World Mental Health Day 2024| Nakuul Mehta: All of us have some or the other mental health challenge

He adds, “We don’t feel shy saying, ‘I have fever and I can’t show up’. We should treat mental health challenges the same way. We should be able to take a mental health day off. It will take a few years for us to take it up seriously and not be frivolous about it. Most of us today live in a cluttered world, with too much information and social media, where we compare our lives to others’ at all times. It is only legitimate that all of us are suffering from different degrees of mental health challenges. Some may have the tools or spiritual practices or meditation to deal with them, but you’re still dealing with them. It’s hard for me as well. While I tend to do it, there are many times when I bottle up many things and don’t speak up. But I feel it’s very important to have a conversation around challenges you face.”

Nakuul feels that there is need for more awareness need vis-a-vis mental health. In the last few years, conversations around mental health have risen but there’s miles to go. Talking about men and mental health, he shares, “I might be generalizing but as men, we tend to under share or not share about the challenges we may be going through. We try to figure it out for ourselves and don’t share. Whereas women, often and generally, are far more forthcoming and share their challenges. It is hard for men to share and a lot of it could be conditioning. You wouldn’t see men in your family share and grew up thinking that maybe that is a sign of weakness. Maybe you’re meant to solve your own problems and not trouble the family or burden your friends. We need to work on that and be more available and more open. And it goes for me too as I find it very hard to share some of the deepest challenges that I have with people most close to me as well.”

The actor feels the kind of the content that’s consumed through films, OTT or TV shows also needs to change if we want to create more awareness around handling mental health challenges well. Nakuul explains: “I come from the arts and in our shows or films, the man does the heavy lifting of keeping the family together, but it’s the female protagonist who pours her heart out and solves emotional issues. I feel a lot of awareness starts with pop culture and what people consume. When writers pen far more sensitive male characters who share more, is when talking about mental health will become normalised. Right now, in pop culture, a hero is someone strong and loving, but doesn’t necessarily opens up.”