There were days when Shanti Das could not get out of bed. She couldn’t bring herself to open the blinds. She just didn’t feel like herself. Then, she began having thoughts of suicide.
“I didn’t want to die but I wanted the pain to go away. I had thoughts in my head saying maybe you should kill yourself. I couldn’t control it,” said Das, a former music industry executive.
That was in 2015, the same year Das would create Silence the Shame, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that seeks to empower and educate communities on mental health and wellness.
Das reached out to her primary care doctor for a referral to a mental health practitioner and took antidepressants when she was going through challenges. And she would do it again if needed, she said.
Today, she has grown accustomed to sharing her story and encouraging others to share their struggles with mental health.
“I am not ashamed or embarrassed about it,” Das said. “Vulnerability and transparency is what tends to move the crowd, especially when people aren’t so open and the stigma is so thick.”
So she was encouraged when Naomi Osaka, the world’s No. 2-ranked tennis player, pulled out of the French Open on Monday citing bouts of depression and anxiety, particularly during media engagements.
“It’s important for celebrities and athletes like Naomi to be open about their mental health and wellness because so many everyday people still suffer in silence and don’t make their mental health a priority in their lives,” Das said.
Nearly one in five U.S. adults, or 51.5 million Americans in 2019, live with a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, which classifies Any Mental Illness (AMI) as the presence of a mental, behavioral or emotional disorder ranging in impact from no impairment to severe impairment.
The prevalence of AMI was higher among females (24.5%) than males (16.3%) and highest among young adults ages 18-25 (29.4%). It was also highest among adults reporting two or more races (31.7%).
Osaka, the 23-year-old tennis superstar of Haitian and Japanese descent, had tweeted prior to the competition that she did not plan to participate in any press.
She was fined $15,000 for skipping a news conference on Sunday after her first-round victory. All four Grand Slam tournaments subsequently threatened her with possible additional punishment if she followed through on her stated desire to skip all press during the tournament.
But by Tuesday, the Grand Slam tournament administrators seemed to take a different stance, issuing a statement in which they vowed to address concerns about mental health.
“Mental health is a very challenging issue, which deserves our utmost attention. It is both complex and personal, as what affects one individual does not necessarily affect another. We commend Naomi for sharing in her own words the pressures and anxieties she is feeling and we empathize with the unique pressures tennis players may face.”
Das said Osaka’s bravery and openness is important. She has become a voice for the voiceless and is empowering wellness among young people around the world at a time when it is needed more than ever.
“I think the pandemic has certainly put a global spotlight on mental health for everyone and people are paying more attention to it now. We now know that we can all experience a certain level of anxiety,” Das said. “It’s important that we all take mental and physical health into account on a daily basis.”
She related to Osaka’s choice to walk away from personal goals to focus on wellness as she made the same decisions herself more than a decade ago.
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As executive director of Silence the Shame, Das has partnered with Sony Music Publishing to offer wellness training and support to Sony Music Publishing’s songwriters, employees and the larger music community.
“The pandemic has been really stressful on artists and creatives who saw their lives come to a halt,” said Das. “They pour their heart and soul into their work.”
Das said there are plans to take the program to other industries.
Later this year, the organization will also launch college-level programming at historically Black colleges and universities and a speaker’s bureau for communities of color to help people with mental health challenges learn how to share their stories in a way that is empowering to them.
“I tell people all the time that no one gets to define your emotional wellness other than you,” Das said. “I applaud Naomi and hope that she gets the replenishment and wellness that’s needed and we see her back on the court soon.”
Read more on the Real Life blog (www.ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/) and find Nedra on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and Twitter (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com
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