In an exclusive webinar on GTI, Mr. Vishal Anand shared his personal story, an episode of depressed life, and how he coped up with it. He said that the tough part of life is just a phase of life and there should be no taboo about it as any kind of disease but a mental state.
Vishal is a startup enthusiast who started his first startup at the age of 19 and tasted his first failure. He has been an avid social worker who has time and again left his regular salaried job to work for social causes. He has visited flood-affected areas of north India to support the population with necessities. He is associated with Atal Tinkering Labs in many government schools of Maharashtra to support students find the right careers. On the personal front, Vishal has gone through and conquered depression himself. He has invested his time and resources in a new startup Zengages last year. Zengages is an EdTech company that is aimed at improving the employability in Indian youths via improving technical and communication skills. Vishal loves traveling and has done a lot of long biking tours.
He began his presentation by saying “My journey is on not because I am alive but I am alive because the journey is on.”
He talked about what depression can do to you, people around you, and how you can cope up with it. Many go on some kind of toxic substance to cope with it whether right or wrong that is a different discussion altogether.
The only thing more exhausting than being depressed is pretending that you’re not.
The first and for the most important thing is to identify that you are depressed and you want to talk about it rather just pretending to be depressed. The problem begins from the point that you say you are fine when there is actually a problem with you and you are actually not fine. It is better to acknowledge that things are not fine.
He suggested taking up a small exercise to verify one state of mind and no harm in reaching out to the professional for acute concerns.
https://www.psycom.net/depression-test/
So the very first thing in the state of lowness is to identify the behavior, thoughts, physical, and feelings because the mentioned 4 things will begin to create a problem within you.
Behavior – not going out anymore, not getting things done at work/school, withdrawing from close family and friends, relying on alcohol and sedatives, not doing usual enjoyable activities, unable to concentrate
Thoughts – ‘I’m a failure.’, ‘It’s my fault.’, ‘Nothing good ever happens to me.’, ‘I’m worthless.’, ‘Life’s not worth living.’, ‘People would be better off without me.’
Physical – tired all the time, sick and run down, headaches and muscle pains, churning gut, sleep problems, loss or change of appetite, significant weight loss or gain
Feelings – overwhelmed, guilty, irritable, frustrated, lacking in confidence, unhappy, indecisive, disappointed, miserable, sad
After you identify and understand, there are some ways to fix the depression in you are that you reach out and stay connected, do things that make you feel good, get moving, eat a healthy, depression-fighting diet, get a daily dose of sunlight, challenge negative thinking.
Vishal revealed his personal story that he had gone through a very bad phase in life as depressing life and he failed miserably in business, lost someone very dear to him, met with an accident with multiple fractures and as he was failing to cope up with the depression and he had gone to the extent of ending his life. He started blaming himself for everything and for every decision that he made in life. He had by then cut off himself from the outside world, the thing had gone so worse financially and socially that one fine day he tried ending his life by slitting his wrist. What stopped him was a lizard that dropped off from the ceiling and he saw it climbing up the wall in seconds. Now in this situation, Vishal gave credit to Lizard for saving his life. Well, Lizard gave him the lesson on how to bounce back in life.
At the end of his narration, he said that the solution must come from within and if someone external help is required; do ask for it without any hesitation. And if you know that someone needs help, if you care, ask twice.
At the end of the powerpack presentation, Vishal was posed with different questions like to which he gave answers beautifully and very apt.
“Everyone goes through ups and downs in life and most of us find our ways of dealing with the problem and overcoming it. However, many people go through long phases of lows and may need help to get over it. So the people, who have found their unique ways of coming out of the down phase of their life, can share their life experiences which can help many others in need.”
Thankyou Vishal.
GTI wishes you the very best in all your future endeavors.
