Sangeetha’s Silent Battle with Mental Illness
By Mariya Rajan
July 12, 2025
Sangeetha, a young woman from Bengaluru, lives with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, two severe mental illnesses that once brought her to the brink of taking her own life. In this video, she tells Newsreel Asia producer Mariya Rajan how, after years of emotional turmoil, failed treatments and isolation, she finally found a way to manage her conditions.
Bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder are among the most misunderstood and stigmatised mental illnesses. Both can severely disrupt a person’s thoughts, emotions and relationships, often making daily life feel like an unpredictable and exhausting struggle.
Sangeetha knows this intimately.
Globally, more than 40 million people live with bipolar disorder, according to the World Health Organization. It is marked by episodes of mania and depression that can last days, weeks or longer. These “mood swings” can alter a person’s ability to function, make decisions and maintain a sense of self.
During manic phases, individuals may feel invincible, take dangerous risks or speak and act rapidly with little awareness of consequence. The depressive phases can bring extreme hopelessness, lethargy and suicidal thoughts.
Borderline personality disorder affects nearly two percent of the global population and often coexists with other mental health conditions. It causes a deep fear of abandonment, unstable relationships, intense emotional responses and a fragile sense of identity.
For many, even minor stress or perceived rejection can trigger emotional crises that feel overwhelming and impossible to control. Self-harm and suicidal behaviour are common, with around 70 percent of those diagnosed making at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime.
For Sangeetha, living with both conditions meant waking up each day unsure of how her mind would behave. There were years when she could not hold a job, maintain friendships or trust her own thoughts. The burden of silence made things worse. Few understood what she was going through. Fewer still believed her pain was real.
In 2014, she tried to end her life.
What followed was a period of rebuilding. Therapy, medication and a new sense of honesty with herself formed the core of her healing. She began to track her thoughts, set boundaries, recognise patterns and slowly build a life around things that gave her peace.
The video traces that journey. From despair to discipline, from stigma to survival, Sangeetha’s story offers a rare, unvarnished look at what it means to live with severe mental illness, and how resilience can lead to recovery.
