Sushant Singh suicide: Milind Deora on dealing with suicidal thoughts

Milind Deora playing at a gig. Picture/Instagram Milind Deora

Congress leader and former MP Milind Deora on Sunday took to social media to open up about his tryst with suicidal thoughts following the tragic death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who committed suicide at his Bandra residence in Mumbai. The actor was found hanging at his residence and is believed to have taken the drastic step after battling depression for a few months, the police said as per preliminary probe. However, no suicide note was recovered from Rajput-s residence, the police added.

Milind Deora-s post

The Congress leader took to Twitter to open up about his own fight with suicidal thoughts and also shared effective tools to fight the mental health issue. Sharing his personal experience with the thoughts of ending life, Deora said, "My own experience with suicidal thoughts, first as a teen & even as an MP, taught me to live with the blues."

From his post, it-s evident that the former South Mumbai MP had contemplated taking extreme steps on couple of occasions in his life. But to his credit, the politician overcome his fear, battled depression and also shared a few tips on how one can cope with mental health issues.

In order to "fight the blues", to people who are struggling with depression, Deora urged them to reach out to their family, friends, colleagues and even acquaintances. "You are more loved than you know," he said. He further said that depression transcends age, gender, economic strata or success as he requested people to overcome the stigma of mental health and seek counselling.

"We-re in a constant struggle with our inner demons. Never give in to them. Life is beautiful. Don-t get caught up in the rat race." the Congress leader said. He urged people to choose music, food, travel, reading, work and their loved ones and asked them to do what makes them happy. "Choose life. Most importantly, love yourself for who you are," Deora said in order to cope with mental health issues.

Since being shared online the post has gone viral and has garnered nearly 10,000 likes with several people lauding the politician for opening up on mental health issues. RJ Malishka Mendonsa said, "Thankyou Milind and how beautiful of you to share something like this," while Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique praised Deora for sharing his experience and said, "It takes immense courage to come out and share such a thing. Thank you sir, always look up to you."

A Twitter user commented, "Thanks for sharing these 5 tools milind.. Passing them to my family, friends and their kids," while a second user wrote, "Wish you all the health! Thank you for speaking up!." A third user stated, "Nicely summarised sir ! That's the practical way to overcome."

Infographic/Atul Jain

Here-s how netizens reacted:

The two-time Congress MP from Mumbai South Constituency also served as Union Minister minister in former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-s UPA government. Besides being a staunch politician and a social activist, Milind Deora is also a blues guitarist and has several performances to his credit.

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