Hi. My name is Ravi. I am 20 years old. I live in Mumbai with my parents. My father is an employee in a private company and my mother is a homemaker. I am currently doing my diploma in engineering.

When I was younger, I was very fond of gadgets, video games and bikes. The first time I was introduced to internet games was when I was in class 9. I used to go to cyber cafes and play games for 3-4 hours. I used to finish school and head straight to the cyber café or to a friend’s place and play video games till night. When my parents found out, they tried to stop me, but I wouldn’t listen to them. I passed my class 10 exams with some difficulty. But after my board exams got over, I started playing games even more-for about 7-8 hours everyday. I also loved phones and bikes and would force my parents to buy me new ones very often. It came to a point where I started stealing money from my father for games and mobile phones. I used to feel very guilty about all this, but was unable to stop myself from doing it. I started smoking to deal with my guilt. I had no friends, my parents were really tired of my behaviour and finally, I failed my class 12 exams.

At that point I decided enough was enough. I told my father about all my problems and begged him to help me get out of such destructive behavior. My parents took me to a psychiatrist. The doctor asked me about all my problems and heard everything very patiently. He told me that I could get out of all these problems if I was motivated enough to follow all his instructions. I told him I felt very low. He said that I was addicted to internet games and also had depression because of it. He gave me some medicines but also said I would have to regularly meet a psychologist. I agreed to do whatever I was asked to. I started meeting the psychologist who helped me understand my problem and why it happened. She also made me a schedule of activities that I would have to follow everyday to keep myself occupied. It seemed easy, but when I started doing it, I did miss playing video games. A few times I even played, but the doctor and the psychologist helped me come back on track.

I started feeling better within 1-2 months and kept following what I was told. Today it has been 2 years since I have stopped playing internet games completely. I enjoy playing actual games with real friends. I have also managed to get back to my studies and my parents are relieved. I would like to tell anyone who is reading this that anything is possible in life. If one is willing to work hard, and with the correct help, everything is possible. If you are suffering, please talk about it with someone you trust and get help.

My name is Anisha and I am 25 years old. I have completed a degree in mass communications from Pune. I am doing a job and currently live in Bangalore. I wanted to share my story so that it may help others like me. I moved to Bangalore about a year and a half back for my first job. It was anyway a tough time for me as I had recently had a break up with my boy friend. But moving to a new city where I had no friends made things even more difficult.

I remember that I was very happy when I was offered the job, but by the time I moved to Bangalore, there was something different. It is difficult to explain, but I was not feeling good at all. Initially I thought that it was only because of my break up, but slowly I realized that I was losing interest in work too. I would not sleep at night and then the next day would be so sleepy that I could barely get any work done. I was also very worried about it, because this was my first job and I wanted to create a good impression at my workplace, but it just wasn’t happening. I would suddenly start crying and would feel low most of the time. Now, I am an educated girl, and I knew about depression, but for some reason, it didn’t strike me that that was what I was going through. A senior colleague noticed that I was struggling and recommended that I see a psychiatrist.

Initially I was very hesitant…why should I see a psychiatrist? Was something really that wrong with me? I decided to see a psychologist first, because that seemed less threatening. So I met a psychologist. She was extremely patient with me and heard everything I had to say. Over 2-3 meetings, she convinced me to see a psychiatrist and told me it was important. I went with her advice and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. The doctor was also very kind and put to rest my fears about taking medicines. She told me I had moderate depression and with medicines and sessions with the psychologist, there was a great chance that I would feel much better. And she was right!

The medicines slowly helped make my mood better and in my sessions with the psychologist, I gained a lot of clarity about the way I think and how that was causing me to feel so anxious and low all the time. My work performance also improved a lot. I won’t lie and say that it is all very easy. Even with medication, there are days when I don’t feel very good, but now I know how to deal with such feelings. The feelings do not overwhelm me anymore. I also realized that what I was going through was quite common among people my age. That made me feel less alone and less guilty.

I have now had a lived experience of how mental health is as important as physical health. I have also learned that there are many good days and some bad days, but that’s okay. It is okay to talk about it to friends, family and/or your therapist. I am genuinely thankful to my colleague who put me on the path to recovery as well as my doctor and psychologist.