New Delhi: Popular Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, who made her sensational debut in Bollywood with Raees in 2017 opposite Shah Rukh Khan recently made a heartfelt revelation about battling manic depression. Talking to FWhy Podcast, she opened up on facing severe backlash over her leaked smoking pictures with Ranbir Kapoor in New York. 


MAHIRA KHAN ON DEPRESSION


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Reflecting back to the 2017 viral photo fiasco, Mahira said, "That (backlash) brought out the anxiety and depression hidden inside me. That was a hard time for me. I felt attacked. The constant backlash… You are getting mean tweets, and comments on their channels (Indian channels). That was a time my faith broke and I developed severe anxiety to the point that one day I had a panic attack and fainted. That was the first time I went to therapy. But that didn't work out, as I went to several therapists... that year was rough... I couldn't sleep, my hands used to shake."



"I ended up in a psychiatrist’s office." Adding more, she said, "We’ll talk about everything later, but I need you to know that you have manic depression’. This is the first time I’m saying that, I don’t know if I should. It’s been six-seven years, I’ve been on anti-depressants. I tried leaving them in the middle, and I went into a very, very dark space."


"Yes, everyone has sad times and happy times and success and failure, but clinical depression is real,” she said, noting that while she experienced triggers, a lot of it is also genetic. She also shared her experience of feeling low at times, adding, "Last year, I was bad, I was in bed… I remember, very well, that I couldn’t even get up from my bed to go to the bathroom. I was that bad, it was that dark. I remember praying, ‘I promise you Allah, if you show me even this much hope or light, I will take it and I will run with it.’ And when he did, and when I went back on my medicines, I woke up feeling like, ‘Oh my god, I feel like I can smile, feel lighter’."


MAHIRA KHAN ON 2016 URI ATTACKS


Mahira Khan also talked about the 2016 Uri Attack and Raees controversy. She said, "I had finished the film (Raees) and everything was going fine and then suddenly this attack (Uri attack) happens. Politically everything gets messed up. With India, it is always political. But the fact that it could get this messy! I was not scared, but I was threatened. Constant tweets, in fact, I would get calls, and very scary ones. The only thing I wanted was that 'Okay fine I can't go to India to promote it (Raees), but I hope it releases in my country because I knew people would rush to watch it as he (Shah Rukh Khan) is loved here (in Pakistan)."



On the work front, Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Sanam Saeed will be soon seen in Netflix's first Pakistan-themed original titled Jo Bache Hain Sang Samait Lo. The series is an official adaptation of Farhat Ishtiaq's bestselling 2013 Urdu-language novel of the same name.