Shehzad Shaikh says that there is a dire need to raise awareness about mental health. He adds that this is important to help people understand when they need to go to a doctor. “Mental health is as important as physical health. I believe that everyone in life has mental health problems at some point of time or the other because there's a lack of awareness. not many people know that they suffer from ill mental health,” he says.
He adds, “People forget to take care of their mental health and taking care of your mental health involves a lot. If you're in a good state of mental health, you automatically seem to have good physical health. If you ever see a man who is angry or something you will always find his body also reflects his mind.”
Talking about the ways to avoid mental stress, he says, “I think good sleep is the most important thing for mental health. A goodnight’s sleep, meditation, physical activity, and a lot of water are equally important. It might seem like these are silly things but your physical body also has a lot to help with your mental health. So I do a lot of physical activities, meditation, make sure that I get the right amount of sleep as much as I can as I have suffered with issues in the past but by god's grace I have overcome that and I live a very healthy life now.”
The entertainment industry is very prone to depression and anxiety, says the actor, adding, “I think depression and anxiety definitely runs left, right and centre in our industry. It's something that none of us can avoid because the basic concept of our industry is that let me give an example; if you want to sell a pencil, someone doesn't like the pencil, you could blame the pencil and it wouldn't affect you even for one day. But, in our industry, our creativity, our craft is what we sell, we are the products. So, when the product is yourself and you're unable to sell your product or you're worried about your product, your business, it bothers you a lot. And what hurts even more is the fact that it seems like the world is shouting at you that we don't need you, you're not good enough and that eventually leads to depression and anxiety.”
He adds, “I believe people in the entertainment industry definitely go through a lot more stress than any other industry. There's no space for mistakes and people in our industry are working 24 hours. My current work condition is that I pack up and the edit team starts working and then the sound team. So, it's a 24 hrs job with odd hours, no holidays. You can imagine what kind of hard work goes into 26 episodes in a 30-day month. So yes, stress is something that is constant in our industry but if you have a good working environment, good people around you and great family and you take care of yourselves, you'll never find yourself stressed. Instead in our industry the ones who have figured this out are the happiest. In fact, they are the happiest while they're on set. They get depressed when they go home.”
Ask him what he does on days he feels low, and he says, “I stay with the feeling. It's okay to be low sometimes. It's okay to be sad, depressed and anxious sometimes. Just because you're in that state of mind, just remember nothing lasts forever. But you should definitely make an effort to cheer yourself up. I get up, take a shower, I am okay and thank God and I have an attitude of gratitude which really helps me and I remember that this is a very long journey. I remind myself of how small I'm in the vastness of the universe. Then it feels okay, nice. My problem seems very small after that. So, I figured it out. I hope you do and I hope I could give you some really good advice. Spread awareness about mental health is very important.”
