Malala Yousafzai

And then one of my friends suggested that I see a therapist.

She said that a lot of students actually get therapy in college, that she herself is seeing a therapist.

And I was a bit skeptical.

I also thought a therapist would not understand what I'm going through.

But she said, I should give it a try.

Yeah.

Yes.

You know, growing up in Pakistan, we had not heard about therapy and mental health that now we are hearing where it's been accepted as a normal conversation.

People are opening up about it.

And we don't even have that much support around mental health.

Has it helped you?

Therapy has definitely helped me.

I remember the first session where I told my therapist all my problems, past, present, potential future ones.

And I said, okay, like, now give me some medication.

How do we fix it?

And she took a deep breath and she said, you know, this is not how therapy works.

And she told me that I had PTSD.

and anxiety.

And this was like the first time that I actually heard the word PTSD.

You know, people, I had come up, like I had heard it in a few different contexts, but I thought, you know, okay, I faced a trauma, but I think I don't have PTSD.