Pooja Priyamvada, India
Pooja Priyamvada is a higher education educator in various fields, including media, literature, mental health and theater.
Pooja holds a background in media. She is an author, a translator and, more recently, an entrepreneur. Pooja likes to say that she is also a full-time parent.
In this episode, Pooja discusses
– her reasons to begin writing about mental health after experiencing postpartum depression about 16 years ago…
– her prior interest in mental illnesses and mental health…
– the stigma and taboo one faces in discussing depression, and the challenges at the time, of finding psychiatrists and psychologists in Delhi…
– beginning to educate herself about mental health support and training to become a counselor…
– the broad misunderstanding of mental health…
– the dismissal and resistance someone faces when speaking about their mental health experiences…
– cultural norms that expect women “to stay within the margins that are defined for us” and to not speak out….
– the books she has written and translated…
– writing newspaper columns and appearing on radio shows…
– being labeled a mental health activist despite her diverse roles and areas of expertise…
– her experiences with the cultural expectations related to death and grieving…
– her role as a grief counsellor…
– the various forms of grief….
– intersectional feminism…
– the importance of women lending support to each other and building each other up…
– the power of sisterhood, of community, and of our collective voice…
– and the reminder that “You are the most important person in your life.”
