Shivin Narang reacts to Nawazuddin’s comment on depression: People in urban areas are only more aware about mental health issues

Actor Shivin Narang doesn’t agree with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s remarks that depression is an urban concept, and he stresses that there is not really a link between mental health and one living in an urban or rural environment.

“Depression is a state of mind, and has a lot to do with chemicals present in the mind and body. When it comes to it being an urban or rural concept, I have to mention that I have seen a lot of cases coming from both the set up,” Narang tells us.

The 32-year-old continues, “I have seen people from both the places struggling with it, and reaching out for help. In fact, there is still a lot of awareness work which needs to be done because there are still people who don’t address what is exactly happening to them”.

Here, Narang picks an incident from his own personal life to highlight how lack of awareness affects people’s life.

“A similar incident where someone really in a very close relationship, a friend or family, didn’t know what was happening. As they didn’t know what was happening, the person didn’t ever address it. When we found out about the signs, we showed it to the doctor, which came out as a case of depression and anxiety. So, no I don’t believe it has anything to do about the place,” says the actor, who recently made his Bollywood debut with film, Goodbye.

In fact, Narang feels it is more about “being aware” rather than a place. “For instance, people in Urban places are more aware about it. There are a lot of doctors whom they can reach out for counselling. There is accessibility to deal with it, whereas in the rural setup, there is still stigma attached to it. The stigma is prevalent in Urban places also, but it is more in rural areas. Instead of discussing where it is present or not present, we should treat it as an illness, like we do with others such as diabetes. Depression is an illness, and has nothing to do with rural or urban,” asserts the actor.

That being said, there is one change he would like to see in the narrative around mental health, and it is people using the term casually.

“As it is more accepted in the urban space, people are using the word depressed in everything, from not being able to crack anything to going through a bad breakup or dealing with a family issue. The word is openly and overused in urban setup. And it needs to change,” he ends.