“Emotions can get in the way or get you on your way.” – Mavis Mazhura
Born and raised in Kharsia Chhattisgarh, 25-year-old Deepak Arora moved to Bangalore after graduation. He is currently working at ShareChat as a Product Analyst in Bangalore. He identifies himself as a gay male currently and his pronouns are He/They (might move towards non-binary later on). Reading books, and writing poetry and prose are just some of the things that Deepak enjoys in his free time along with being an extensive anime buff.
However, everything was not hunky-dory from the get-go. To get to a place where he was comfortable in his own skin, Deepak had to go on a journey of self-exploration that left him drained and desolated.
“I came to Bangalore and attended my first pride event. It somehow gave me the courage to come out to my family and finally start being my true self.”
Although Deepak found the strength to be his authentic self, coming out to his family wasn’t easy. When he explained his identity to his mother and sister, he faced difficulties in getting through to them.
These hurdles left him perplexed. He did not know what to do to get through them. It is at that time Deepak decided to seek the help of a counselor to gain some clarity on the difficulties he was facing.
“I am an introverted extrovert. I’m loud and have 100% energy throughout the day but shut down some days to reset myself.”
Deepak had too much on his plate all at once. He was also having difficulties getting through his routine and would isolate himself from everyone for at least one day every month in order to regain his energy. He was living alone, which was hard in itself but then Covid came into the picture.
“I was dealing with troubles in navigating my relationship with my mom and my sister, and engaged in self-exploration at the same time.”
Not only that, Deepak being a person who came up with 100 different scenarios about possible outcomes for everything didn’t help either. It led to him suppressing emotions that would burst out randomly at a later time.
“YourDOST came into the picture from September 2021. I had taken a break from therapy which meant pent-up emotions with no outlet.”
One of the reasons that Deepak chose to work at ShareChat was that they had YourDOST as their emotional wellness partner. Feeling left out due to the growing distance between him and his friends and a fight with one of his close friends was making things harder for Deepak. He decided to connect with a counselor on YourDOST.
“I wanted to deal with my emotions, become a better person and make conscious decisions taking reality as well as my emotions into account.”
Deepak connected with Shwetha Pratap (Psychologist) and the rest was history. He could see improvements in himself in 3 weeks. Ms. Shwetha made him feel comfortable and heard. She was honest and upfront with him and helped him come to terms with his feelings.
“Ms. Shwetha was invested in the conversation. She gave me time to speak my mind and helped me connect with myself.”
Ms. Shwetha helped Deepak formulate a routine to make the best of his days. During the sessions, Deepak started to rediscover himself. He started making time to do the things he loved. He got back into reading as well.
Things were looking up but Deepak wasn’t at the end of his journey yet. He still felt conscious around people and worried about his impression on others. And in the meanwhile, he had to switch counselors too. Reaching out to a new person wasn’t easy, so it took him some time to connect with another counselor.
“I had a panic attack and I immediately reached out to Ms. Ramita. We scheduled a session and I was able to express needs.”
Having access to regular sessions again helped Deepak immensely. He was able to open up about his struggles with body image issues. Ms. Ramita advised him that he had to go through, and feel the emotions to get over an incident and he followed suit.
The sessions were helpful and enabled Deepak to express himself to his flatmates as soon as he moved in. Having a supportive environment helped too and he started getting comfortable with himself. He found out where his boundaries and comfort lie. In a way, Deepak had become more self-aware.
“Validation is required but not of utmost importance. Be comfortable with yourself first and everything will fall into place”
Deepak was also able to come out to his father and own up to his identity in front of him. He could communicate his needs and emotions better.
Deepak expressed his gratitude to his counselor as she helped him find the motivation to become better. He was relieved to have found such a compatible counselor who gave him the confidence to face his day-to-day life.
Encapsulating his progress with YourDOST in one word, Deepak has had a “realistic” journey of self-exploration and rated himself 4 out of 5 on his improvement.
However, we believe that Deepak is not far from 5!
“We are working on a number of things but I have been having stable days throughout the week now.”
Having found the right wavelength with his counselor, Deepak has had regular sessions since then and is on the way to his best self.
For being the true mental health warrior that he is, we wish Deepak the best of luck!
Deepak’s Warrior Tips:
1. If you want to get over something you really need to go through it.
2. Just feel it and talk about it, you will come out a different person than you’re now.
