Harsha Teja is a 22-year-old research scholar pursuing his PhD in Aerospace at IISC. He is from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. He has a younger brother and comes from a family of four. His dad is a teacher and his mom is a pharmacist. His hobbies include badminton, cycling and yoga.
His college had a subscription with YourDOST as their mental health partner, and this is how he came across the services. He was initially looking for the session but needed more time to be ready. He then approached the platform again and booked his session.
Adulthood is hard and every day is different in the life of a college student. In his life, he spoke of how it started with a relationship issue. He had feelings for a girl he met in college during the initial days and being an introvert, I was emotionally attached as we regularly exchanged conversations. Harsha expressed that he realised she would use him for her requirements and would come close to him and seek attention only if she needed something.
“She started having relationships with others, she would make plans with me and not commit to it and this left me feeling angry most of the time. It triggered my anger due to the pain of betrayal.”
This affected Harsha a lot and put him through severe emotional distress, and this is when he decided to book his first session with his counsellor at YourDOST.
He was able to freely discuss his issues with his counsellor Ms. Sharmila and spoke of everything that made him feel heavy. The dynamics he shared with this girl were not reciprocated and this bothered him and made him feel angry.
“She used me for her college assignments and things. I did not like it and things got burdening.”
During final exams, he expressed that she did not want to see him anymore as she was in a new relationship with another girl and was figuring out her sexuality. Things started getting to Harsha deeply and also ended up affecting his academics drastically despite being a gold medalist. The conversations with Ms Sharmila helped him have a better understanding towards what was happening.
“It broke me to know that somebody used me and I let them use me. I took time to accept this because I lived in this facade thinking they would be there for me.”
Harsha expressed that he wanted to prepare for Government exams and when all of this happened he could not decide what to do and things got disturbing.
He suffered from insomnia and had difficulty sleeping and took pills. Harsha mentioned that he was spiralling into a rabbit hole that was slowly destroying and decided to work towards fixing it.
“I ended up noticing its side effects and stopped it and also realised that people can be toxic and I must be cautious. My counsellor was always supportive and expressed that he should cut ties with her.”
He mentioned that by doing that he was able to see progress slowly and that his grades in his PhD degree are improving.
Harsha articulated that his counsellor spoke of how people can be toxic and manipulative. She suggested he take up small tasks like walking and doing small tasks. An interesting exercise was the rewarding technique. He also tried to take up reading self-help books. Her comforting words that he was getting better with every session boosted his confidence and self-esteem.
His negative thoughts changed and he was becoming a better person with each day that came by and was also actively able to realise this post his sessions.
“There was always pain and anger I could feel, and I never had the energy to work it through. Before counselling I was somebody who always had a lack of energy and procrastinated. However, things have changed drastically, and I have moved from this pattern.”
Harsha gave himself the space to grow and learn from his past mistakes which played an instrumental role in helping him become the person he is today.
In terms of feeling better Harsha rated himself with a 3 on 5 and we wish him all the very best with everything he does.
Harsha’s Warrior Tips:
1.“Not everything lasts long, always learn to try to accept things sooner. ”
2.“Cautiously put effort into solving things and always remember to give time and space to overcome situations.”
