Janvi Sikaria: I was successful at not letting the pressure get to me

Janvi Sikaria has recently made her debut in the television industry with MTV's dating show Splitsvilla X3. Janvi is also a mental health advocate who aspires to start an NGO of her own that works towards mental health awareness. She also wants to start a 24*7 suicide prevention helpline and work towards making therapy affordable.

Please tell us about your experience of being in the show?

Iusedtobeextremelytimidandunderconfidentasakid, so never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that one day, I'm going to be on national television, I still pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I'm so grateful and thankful for every second of the time that I spent on Splitsvilla, it made me realize the extent of my resilience and empathy more than anything else and also made me realize the value of things that I'd have otherwise taken forgranted. I have always been more inclined towards my books and studies soonedayIjustrandomlyfilledtheauditionformwithabsolutelynohopes of getting a call back bit I guess God had other plans for me so here I am today."

This season is completely different from the other seasons and in just a couple of episodes there has been a lot of grapple (fight) among the contestants. What would you say about it?

When you put 20 young, adrenaline filled individuals who have such different personalities in a stressful environment for days at stretch, aren't they bound to clash? Also, most people who sign up for these shows are extremely prepared, they know exactly how to deliver the content that the audience would want towatch. Mybestfriendsfromtheshoware Nikita Bhamidipati,Aarushi Chib,Samarthya Gupta,Gary Luand Trevon Dias.

What are the challenges you faced as a contestant?

The fact that I have to survive without talking to my parents, There hasn't ever been a day in my life when I haven't spoken to my mom and dad and when the show was being shot, we weren't allowed to keep our phones, so we didn't have access to anybody. We just had to have our own backs. Also, because I'm someone who is really calm and empathetic, it was difficult for me to get into unnecessary fights because. I'd always try to rationalize things in my head and deal with situations with patience and grace rather than reactingimpulsively. Because of this, you haven't seen me a lot on screen but I am not complaining one bit. I am so proud of the way I conducted myself on the show.

Since you are also a mental health advocate, can you tell us how difficult does it get for a contestant to have a calm mental health as they need to do many tasks and also being engaged in a lot of cat-wars

To be very honest, it is quite difficult, especially when you don't have your family or friends to fall back on. There were days when even I would get extremely overwhelmed but then I would remind myself to look at the brighter side of things and just remind myself that all my emotions are temporary. There can be ten thousand chaotic things happening around you but it's only going to affect you if you give it the power to and more often than not, I was successful at not letting the pressure get to me and maintain mycalm.

At a time, when influencers and models get trolled, you are one amongst them who receives the least negative comments. What would you like to talk about it?

What can I say, God has been so kind (touchwood). Till now, I've mostly only received love and adulation and I am so grateful for every bit of it ,I'm so glad that audience is being able to relate and connect with me.

What made you to choose becoming a mental health advocate? What is your take on mental health advocacy?

My passion for advocating about mental health awareness stems from my person struggle with a mental illness. I was diagnosed with Clinical depression at the age of 14 and had a two-year long battle with it. During this, I realized that there is an absolute lack of awareness about mental illnesses because for the first 3 months, my parents and I didn't even know that something like Clinical depression exists and even when we did, we didn't know how to go about the treatment.

Towards the fag end of 2 years, I decided that my life's purpose is that the things I had to go through, I want lesser people to go through that and even if they do. I want to help them not suffer in silence or isolation and know that what they' regoing through is a real illness. It's not something that's just "in their head" and that's okay - they are not alone and there's nothing to be ashamed of. I think it's high time that we get rid of the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and realize that just like any other part of the body, things can go wrong with your mind and that our mental health is as important as our physical health. I'm striving to create a society where it's as easy for people to talk about depression and anxiety as it is for them to talk about broken bones and dengue.

Why is it that people generally ignore their mental health?

For the longest time we've been conditioned into believing that if anything goes wrong with our minds, we're instantly labelled as crazy or psychopathic. So, this stigma around not talking about mental health stems from this fear of getting judged and scrutinized. Also, just the sheer lack of empathy, forget about treating other people with empathy, most people don't even treat themselves empathetically. There's this general notion of not talking about how we feel because feelings and emotions are seen as a big sign ofweakness.