Shraddha Kapoor Opens Up About Battling Anxiety For 6 Years And Coping With It

Anxiety is your body reacting to stress and some people suffer more from it, than others. While anxiety is normal, prolonged periods of it is an indication for meeting up with a mental healthcare professional. Regardless of your gender, age, ethnicity and so on, anxiety disorders can develop in anyone.

Recently, a famous Bollywood star opened up about her struggle with anxiety for a long period of six years. Shraddha Kapoor, one of the most prominent names in the film world spoke about her struggle with anxiety and how she has been coping with it.

The Saho actress asserted that she was not initially aware of her condition, that she was suffering from anxiety disorders. Once the physical manifestation of anxiety began to be evident, Shraddha was diagnosed, but the results showed a positive outcome. The actress had once before spoken about her struggle with anxiety in 2018.

"I have had anxiety issues now for the last three to four years and it's something that I am dealing with positively, every single day", said the actress.

Shraddha positively added that having anxiety is not a fight. Instead of fighting it, one must embrace it and accept it as a part of yourself. Battling anxiety for almost 6 years, she has come from not knowing what anxiety was to embracing it and dealing with it.

For the actress, the attacks caused physical pain which when diagnosed by various health experts came out as being nothing. That is, there was no physiological diagnosis - an abhorrent trait of anxiety disorders ^[1] .

"Today, it's something that I still deal with but it has become so much better than what it was. Also, somewhere you have to embrace it. You have to accept it as part of yourself and approach it with a lot of love. That made a big difference. Whether you have anxiety or not, you always need to understand who you are or what you stand for", said Shraddha ^[2] .

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report published in the year 2017, 56 million Indians suffer from depression and 38 million Indians suffer from anxiety disorders. As per the reports by the American Psychiatric Association, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses, which affect nearly 30 per cent of adults at some point in their lives. And women are more likely than men to experience anxiety disorders ^{[3] [4]} .

It is imperative to get medical attention if your anxiety limits you from going on about your daily activities. Meditation and stress management are some useful techniques which can help you cope. Apart from that, one can join support groups to share their experiences or he or she may speak to their family members to understand them better ^[5] .