Vaidehi Gajjar's Story:

 

I experienced firsthand the dark side of depression and the anxiety that comes with it. This led to a great
deal of isolation, and a negative self-image throughout much of college. Through this, I realized that
mental illness is very much still a stigma in today's South Asian society, something that I thought would
have improved with the progression of generations. But one of the biggest things I've discovered is that
words DO make a difference when it comes to mental illness. Most people do not realize the weight of
their words, or the effect they have on a person until that person is gone, and that's when people begin
questioning whether they treated a person that has died from mental illness correctly. This thought of
treating people right needs to happen before and during the progression of mental illness, not after.
This is why mental health awareness is so important. It isn’t treated as a regular degenerative disease
such as cancer or heart disease. It’s an ostracized illness, whose impact is usually realized far too late.
We’re all different. We look different. We talk different. We love different. And we suffer different. But
if we all come together and let our differences intertwine us, rather than separate…maybe the world
won’t be such an environment that people want to escape from.

​

​

​