I first heard the word ‘depression’ when I was about sixteen. My mother took me to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru, India, to be seen by a professional for what I had just considered to be nightmares and difficult afternoons. I was lucky. Today, only 9% of people in the world receive treatment for depression. The doctor spoke to me for a long time, and I spent several days at NIMHANS being treated by this and other doctors. It was clear to me that my problems largely stemmed from a traumatic incident that took place a few years earlier, when I was raped in my school.

My parents held me through the process, giving me the courage to get through the aftermath and shielding me from what they thought would be the absolute humiliation of a public display of the violence.

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