Ileana D'Cruz On Her Struggle With Depression And Body Dysmorphic Disorder

New Delhi: Actress Ileana D'Cruz opened up about battling depression and body dysmorphic disorder at the start of her career in a latest advertisement of a denim brand. She shared a snippet of the ad on Instagram and captioned it: "Unapologetic. Unfiltered. Imperfect. This is me. Flaws and all." The 29-year-old actress, who was last seen in Bollywood film Baadshaho, said that for the longest time she never knew she had a body image issues and when she started her career in films, 'it just made it a little bit worse.' In the advert, Ileana said: "There was a period, approximately three years ago, I'd go from happy to be completely depressed and not knowing what it was. The most comforting thought was, 'What if I just to end things now.' And I thankfully released that this is not right."

 

 

Unapologetic. Unfiltered. Imperfect. This is me. Flaws and all. Thank you @levis_in To watch the full clip, click on the link in my bio. #ishapemyworld #levis

A post shared by Ileana D'Cruz (@ileana_official) on Sep 18, 2017 at 1:37am PDT

"I was shy, self-conscious person once I hit my teens. I was constantly hit on for my body type. The obsession started when I was 15. My entire life goal was to be accepted by everyone. I think that's what I wanted the most. I never got it," said Ileana.

Ileana says that acceptance is the first step to overcome depression. "I never expected to be someone who'd be dealing with anxiety, dealing with depression. I've got every possible thing I could want. And I wondered, 'Why am I so depressed?' I still don't know sometimes. Then they told me you have depression, you have anxiety, you are going through body dysmorphic disorder. There was an acceptance which almost came immediately and that I think is one of the biggest steps that you can take towards change. You can't move forward otherwise."

 

 

A post shared by Ileana D'Cruz (@ileana_official) on Mar 21, 2017 at 4:09pm PDT

"You're human, you're not meant to be perfect. You're meant to be flawed. I'm just going to keep pushing and try and be the best of version that I can be of me," she added. Apart from Bollywood, Ileana D'Cruz is quite famouls in Telugu cinema courtesy films such as Devadasu, Kick and Jalsa.

 

In 2015, actress Deepika Padukone featured in headlines when she talked about her phase of dealing with depression, which started while she was filming Happy New Year. Later, she opened The Live Love Laugh Foundation to help those who need help in battling mental illnesses. Filmmaker Karan Johar also talked about dealing with depression in his autobiography An Unsuitable Boy.