Sudheer, a CA faculty decided to gift his wife, Vyshnavi, a 365 days of road travelling to help her combat depression.
Rekha Khanal
Depression is a serious medical condition that affects how we feel, think and behave. It can lead to various mental, emotional and even physical problems sans proper care.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, “Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in a year. Women are more likely than men to experience depression.”
Despite numerous data and awareness, we can still see a lot of stigmas attached to our society in case of mental illness which is why to educate people, Mr. Sudheer (32) and Mrs. Vyshnavi (26) decided to take the latter’s journey of depression-to-survivor on road. This is how the odyssey of “Breaking Stigma Around Mental Illness” on a four-wheeler was embarked upon.
A teacher turned traveller, Sudheer’s life stood at a halt, when one fine day around 3 years back his wife confessed and vented out her turmoil. He recalls “I was getting ready for my class when my wife came to me and said, “I’m having thoughts of self-harm. I want to die, Sudheer!” I froze and blacked out as I processed those words from my spouse for the first time in my life. Soon after that I made a decision to support and help her, quitting the job thereafter.”
In this indispensable situation, Sudheer took for professional help where she was diagnosed with mental illness – Depression and Anxiety. She was then advised for medication and yoga in a retreat centre.
“You don’t know who, why and what is upsetting you. One minute you’re having a conversation and the next you break down. People often ask me what’s so sad about my life that I am depressed. You’ve got good parents, a great husband and financial stability, you’ve got no problems. Why are you depressed?”, shares Vyshnavi on how depression takes toll in one’s life.
After 3 long years of medication from Feb 2018 to Jan 2021, Sudheer began taking her to different places. To his wonderment, he saw a change in Vyshnavi as she began enjoying her life. He realised that she was healing and relishing the moments all over again after which he decided to gift his love of life a year of travelling on road.
Amidst the chaos while battling with depression, they realised that there is a huge lack of awareness and very little have been discussed about it. Depression is taking lives irrespective of gender, caste, age, luxury or power. Alas! We know so little about it. The reason behind the initiative of ‘Breaking Stigma Around Mental Illness’ is to create awareness and with a hope that vyshusudheer story will help people with similar condition accumulate courage to open up too and consider depression as an illness, something which needs support and proper treatment just like any other bodily illness.
“I got my first help from medication. It brought me to a point where I can do something for myself. It gave me a stable ground. Post medication I was stagnant although I was relieved of thoughts of self-harm but I was just feeling ok, neither happy nor depressed. But now I’m making progress day by day. What pushed me into recovery was definitely Yoga – that’s the second thing. Next, travel helped me a lot”, Vyshnavi further narrates in the interview.
Promoting the cause, Vyshnavi and Sudheer had travelled to many places. They commenced their journey on 17th Jan 2021 and concluded after a year on 21st Jan 2022. They extensively covered states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh covering almost 24000 kms. Vyshnavi slowly reduced her medicine doses and soon became drug free.
While talking to The Mileage, Vyshnavi recalled two of her favourite places – Doodh Sagar Falls Trek, Jog Falls while Sudheer collected many memories from Arunachal Pradesh, probably because they spent the highest time in AP as they got stuck in the second-wave Covid lockdown. They wanted to normalise the talk on mental illness and travelling gave them the platform to meet and talk and share their stories to different people, spreading social awareness regarding mental health. In addition to this, they verbalized that past one year of travelling was a life-time experience and they wish to continue this or try to make a living on this genre.
Though the trip was not an easy-breezy as Sudheer says, but we are proud of their step and it was worth a decision to have done good to the society by showing the exemplary Vyshu as a hope, who did not cave in under circumstances, but took a leap of faith to take care not just of herself but others as well.
