Actress Deepika Padukone has joined the chorus of celebrity voices speaking out in assistance of US gymnastics star Simone Biles right after she pulled out of the Olympics for her mental well being. The 24-year-old gymnast exited the Olympic women’s gymnastics group final on July 27 and all-about final on July 28, saying: “I have to do what’s right for me and focus on my mental health and not jeopardise my health and my wellbeing.” Her participation in the rest of the Olympics is uncertain.
On Wednesday, Deepika Padukone, who has battled depression and runs a foundation for mental well being, shared an Instagram Story with a news headline about Simone Biles and her Olympic exit more than mental well being issues. “I hear you,” Deepika Padukone, a longtime advocate of the significance of focusing on mental well being, wrote in a show of assistance for the gymnast.
The Padmaavat actress tagged Simone Biles and her mental well being foundation, Live Love Laugh, in her Instagram Story. She also added the hashtags #mentalhealth and #mentalhealthmatters.
Deepika Padukone has opened up about her battle with depression in the previous. She was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2014 and has repeatedly encouraged people today with mental well being difficulties to attain out and seek assist. “As a person who has had a lived experience with mental illness, I cannot stress enough about the importance of reaching out. Talk. Communicate. Express. Seek help. Remember, you are not alone. We are all in this together. And most importantly, there is hope,” she wrote in an Instagram post last year.
Deepika, nevertheless, wasn’t the only Bollywood star to speak about mental well being in view of Simone Biles’s Olympic exit. To Alia Bhatt, it served as a reminder that mental well being is as essential as physical well being.
Alia Bhatt also made use of the hashtag #MentalHealthMatters as she shared an Instagram Story featuring Simone Biles’s press conference. “Put mental health first because, if you don’t, you’re not going to succeed as much as you want to,” the gymnast says in the video. “It’s okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions.”
Sharing the clip, Alia Bhatt wrote: “This helps change the narrative regarding mental health all over the world. More power to you.”
There has been an outpouring of sympathy on social media for Biles, who is currently a 4-time olympic gold medallist. The 24-year-old had earlier hinted that she was feeling immense stress in Tokyo, writing on “I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times.”