Mental health is still a dangerous subject. As a South Asian, I'm aware of the taboos around the subject. We don't talk about our mental health because we are afraid of being thought as "not normal" and somehow broken. After all, healthy people never have mental health issues...right?

The suicide rates in our country are astronomical, and yet nobody seems to understand the causes. When Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput took his life, hordes of people online began obsessing over why. Many blamed his ex-girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty - perhaps they simply couldn't understand that one may have mental health issues that have nothing to do with any external factors, such as who your girlfriend is, or whatever drugs you may have been taking.

Mental health is a deeply personal issue, but it need not be a private one. Being open about your struggles is the first step to letting shame about them go. We all have them. Especially during this time of COVID rampaging in our country (and our families and friends being in danger), it can be invaluable to vent freely, to have someone to talk to, to write or to tell people that you're having a difficult time. If you don't, how will they be able to help?