Priyanshu Painyuli: Whether You’re From Film Industry Or Not, Everybody Today Faces Mental Health Issues

Priyanshu Painyuli speaks to Prateek Sur about his ordeal with mental health, how people from showbiz are constantly feeding off energies from others, and how everyone needs to switch off every once in a while, just to keep that perfect balance in their lives. Excerpts from the chat:

Being in showbiz have you ever faced mental health issues?

Being in showbiz I haven’t faced any such issue as such but I think I’ve understood about mental health issues also very recently. It’s only in the past 5-6 years that the understanding has come to lots of us and you start to understand it much more. I faced difficult times when I initially came to Mumbai, you settle down and you try to find your balance between earning money and also doing a good job as well. So, you go through a lot of slack and a lot of mental pressures. But I can’t call it a mental health issue, because it’s quite a common thing that people face anywhere during their initial struggling phase.

What should people from showbiz do in order to maintain proper mental health?

Showbiz is mentally and physically very very exhausting. To maintain good mental health, I feel good exercise is important. That just doesn’t mean physical exercises but also mental exercises. You can do yoga or any kind of exercise. Even sometimes reading a book while sitting in a garden is an exercise. Playing a sport is very good. Whatever keeps you going and helps you in keeping mental and physical well-being, that’s important.

How important is it to switch off from work?

Yes, it’s also very very important for you to switch off your work. We constantly keep thinking about our work. As freelancers, it’s not a 9-to-5 job. We have to sometimes switch it off and not think about what we are doing next or what we are into as an artist. It does consume a lot of time and thought of ours. But the idea is to just switch it off and pay attention to your family, your friends, and your partner and spend more time with them, and then share the love and care with them. That helps.

How important is maintaining good mental health for celebrities?

Whether you’re from this industry or not, whether you’re a sports person or you’re in IT or corporate or defence forces – anywhere – I think everybody today faces mental health issues. We all go through a lot of difficult times in our lives and must try and keep our mental health balanced. You need to do things which make you feel good. It can be as simple as eating your favourite food or going to your favourite location or meeting your favourite person. I feel the idea or the key is to balance your life between your work, your love life, your family, your friends, etc, and not get into an extremity of one thing. The balance is the key. As a celebrity, you do need it more because you’re consumed so much by others’ energies also. That’s why it’s very very important to maintain that balance, I feel.