Deepika, but her rumoured beau, too allegedly suffered from depression. Apparently, Ranveer's friend had put up a Facebook status, about committing suicide, and before anyone could help, he shot himself. It left a deep impact on Ranveer, who has said to be suffering, ever since.

A source close to Ranveer, said, "Ranveer doesn't like to show his emotions in public, but people close to him, especially Deepika, knew that this tragedy had hit him hard. She saw him struggle with his grief, mixed with guilt. He even saw a therapist for a while. Deepika, was his silent support at the time, and she saw first- hand how depression was a serious disorder."

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6. Karan Johar

The popular director, spoke about his battle with depression, in an interview with NDTV. He had a lot of pent-up issues to deal with, and he openly expressed it, so that people in a similar situation, can move ahead with their lives, just like him.

"There was a phase in my life when I was really depressed. When I went through that phase, I thought I am getting a cardiac arrest. I felt it in the middle of a meeting two and half years ago, after which I left the meeting in between saying I have something urgent to do and rushed to the doctor. He then said I am having an anxiety attack. I went to a psychologist post that. Then I realised that I had some internal issues to deal with, which got built up to such point that it resulted in anxiety."

"Those sessions (medication) made a big difference to me. During those sessions, we touched on many things of my life. I felt that I did not deal entirely with the loss of my father, though it's been 11or 12 years, I felt the pain and hurt of certain relationships that had dwindled from my life and I was carrying all that baggage. And the fear of future, the fear that I was not being able to find a life partner. At one point the lack of love in my life was really bothering me. Today I feel a lot more free of it. I feel there are loads of other things to look forward to."

7. Hrithik Roshan

Speaking at the #EverydayHeroes campaign to spread mental health awareness, Hrithik wanted people to know that mental illnesses should not be stigmatised, it's a serious issue that people need help with.

He said, "I have been through my ups and downs. I have experienced depression and confusion. It's a normal thing and we should be very casual when we speak about it. I have experienced issues in my life. We all go through ups and downs in our lives. The ups and downs are important because we evolve through both of them. When you go through a down it is important to have a clarity of thought. Sometimes your brain takes over and it kinds of feeds you with unwanted thoughts. Feeds you with thoughts which are not aligned with what you want to do in life and that is the time you need an objective point of view or a third person to look at you and tell you that this is what has happened because you lose awareness at that time."

8. Ileana D'Cruz

"I used to sit in the corner, and cry for hours." the pretty actress had a tough time with mental health issues. In an interview with Miss Malini, she spoke freely about her past, and how she strongly feels that people need to get themselves checked, and not shy away from it.

"I think it's important for everybody to get themselves checked – mental health is something that's very important. Anxiety has been a big problem for me, but I think my biggest struggle has been depression. For me, my depression doesn't revolve around my work, it revolves around me personally."

But, it's not just depression that Ileana struggled with, she suffered from something called, Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

She said,"I apparently have Body Dysmorphic Disorder. I didn't know that. When I told my therapist, she was like 'what', and then she said, hang on, I think you have this thing – and then I googled it and I said 'makes sense.' You get fixated on one body part, and you're just obsessed with how much you don't like it. That's pretty much it for me. But I've reached a point where it's like – I mean, it's who I am. The people you see on magazine covers, they're touched up, slimmed down, covered up. And there's no such thing as a perfect body type – they go on about how the hourglass is the perfect body type, then the next year it'll be the athletic type. What are you going to do, change your body type every year? Just be happy, be healthy."

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