I am a PhD student . I had just finished the first semester in IIT and I had been feeling too low and depressed because I had never been through such an amount of stress. I developed severe anxiety. Initially it was low but then it? I became suicidal and only thing which was coming to my mind was run away. I was clueless and couldn't identify what the problem was where I was stuck. Friends tried to help but they couldn't understand and I found there was no solution.

Towards the end of my PhD journey, when I ran out of energy, I was left with probably the last leg of the PhD- a few experiments and then thewriting up. The experiments were done in a month, but the paper writing seemed like never ending. It started to stress me out and I became veryanxious as to when it will finish.

I am a PhD scholar, married, and living outside the IIT Bombay campus. Initially, when I started my doctorate, I had trouble adapting to life in Mumbai. I had just got married and the pressures of studies were weighing on me. And, I felt, I couldn't focus on either. So, I decided to take the help of the counselor at the campus. I came to know about Mrs Amita Tagare and began seeing her regarding my troubles. From the first day itself, I knew I was in the company of someone who understood me. She made me feel comfortable.

I was suffering from a personal problem since a long time. As the day passed it was getting tougher for me to overcome my problem despite taking help from the friends. It was then I decided to take help the consultant. Initially I was too hesitant to take the help as I thought consulting is only for the losers and people who are mentally challenged and me being an IIT-ian, it will be against my pride to take help of some consultant, but I had no other option left and thought let’s give this a try. To my surprise, it was an overall good experience for me. It helped me a lot.