The struggle of escaping through reality and Turning back to life
Seven years ago, I was living the best days of my life with my family, and planning to start my professional life just after the graduation. Suddenly my mother was diagnosed with a Brain Tumor and she was hospitalized for a year and a half. Just during my final exams in 2015, I lost her. Losing her was one of the greatest tragedies of my life.
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​From being a pampered child to a free child and dealing with a world, whether in a right way or wrong, was difficult for me. Instead of spending time with my siblings and father, I cried at night and felt hopeless, and helpless. I had a small world in my mind about what would happen next in life. I was completely shattered and isolated from the world that I even lost my self-confidence.
Losing a loved one shakes your life almost completely as on the one hand I self isolated and lost contact with all my friends and on the other hand I left studies after completing my degree and couldn’t even decide what to do next either to continue studies or to start work. So everything felt like a threat that struck at the core of my heart. I began to think that God now I am alone, I have no one who will guide me what is wrong or what is right and how I would deal with this world. Then after a while my family pushed me to get out of this room, and move on, so then I applied and got a job and started teaching.
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Spending time with colleagues made me realize that there are a lot of people who are dealing with more problems than I do. God has blessed me with so many things then why am I still crying for loss. After spending a year at work, I came across the subject of public policy, which deals with the real issues of society. I then decided to continue my studies in this subject, and it was a turning point from 2019 that changed my life completely, and I progressively jumped into my practical life. I travel a lot now, spend more time with family and friends, and gradually it reduces depression and now living a happier life.
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If I talk about that time, I would definitely don’t want to go back. But I would say to my younger self “Dear, losing someone or fear of losing someone will help you grow and with time everything will be okay”
Strategies to recover from depression
Contemporarily, many people are suffering from depression globally due to multiple reasons including unhealthy lifestyle, unemployment, loss of loved ones, cyber addiction etc. The impacts of depression can significantly influence an individual’s capacity to work as I experienced. Moreover, it is a common mental disorder that has significant consequences on everyday life. But now it is curable, and people talk about it. Following are some of the strategies that I have adopted to recover from depression.
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Stay Connected (with friends) and Stay Positive
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Travel and experience nature.
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Keep yourself busy
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Spend your time with family no matter what- they are the only one who actually cares about you.
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Get some exercise daily.
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Eat a healthy diet.
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Share your views with people (or consult a psychologist, qualified therapist)
Bakhtawar Pervaiz - Senior Contributor and Researcher at dR CLB Lab
Bakhtawar is an advocate for mental health, women empowerment and children's rights. She is a scholar and holds an M.Phil degree in Government and Public Policy from National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Islamia University of Bahawalpur
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Bakhtawar has worked on many national security and policy issues. She contributes research articles on various contemporary national issues and has previously worked for the National Assembly of Pakistan and the Institute of Strategic Studies, Research & Analysis (ISSRA).
She devotes her time to helping women to improve entrepreneurial skills in rural areas and participate in many other social causes in Pakistan. Her major areas of interest include Public policy, Cyber governance, Cyber security, Defence policy, National and International Security and Water Crisis.
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She is also a researcher at The Global Foundation of Cyber Studies and Research Think Tank
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