Pakistani actress, Mahira Khan, rose to prominence in India after she starred opposite Shah Rukh Khan in the 2017 film, Raees. The gorgeous actress became popular after stepping into Bollywood, but in the same year, some pictures of her smoking with Ranbir Kapoor emerged online. Mahira received massive backlash for the same, which left her heartbroken. And now, Mahira Khan spoke for the first time about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In an interaction with Frieha Altaf on her podcast, FWhy, Mahira Khan opened up about her mental health struggles and revealed that she is currently on medication. Talking about the same, the actress said that she dealt with immense backlash when her and Ranbir's pictures went viral. However, her illness worsened after Pakistani artists were banned from working in India following the 2016 Uri attack.
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Mahira Khan opened up about the difficult time and revealed that she was getting scary calls and hateful messages and she was scared to travel to India to promote Raees. Recalling the heartbreaking time, the actress revealed that she was constantly seeing her image on television screens, which triggered her anxiety. As Mahira fainted after her first panic attack, she went for therapy. She added:
“I developed severe anxiety to the point that one day I had a panic attack and fainted. That’s the first time I went for therapy. But that didn’t work out, as I went to several therapists. But either I was not opening up, or the therapist sitting across me would be looking at me with awe thinking ‘What would she have to complain about’?”
Reflecting on her experience with mental illness, Mahira Khan said that she was diagnosed with manic depression around six or seven years ago and was prescribed anti-depressants. However, the actress added that her symptoms became almost unbearable when she tried to stop taking her medication last year. She shared:
“I ended up in a psychiatrist’s office, and she said, ‘We’ll talk about everything later, but I need you to know that you have manic depression’. This is the first time I’m saying that, I don’t know if I should. It’s been six-seven years, I’ve been on anti-depressants. I tried leaving them in the middle, and I went into a very, very dark space.”
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Mahira Khan also shared how she learnt to deal with her mental health and said that though she is a very hopeful person, she understood that her problems couldn’t be addressed with prayers or spending time with friends. Mahira shared that things became very bad last year and recalled how she was at her lowest after she decided to stop taking her medicines. She added:
“Last year, I was bad, I was in bed… I remember, very well, that I couldn’t even get up from my bed to go to the bathroom. I was that bad, it was that dark. I remember praying, ‘I promise you Allah, if you show me even this much hope or light, I will take it and I will run with it.’ And when he did, and when I went back on my medicines, I woke up feeling like, ‘Oh my god, I feel like I can smile, feel lighter’.”
Mahira Khan further thanked her friends, family, and therapist for being there for her throughout her struggle. She also added that she wants people to know that they are not alone in their battle with depression. The actress mentioned that by talking about her mental health struggles and breaking the stigma surrounding it, she wants people to understand that it's not something to worry about. She concluded:
“Even in my darkest, worst moments, I never project it. It’s all inside me, mere andar tabahi mach rahi hai, but… It’s been a journey with my depression. I’ve had to work through it, I’ve had to dance through it… I talk it every chance I get. This is the first time I’m opening up about the fact that I’ve been taking medicine for so many years. And when I tried leaving it like I said it was bad… And I was again in and out of hospitals trying to get help. But yess, everybody has ups and downs, bad times and happy times, but clinical depression is real like any other mental illness or physical illness.”
What are your views about Mahira Khan's revelations?
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