"Which Bollywood celebrity needs to go to a shrink?' used to be one of the questions on a celebrity chat show's infamous rapid-fire segment. The question was an attempt to put down people who take therapy. With evolution of time, that mockery mindset has also evolved. In recent times, several Bollywood actors have opened up about opting for therapy to deal with mental health issues.

In an exclusive chat with BT, Fatima Sana Shaikh speaks about why it is important to seek help when needed. “I have gone in for therapy, and that’s why I am here one-and-a-half years later. It is important. I feel everybody should go in for therapy. It’s not because you are emotionally weak, they (therapists) give you tools to understand your pattern. Therapy has helped me. Our minds are complicated. Even if you think you don’t need it, you should try it to discover yourself,” Fatima shares.

From being overly self-critical to being pragmatic, Fatima says she has come a long way. “I was very judgmental about myself. I have not been kind to myself. I needed a lot of validation from the outside to feel that I was good as a person. I associated self-love with narcissism and was extremely hard on myself,” she confesses. It has taken the actress a while to change her thought process. So, is she kind to herself now? “I have to practice it. I am kinder to myself than I used to be. It’s a pattern that you have to break. You keep going back to it, but you need to keep pushing,” she replies.

While it may be easier for her to talk about her therapy today, she reveals that it is a “process”. She shares, “It took me four years to find a therapist and be open about it. I used to think therapist ko mere problem ke baare mein kya pata hoga. First, you need to understand that it’s okay to seek help. That’s the beginning and it’s going to be very difficult. We are considered weak when we ask for help. I also had people around me who went for therapy. I had the influence of people who had great knowledge and they had great therapists. It was because of them that I was forced to explore, and then I just got curious. I wanted to decode myself to know who I am.”