Hi, myself “RICHA”, 29 years old married woman who is a housewife not by choice but by circumstances. It doesn’t mean that I am demeaning the other housewives rather I value them a lot, but I never wanted to be the one.
I got married in 2019, back then I was a teacher with a premier institute and was in the happiest phase of my life.
Challenging times
But things suddenly took an abrupt turn after a few months of my marriage and I was forced to quit. My new family wanted their daughter-in-law at home learning the “sanskaras” of the family and managing everything at home. Thus, to fit in the “ideal bahu” picture, I quit.
But, little did I know that it was just the beginning of an unending phase of mental trauma that would ultimately lead to disaster. I was beginning to be treated like a second individual in the family with no choices and opinions of my own. I was being criticized for whatever I did. All my belongings including my phone were subject to scrutiny several times. And whenever I asked my husband to help, he always backed off.
This all was taking a toll on me, I started losing confidence in myself, my relationship with my husband was getting severely affected and I started blaming myself for everything that was happening. As a result, I sank into depression and after losing all hope I just wanted to quit my life.
The lowest phase
While I was battling with depression, I suffered several episodes of panic attacks, and to overcome this I found comfort in food. As a result, I was at my highest weight of 82 kgs in November 2020.
Things went most ugly one day and I lost consciousness and fell on the floor slipping into a coma. I was immediately rushed to the hospital where I was diagnosed with deep stress and severe depression. Although I gained consciousness within a day, but my fall resulted in a spine injury which was diagnosed a week later when I suffered partial paralysis in my right leg.
So, for better recovery and best results doctor advised me to lose weight apart from medications and physiotherapy.
Recovery and triumph
Thus, I decided to take charge of my life and got enrolled under a mentor in FITTR in April 2021. I not only lost 14kgs and several inches but also recovered from depression successfully. I also became more confident by brushing off all the self-doubt. I am also recovering from my back injury.
Now I am an INFS scholar and after completing the course I would like to be a catalyst in bringing a substantial change into people’s life.
Present scenario
So, from the last year, nothing around me has changed much. But now I choose my battles wisely. I choose “me” over “we” without any guilt. There are tough days even now. But one thing I always keep reminding myself is “the going is tough, but I am even tougher”.
Author – Richa Pandey
