A little more than a year ago, Deepika Padukone confessed on national television that she struggled with depression. Since then she has launched her Live Love Laugh Foundation, which aims to help people fight depression. Last night, Alia Bhatt's older sister, Shaheen Bhatt opened up about depression to her Instagram followers. The twenty-seven-year-old spoke of how she has lived with the condition through her teenage years and urged more people to come forward with their own experiences. Read her moving Instagram post below:

"I've lived with depression on and off since I was about 13 years old. This is not a revelation or a confession. Those who know me know this about me. It's not something I take any pains to hide, I'm not ashamed of it or particularly troubled by it. It's just a part of who I am. I have days where I feel good and then I have days where I don't. One minute everything's fine and the next it's like someone turned the light off inside my head. I go quiet and it's difficult to get out of bed. Like it always does the world around me loses focus and I struggle to make sense of it. Sometimes these bouts last an hour - sometimes they last days.

Today, I'm on day 4. I say I live with depression rather than I struggle with it because for me (and I speak only for myself here) I don't see why it has to be a struggle.

I once read an idea by an American essayist called Richard Mitchell which stayed with me; it's now become how I try to approach the dips in my week or month. The idea is this:

To be sick, or to suffer, is inevitable. But to become bitter and vindictive in sickness and suffering and to surrender to irrationality, supposing yourself the innocent and virtuous victim of the evils intentions of the world, is not inevitable.

The appropriate answer to the question - Why me? is the other question - Why not me?

Why am I writing about this?

Well, I spend a fair amount of time on social media during the course of my day and today I found myself looking for something to post because it's been a few days since I've posted anything.

I couldn't find anything so I figured I'd just talk about this - how I'm doing, instead of what I'm doing.

It's as simple as that, and we could all stand to do a little more of it.

P.S. That picture just seemed to work in this context."

The post has already received a lot of support and appreciation from Bhatt's followers. Our hearts go out to Bhatt and we hope she continues to help people embrace mental illness.